Ian Swanson: New approach to community role could be Kirk's salvation

Published on Wednesday 8 July 2009 09:51

FALLING numbers are nothing new for the Church of Scotland. Membership has been dropping steadily since the 1950s.

The decades of gradual decline mean people have got used to church buildings closing and congregations merging or sharing a minister.

But the Rev Dr George Whyte, the man responsible for overseeing the Kirk's 85 congregations in Edinburgh, believes it's time for a different approach.

He argues that attempts to patch up the traditional pattern of church life and organisation are doomed to failure and churches need to find new ways of engaging with people.

Dr Whyte, who was minister of Colinton Parish Church for 16 years before becoming clerk to the Kirk's Edinburgh presbytery last September, claims the struggle for survival has diverted the church from its real purpose.

He says: "We should turn away from the idea that we can save the life of the church as we have known it – it simply cannot be done."

Times have changed, he says, and there is no way back.

Now he has persuaded the presbytery to back a radical plan which will see every congregation in the city visited by a presbytery team over the course of next year to discuss how they see their role in their own community.

Dr Whyte argues the church must first work out its mission, then consider how its resources – in people, buildings and money – can be harnessed to the task.

Some years ago the church anticipated the massive growth planned for Edinburgh's waterfront by establishing a project in Granton. A community leader based in a flat in Granton is being funded for three years to connect the church with the new area springing up, which is eventually expected to add 30,000 to the Capital's population.

And three of the Kirk's city-centre congregations are about to undergo a shake-up which could see one giant parish served by a team ministry.

St George's West in Shandwick Place, St Cuthbert's in Lothian Road and St Andrew's & St George's in George Street already co-operate – and members at St Andrew's & St George's worshipped at St George's West while their own church was out of commission for its annual Christian Aid book sale.

But the Rev Peter Macdonald has just left St George's West to become Leader of the Iona Community and the Rev Russell McLarty's appointment as interim minister at St Andrew's & St George's is expected to come to an end sometime during the next year, opening up the whole question of how the church wants to operate in the city centre.

Over the years, both churches have pioneered chaplaincy work with shops and offices, on the grounds the church can relate to people where they work as well as where they live. And St Cuthbert's has had its own ministry to the business community.

Now the three churches could find themselves working more closely together. Insiders say all three buildings are likely to be kept, but there might not necessarily be regular Sunday services in all of them.

An internal survey earlier this year found the top concerns among office-bearers in Edinburgh's Church of Scotland congregations were shortage of funds, ageing congregations, falling membership and a lack of new leadership.

But Dr Whyte says: "It might be argued that we have too often concerned ourselves with patching up the old patterns of church life in the hope that some day they will once again work as they did in the 1950s.

"So where things become a bit frayed we have done a little patching, when it crumbles to dust we have observed the decencies and moved what was left of one congregation into the life of another."

But Dr Whyte asks: "Does our ecclesiastical joinery do any more than stave off the fateful day when the church, structured as we have known it, breathes its last?

"Pursuing the survival of the church as it has been is a distraction from the major challenge of discovering how we can be involved in the mission of Jesus Christ to our city."

Kirk membership in the Capital fell by nearly 1000 in 2007-08 to 32,375 while the city's population grew by 2500 over the same period to 471,650.

The age profile of that membership shows those in their sixties and seventies making up the biggest age groups.

And a survey on an average Sunday in March this year found around 11,000 people attending Church of Scotland services in the city.

The Rev Dr Caroline Lockerbie, minister of St Christopher's Church, Craigentinny, who will lead next year's review, hopes the visits by presbytery teams will help local congregations find new ways of relating to the people in their area.

She says: "What we are trying to do is get a really good picture of where all the congregations are at in terms of connecting with their communities, where their strengths are and where they might need some help."

She says congregations in similar contexts will be put in touch with each other, so those in inner-city areas or the suburbs can share experiences and support each other.

"The hope is that the church will be more visible in the community in unexpected ways – and we can't say what these would be or we would be doing it already."