Friday May 27

'significant' reductions in church buildings needing

The chairman of the General Trustees of the Church of Scotland this morning warned the General Assembly that the Church needs to come to terms with ‘significant’ reductions in the number of church buildings in the near future.

However, Iain Douglas said that there could be advantages to moving on from traditional buildings – which he said could be dark, hard to heat, inflexible and intimidating – to more modern facilities. He said: “We need, in many places, to have a willingness to let go of the past and move to the future with confidence.”

In response to a question about what proportion of buildings would have to be disposed of, he said: “I can’t give you a number. It is presbyteries that are looking constantly at these issues… we must treat each case on its own merits. But action needs to be taken.”

Mr Douglas called for local communities to be involved in maintaining listed church buildings, citing the example of an Orkney congregation which, following complaints from local people with no church connection, was forced to spend a lot of money replacing a bell tower on a listed but unused building.

He also emphasised that it was ‘absolutely critical’ that property inspections are carried out on manses, while acknowledging that a balance needs to be struck with the privacy ministers are entitled to in their homes.

There was a moment of excitement for the Hymnary Trustees, who had a section added to their deliverance by the Assembly for the first time in 33 years. They agreed to consider ebook and organist-friendly ring binder versions of the CH4 hymn book.

During the report of the Pension Trustees, the convener, John McCafferty, was able to report a surplus in the ministers and overseas missionaries pension funds, after what he said was ‘years of talking about deficits’.  Of the other schemes, the staff fund is 95% funded with a £1.9m deficit which Mr McCafferty said was ‘no threat to the church’, but the CrossReach scheme is £11.9m in deficit.