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Home  >  News  >  Theologian Outlines Radical Proposals for Money and Ministry in Church of Scotland

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Theologian Outlines Radical Proposals for Money and Ministry in Church of Scotland

                                                                                                                                                     February 8, 2017

ELDERS who serve for only three years, the introduction of new ministries and refocussing the spending of congregational income are among a series of radical proposals put forward by an eminent Church of Scotland theologian.

Focussing on the twin themes of ministry and money in the second of the 2017 Chalmers Lectures at St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, the Rev Dr Doug Gay said a series of strategies was required to address ministry recruitment and outlined a number of measures involving both the eldership and ordained ministry.

In setting the context of the position of the Church of Scotland today, Dr Gay said previous attempts to pool resources and work ecumenically to address some of the issues facing churches had failed as recently as 2003 with the Scottish Churches Initiative For Union (SCIFU) when five churches – including the Church of Scotland and Scottish Episcopal Church – had considered the possibility of closer working ties. The proposal was rejected by the General Assembly of 2003.

He said the Church today had ‘to go further than we have gone until now, seeking a way forward that will not divide or destabilise the Church and will not leave our existing elders or ministers devalued.’

He called for the creation of commissioned elders, serving for only three years , rather than for life and emphasised the need to recruit a new generation of younger elders between now and 2030.

This would add to the complement, rather than undermine the work of existing elders.

Turning to the ministerial shortage, he said there were four ways to address this:

  • Recruit more ministers
  • Reduce the number of charges
  • Add new forms of ministry
  • Introduce greater flexibility around ministerial appointment.

He offered three ways to partly fulfil these proposals. Firstly, he said, to ask people to give their last ten years of working life to the Church and consider offering some form of financial payment. Another option might be to make a formal approach to the Presbyterian Church (USA) which he said currently has a good supply of ministers and ordinands and ask for them to come to Scotland for a five year period. The third option to consider was to make a ‘fresh appeal’ to women and emphasise the needs for their gifts to be fully represented in the Church of Scotland.

He called in particular for elders to be given permission to preach, baptise and preside at communion, a move that could be helpful in long-term vacancy, drawing on the model of ‘commissioned ruling elders’ within the US church, but suggested calling them instead ‘commissioned local ministers’, who would be overseen by ordained ministers.

Outlining a series of ideas for managing congregational income, he said: “While there is real commitment to the principles of financial solidarity, there is also disquiet and discontent across the Church.”

Among the proposals he laid out were the need to support wealthier, successful congregations to allow them to continue to flourish; restate commitment to priority area parishes but not draw so many staff to them from a diminishing pool and to consider urging congregations to seek matched funding.

He said there was also a need to ‘stop micromanaging so much of congregational spend at presbytery level.’

“Although the current system is simple to operate, it is uninspiring and unimaginative and offers too few incentives and too little flexibility,” he said.

Concluding his address, Dr Gay, the Principal of Trinity College in Glasgow said the ideas were offered ‘”only as thought experiments” but added: “The conversation about money needs to be opened up more candidly and creatively.”

 

Read the full transcript of Dr Gay's lecture on the Church of Scotland website here


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Comments

Ann Logie - Thursday, February 9th, 2017

“The suggestions made by Dr Gay concerning the ministry are excellent and should be taken forward as soon as possible. I would also like to see many 3/4 empty churches in large towns closed and the money from land sold used to create purpose built 'hub' churches which are centres of ministry employing diverse talents/skills.”


Stuart Leyden - Thursday, June 7th, 2018

“Can you spell out for me the ways in which the Church of Scotland is
"Established." Are there entanglements with the civil sphere?”


Life and Work - Thursday, June 7th, 2018

“This link may be helpful in answering your question

http://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/about_us/how_we_are_organised/history”


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