Free Republic

(CP) The Church of Scotland has lost more than half of its members since the year 2000, with the average age of worship attendees being 62, according to a General Assembly report. The Assembly Trustees' report for the Church's General Assembly taking place in Edinburgh analyzed statistical information about the denomination. According to the report, the membership of the Church in 2021 was 283,600, which represented a 4.6% decline compared to 2020, and well below the 1.3 million reported in the 1950s. The report explained that the 2021 membership numbers represented 46.6% of what was reported in 2000, while the...

The Church of Scotland is preparing to take a significant step towards same-sex marriage. The Kirk's General Assembly - gathering in Edinburgh - will be asked to approve more work on how such weddings could take place in church. Equal marriage remains a divisive issue within the church. Since 2014, Scotland has allowed same-sex couples to marry but individual church traditions can each decide whether to participate. A report on the issue prepared for the General Assembly invited the church to take stock of its history of discrimination against gay people and to apologise "individually and corporately". Moderator Designate the...

The number of weddings being performed by the Church of Scotland slipped below the number of humanist ceremonies taking place for the first time last year, latest figures have shown. The decline in church weddings is yet another indication of declining support for the increasingly liberal Kirk. According to figures from the National Records of Scotland 4,290 Humanist wedding ceremonies took place in Scotland in 2015, of which approximately 80 percent (3,378) were conducted by the Humanist Society Scotland (HSS).

Revd Scott McKenna, minister of Mayfield Salisbury Parish Church in Edinburgh, openly denies one of the most accepted teachings of mainstream Christianity and told his congregation that it was "ghastly theology" to believe that Jesus Christ died for sinners. Following the comments, the footage was uploaded online and the current Free Church Moderator Revd David Robertson responded by writing a blog post on the subject, saying such preaching was profoundly anti-Christian. Mr McKenna, who has the potential to be a Church of Scotland Moderator, then contacted Robertson and the men met to discuss theology. A debate has been set for...

The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has voted to allow congregations to ordain gay ministers who are in same sex civil partnerships. Delegates voted 309 in favour and 183 against. The vote followed a church-wide debate and consultations with all 45 presbyteries, which voted 31 to 14 in favour of change. A further vote will be held this week on whether or not to extend ordination to ministers in same sex marriages. Supporters said it was time for the church to be inclusive and recognise the "mixed economy" of modern Scotland. Opponents warned that the move was contrary...

Church of Scotland Votes To Let Deacons And Ministers Have Same Sex Civil Partnerships Vote maintains Church's traditional view of marriage between a man and woman, but allows individual congregations to "opt out" By Nicola Harley 16 May 2015 The Church of Scotland has voted in favour of allowing people in same sex civil partnerships to be called as ministers and deacons. The decision was made by the General Assembly on the Mound in Edinburgh on Saturday, where the motion was passed by 309 votes in favour and 182 against. The outcome is the culmination of years of deliberation within...

Senior members of the Church of Scotland voted Monday to let some congregations choose ministers who are in same-sex relationships—an important compromise that must still pass further hurdles before it can become church law. The church’s General Assembly backed a motion affirming a traditional conservative view on homosexuality, but permitted liberal congregations to ordain openly gay men or women if they wish. … Monday’s decision came after a lengthy debate on the issue, which has divided the church of about 400,000 members for years. Two congregations have split from the church over the issue. …

Dennis Prager and others have done an excellent job of highlighting the genuinely anti-Semitic content of a recent Church of Scotland publication entitled “The Inheritance of Abraham? A Report on the ‘Promised Land,’” and Prager has even called it “ugliest depiction of Jews since medieval times.” What has not been mentioned, however, is the great tradition of philo-Semitism in recent Scottish Church history, making the contrast all the more extreme. Some of the great Scottish Presbyterian leaders of the 19th century built on the heritage of English Puritan theologians like John Owen (1616-1683), who wrote, “The Jews shall be gathered...

Israel’s ambassador to the UK, Daniel Taub, condemned on Thursday a report by the Church of Scotland that questioned the divine right of Jews to the land of Israel. Taub said the document “negates and belittles the deeply held Jewish attachment to the land of Israel in a way which is truly hurtful.” … The church paper, entitled “The Inheritance of Abraham,” which was published online by the Church and Society Council of the Church of Scotland just days before its May 18 General Assembly, selectively highlights scriptural and theological claims of Jews to the land, and rejects verses in...

Scotland's largest protestant church has swept away centuries of tradition and voted to allow gay men and lesbians to become ministers, opening up the prospect of the church allowing civil partnerships for same-sex couples. The Church of Scotland imposed a temporary moratorium in 2009 on admitting gay and lesbian ministers after Scott Rennie became the first openly gay clergyman in a homosexual partnership to be officially appointed as a minister in the church. The church's general assembly, its law-making body, voted on Monday to lift that moratorium, officially officially allowing gay ministers to take on parishes for the first time...

LONDON - The Church of Scotland has approved the appointment of an openly homosexual minister - the latest case of tensions over sexuality to prompt division in the Anglican Communion. The church's ruling body voted Saturday by 326 to 267 to support the appointment of the Rev. Scott Rennie, 37, who was previously married to a woman and is now in a relationship with a man. Rennie was first appointed as a minister 10 years ago, but has faced opposition from some critics since he moved to a church in Aberdeen, Scotland, last year. The case threatens to divide Scottish...

The next general assembly of the Church of Scotland, a Presbyterian protestant denomination, will be looking at a proposal to “re-examine” its stand on the use of living human beings at the embryonic stage for research. Known informally as the Kirk, the church has up to now said that embryonic human life must be protected, although at the same time it supported the cloning of human embryos as stem cell farms. This weekend, however, the Kirk’s Society, Religion and Technology (SRT) project, announced that it has reviewed the science, theology and ethics and has reversed its previous 2001 ruling. The...