Kirk exodus

Many ministers set to quit after strain of Covid funeral surge

tHE church of Scotland faces a mass exodus of ministers after a deluge of pandemic funerals took a heavy toll on officiating clergy.

It comes as a drive to make the Kirk ‘lean and fit for mission’ sees full-time minister posts cut back in the next ten years.

officials say many older clergy are thinking of retiring due to the ‘vast amount’ of funerals they had to carry out.

the Kirk plan involves reducing the number of presbyteries and a comprehensive review of buildings, which will see some historical churches sold off.

It says it will move away from maintaining properties ‘appropriate back in the 1950s’ and ‘shrink’ to reflect modern worship. It also warns of a ‘growing deficit’ as dwindling congregations mean many churches no longer pay for themselves.

the General Assembly last year approved a plan to reduce full-time equivalent ministry posts to 600 ‘predicated on availability and affordability’.

Speaking ahead of this year’s General Assembly, which starts on Saturday, a church of Scotland spokesman said a reduction of around 200 posts would take into account the fact 40 per cent of current full-time ministers are over 60.

As many as 60 per cent are expected to retire in the next decade. the spokesman said: ‘We have quite a number aged 60 and above.

‘Given the kind of impact on ministers in the last couple of years, trying to minister through the pandemic, they could retire at any time now.’

He added: ‘they were doing a vast amount of funerals – really difficult funerals which took a very heavy toll on a lot of ministers, where they were having to tell families they could not attend.’

In future the Kirk will use trained readers, deacons and ordained part-time clergy to help share the workload of fewer full-time ministers.

the spokesman said: ‘You won’t have the same costs attached to them as you do to a minister, where traditionally they had a manse and a stipend. that is financially quite hard to sustain.

‘there has been a real constriction in congregations and it is through the congregation that we get the funding for the minister. the money that worshippers give in the plate goes back into the central church which is used to pay ministers.’

the spokesman admitted the restructuring would involve ‘painful readjustment’.

He said: ‘there are big changes afoot because some of the churches that are earmarked for not being used in the future are of interest to the wider public, as well as to people within the church, because they have a huge historical significance.’

the Kirk was having to make ‘some quite hard decisions’.

It said it is switching emphasis from trying to maintain the physical infrastructure in its current format to ‘faith-based action’, which includes a plan for ‘delivering 100 new worshipping communities’.

the spokesman said: ‘We are moving away from maintaining structures that were very appropriate back in the 1950s because then the majority of people were being baptised and would be routinely taken to a church of Scotland on a Sunday – but that is not the case now.

‘And we have not really shrunk to reflect that.’

‘Took a very heavy toll’