Hundreds of churches will have to close, says Kirk
The Church of Scotland will have to close hundreds of churches in the coming years, the Kirk's trustees have warned as it stages its annual General Assembly.
A report going before the Assembly this week states that about 60,000 people worship in person on a Sunday, compared to 88,000 pre-pandemic, with a growing number of people choosing to worship online or in "other ways".
The Kirk said having more than 1,000 churches to cater for the number of people attending was "simply untenable and unsustainable".
According to 2021 numbers, the church has 283,600 members - down from a peak of 1.3 million in the late 1950s.
About 60,000 worship in person on a Sunday - down from 88,000 pre-Covid.
About 45,000 people now worship online and 8,275 in "other ways".
Each church averages just one wedding and one baptism per year - about 1,200 in total.
There were 50,000 per year in the late 1950s.
There were 430 professions of faith in 2021 (sometimes referred to as confirmation) compared with 40,000 at the peak of new members in the 1930s.
The average age of those attending church is 62.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-65645891
The Church of Scotland will have to close hundreds of churches in the coming years, the Kirk's trustees have warned as it stages its annual General Assembly.
A report going before the Assembly this week states that about 60,000 people worship in person on a Sunday, compared to 88,000 pre-pandemic, with a growing number of people choosing to worship online or in "other ways".
The Kirk said having more than 1,000 churches to cater for the number of people attending was "simply untenable and unsustainable".
According to 2021 numbers, the church has 283,600 members - down from a peak of 1.3 million in the late 1950s.
About 60,000 worship in person on a Sunday - down from 88,000 pre-Covid.
About 45,000 people now worship online and 8,275 in "other ways".
Each church averages just one wedding and one baptism per year - about 1,200 in total.
There were 50,000 per year in the late 1950s.
There were 430 professions of faith in 2021 (sometimes referred to as confirmation) compared with 40,000 at the peak of new members in the 1930s.
The average age of those attending church is 62.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-65645891
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
