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Kirk Membership: A ’Catastrophic’ Record Low
THE Church of Scotland lost another 17,000 worshippers last year, taking its membership levels to a new low. Last year’s drop of more than 3 per cent contributes to an overall fall of nearly 60 per cent since 1960. Membership in 2004 stood at 535,834, compared with 1.34 million in the 1960s.

Professor Callum Brown, a religious historian from Dundee University, said the continuing decline was a disaster for the Kirk. "The drop in attendance between 1960 and 2004 is 59.5 per cent. That is a membership catastrophe," he said. "These membership figures make even worse reading when you turn to Christian churchgoing in Scotland, which currently stands at around only 11 per cent of the total adult population."

However, the Rev Marjory MacLean, depute clerk of the Church of Scotland said: "In modern Scotland, people stay where they are and the church comes to them. People come into contact with us in different ways: there are more hospital chaplains, industrial chaplains and workplace chaplains than ever before.