Kirk Report Proposes Radical Change

|TOP|A report to be presented to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in May has laid out proposals for a radical shake up of the Church and the way it interacts with the Scottish people.

The paper, by the Kirk’s Review and Reform Panel, argued that the Church of Scotland was “entrenched in the past with an over-dependence on Church law, which results in the Church’s trying to sell what is no longer attractive”.

According to Rev Ian Gilmour, convener of the Panel, the report was devised to chart the progress of the Church in implementing the recommended reforms of the 2001 Church Without Walls report, which urged the church to reach out to the community beyond the confines of the church in order to make it more responsive to the needs of the 21st century.

Other criticisms in the Panel’s report this month include a “fear of change”, “too much negative thinking” and a “fear of losing control at all levels”.

|AD|Rev. Gilmour said, in the Scottish Sunday Herald, that although some steps had been taken toward reform but the Panel still found the Church to be too confined to formal structures and procedures.

The Panel report instead advises the Church to hold its own leadership structures “against the example of the servant-leader provided by Christ,” a Church of Scotland press release said.

The General Assembly will be advised by the report next month to explore new forms of promoting the Church’s mission at the local and national level as it considers whether the Church’s many presbyteries and the General Assembly have “largely lost their significance”, the Kirk statement read.

The report also said that while Church Without Walls had the potential to act as the “grand vision” for the Church, it suggested that the Kirk also needed a single vision statement which it offered as the following: “The vision of the Church of Scotland is to be a church which seeks to inspire the people of Scotland and beyond with the Good News of Jesus Christ through enthusiastic, worshipping, witnessing nurturing and serving communities."

Rev Gilmour, a minister at the South Leith Parish Church for 10 years, added: “The Church of Scotland hasn’t always looked favourably on innovation – that’s been a feature of Presbyterianism in general. We call it the ‘aye been’ culture – things have always been that way so they shouldn’t change,” he said.

“Fifty years ago the Church had creative people here and overseas, but they got frustrated when nothing changed. Jesus was about risk taking and innovation and we have to get back to that.”

The report also set out the priorities for the Church of Scotland over the next five years.

It said: “To follow Christ’s example, we are required to lead to serve and to serve to lead. Doing so at every level within the Church of Scotland will revolutionise the Kirk.”