The Church of Scotland plc is reversing the Reformation’s direction of travel

The 2019 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland will be asked to reduce the number of Presbyteries from the present 46 to 12. It means a return to pre-Re formation governance, with the new presby - teries modelling the dioceses of Catholic and Episcopal Churches.

The strongest organisational principle of the Reformation was to engage the laity in decision-making at congre - gational, local area, regional and national level. The spiritual principle employed was that of diffusion of authority from papal, episcopal and priestly forms to ministerial and membership involvement. It was a radical process and it worked well from the 16 th century until the late-20th century.

Now this Reformation direction of travel is to be reversed. Authority is to be concentrated in 12 large presbyteries. Some of these will cover very large geographical areas. Laity will certainly continue to be involved, but con greg ations will be distanced further. These presbyteries will necessit ate full-time employees, thus diverting funds raised by congregations to pay for management posts and power will begin to be held in fewer and fewer hands.

None of this re-organisation will help the Church of Scotland survive one day longer. It is the management of decline being wrought by people without the calling to do anything wiser and better.

If the direction established at the Re formation was to be continued, it would lead towards further democratisation of congregations and members in the Church of Scotland.

Setting up congregation al gatherings would be the logical step. This would be a bottom-up process rather than the top-down one envisaged. Church of Scotland members have fewer rights and responsibilities today than at any time in the history of the Church of Scotland. This is due to relentless bureaucracy building at 121 George Street and the centralising of so much policy and decision-making there.

Members of congregations now have the status of serfs. They are tied serving, praying and donating bondser vants, most of whom no longer own the buildings built by their predecessors in which they worship and which they continue to maintain at significant cost to themselves. They have become passive recipients of the dictates of the Church of S cot landplc. By and large they lack the confidence and assurance of strong personal Christian faith, unsure of what they believe, poorly informed by the Bible and nominal in prayer.

The problems of the Church of Scotland will not be solved by reorganising its external means of management into 12 presbyteries. This is a cover-up activity to pretend to be doing something, any thing. There are much deeper questions about the Church of Scotland’s relationship to Christianity which would lead to better reform, renewal and revival in years to come.