A sign of the times

There is understandable disappointment in its area over the likely sale of Ardchattan kirk.

As we report this week, the Ardchattan Kirk Session has asked Argyll presbytery for permission to sell the church and the request is currently under consideration.

Many people in the congregation have expressed their dismay, including John Campbell, a community councillor and a member of Ardchattan kirk’s congregational board.

On the positive side, it is reported that Ardchattan’s partner church, St Modan’s in Benderloch, will stay open.

The news about Ardchattan is perhaps a sign of the times. Church attendance – for most denominations – is in decline in our increasingly secular age.

It is a picture being replicated across the region.

Our sister paper, the Argyllshire Advertiser, reported recently the closure of three church buildings in Mid Argyll.

As the Advertiser said, Christianity in Kilmartin Glen has a story going back to the very beginnings of the Celtic church in Scotland – more than 1,000 years of history.

The present churches in Kilmichael Glassary, Kilmartin and Ford, the latest incarnations of church buildings going back hundreds of years, are to be closed as a result of declining congregations and rising costs.

It is an unfortunate development but, realistically, it is difficult to see any other course of action. As congregations shrink and costs of maintaining buildings rise, something has got to give.