Achi news desk-
But while a generation of Scots raised on Late Call – five minutes of bedtime religious musings from Scottish Television in the 1980s – laughed along, the joke was quickly wearing thin with those it was so brilliant at praise her.
So much so, that the creation of the comic is partly blamed for leaving Scots with a horrifying image of the Kirk, its ministers and their Sunday services as dull, boring and out of sync with modern lives.
One of the ministers of the Kirk himself says that the spirit of Rev. Jolly along with controversial moves to reduce the size of its church property which pitted congregation against congregation, at the heart of its modern problems.
In a new book which examines the complex issues affecting the Kirk – falling membership numbers, its ‘dour’ image and fears about its future – and how to fix them, the Perthshire minister, the Rev Neil Glover, has encouraged a radical restart of how the Church of Scotland presents itself and presents its Christian message.
The Rev Neil Glover says the Kirk must shed its dour image to attract new members (Image: Andrew O’Brien / Church of Scotland)
Rather than dismiss too much revival of the scriptures and close, he suggests the Kirk should focus on reinventing itself, and even adopt a role as a life coach to help modern Scots ‘discover themselves’.
That would mean less emphasis on encouraging audiences to make efforts to help others and – perhaps surprisingly – more on improving their own lives.
He has also encouraged the Kirk to follow another ‘clergy’ inspired name, pop band Deacon Blue and frontman Ricky Ross, who he says went on a journey of rediscovery before successfully relaunching to a new audience. .
“For ten years he worked hard to try and work out who they were and what was important to them, to find that sound that was authentic to who they were and that spoke to contemporary Scotland,” he said.
“That’s the process we have to do. We have to go deep within ourselves, deconstruct and then rebuild, persevere, make mistakes and find good people to work with.”
The Church of Scotland has around 280,000 members – well down from a peak of 1.3 million in the late 1950s.
The number of people worshiping in person on Sundays is around 60,000 compared to 88,000 pre-pandemic. Increasing numbers are said to be choosing to worship online or in other ways.
Falling membership combined with the costs of looking after aging buildings led to a massive downsizing exercise. The church is in the process of demolishing around 30% of its buildings, with up to 400 likely to close over the next few years.
Earlier this year, the Church of Scotland sold its only church in Gibraltar, ending two centuries of worship, while dozens of church buildings, some in stunning locations, are on the market closer to home.
However, the process has been a bloody one with congregations fighting each other in the battle to save their church premises, fury over the loss of churches that have been at the heart of communities for centuries and disappointment over the loss of stained glass, organs and even age of the sound of church bells ringing.
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While concerns about the future are growing: writing in Kirk’s, Life and Work magazine, the Rev Dr Richard Frazer, minister of Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh, recently expressed fears that the Church of Scotland will be gone within “a generation or two” .
Dr Frazer, who is also chaplain to the University of Edinburgh, said that applicants for the ministry had raised concerns that ‘it feels like we are being formed to administer palliative care’.
Although it is a similar experience to many churches around the world, the Rev. Glover, who covers the parish churches of Aberfeldy, Dull and Weem, Grantully, Logierait and Strathtay, feels the main reason for this constant decline is the ‘dour’ image of the Kirk.
“We’re a bit boring some of the time,” he said. “For many generations of Scots, the Rev. IM Jolly is the church and statue of a Church of Scotland minister.
“Getting rid of that Reverend IM Jolly image is harder than you think: you can remove the pews and play guitars and think that will make a difference, but it doesn’t .
“People think the church is boring.
“People’s expectations of the church are that it is distant, emotionally cold and if you step inside you will be told that you are a bad person and to start caring for other people and forget about yourself.
“We were putting a lot of energy into closing and merging churches and we’ve been missing the point,” he adds.
“People are less likely to believe in God, but they still want to be part of organizations and groups, and they have a sense of finding out about their own growth and how they are going to thrive as an individual.
“Mainstream churches like ours often don’t think that way.
“We’re good at thinking about how we help others, but when we start asking how we look after ourselves we worry that it’s self-indulgent, a bit precious and maybe that it was rather ‘Scottish’ not to do so.
“But it’s like being on a plane, and you’re told you should put your own oxygen mask on first.
“We have to learn to be places that inspire people and give them a sense of becoming a better version of themselves, and we shouldn’t shy away from that.”
The Rev Glover, a minister for 20 years, says that future church services could be more relaxed, held outside the traditional Sunday morning time slot when families often have other commitments, and could include eating with each other and share stories.
But he warns: “One temptation is to try to copy successful churches, especially those in North America.
“We should be ourselves, rooted in what it is to be Scottish, to fight for justice, faith in Christianity and rooted in the local community.
“Too often the message we have sent is that we are closing churches.
“Merging, closing buildings or reforming our structures are not the things that are going to spark renewal in the Church of Scotland, yet that is where we spend a lot of our energy.”
He compares his book, Finding Our Voice, to a manifesto for change. However, he is still hopeful that the church can survive for generations to come.
“It’s a huge challenge but the church has always enjoyed huge challenges,” he adds.
“There are many periods in Scotland’s history where it was felt that the church was about to disappear and it was renovated, and often the renovation is just after it looked very derelict.
“Some amazing things have happened before, and they will happen again.”
Finding Our Voice: Searching for Renewal in the Mainline Church is published by St Andrews Press
