Book thrown at the Kirk over plan to shut publishing house

A ROW has broken out over plans by the Church of Scotland to shut down its publishing arm as part of a cost-cutting exercise.

The Saint Andrew Press, which publishes general as well as religious books, is under threat from the Kirk's mission and discipleship council, which is trying to address a 1.2 million budget deficit.

But the move, part of a cuts package involving ten job losses, is being opposed both inside and outside the church. The former Bishop of Edinburgh Richard Holloway said it looked like the Kirk was "pulling up the drawbridge".

And there were hints the issue could be taken to the Church of Scotland's General Assembly in ten days' time. The proposal would mean reducing the Saint Andrew Press from a publishing house with hundreds of titles to just one employee producing material for internal use.

The move comes just months after Edinburgh dictionary firm Chambers Harrap was closed with the loss of all 27 jobs.

The plan is being fiercely opposed by the church's publishing committee, which oversees the Saint Andrew Press, based at Kirk headquarters in Edinburgh's George Street.

Members of the committee will tomorrow mount a last-ditch effort at a meeting of the mission and discipleship council to prevent the shutdown. John Macgill, convener of the publishing committee, said the proposal would end more than half a century of book publishing by the Kirk.

He said: "What remains would then be a small print-management operation which would exist solely to produce internal resource material."

He said the publishing committee had drawn up a new business model that was entirely self-funding. "I'm hoping we can find a solution, but, ultimately, the General Assembly set up the publishing committee to look after publishing, and we feel that only the General Assembly can make the decision to stop publishing," he said.

Bishop Holloway, chair of the board of the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen, said: "I understand that the Church of Scotland is under great financial constraints, but I regret the fact that it has turned its back on publishing.

"The Church of Scotland has always been a church for the whole of Scotland, and one that played a huge part in the intellectual life of the nation. This decision suggests that they have decided to pull up the drawbridge and hole up behind the walls of the Church – and the whole nation will be the poorer for it."

Marion Sinclair, chief executive of Publishing Scotland, said Saint Andrew Press was a highly respected publisher with accessible and attractive titles.

She said: "We are concerned, then, that the Church is considering dismantling a very effective route to audiences, and one that presents people with affordable and authoritative ideas.

"We would be very sad to see a weakening of this important publisher and a dilution of the effort which has been carefully built up over many years."

The Rev Mark Johnstone, convener of the mission and discipleship council, said no final decision had been taken but claimed that the Saint Andrew Press brand and "publishing capability" would be retained.