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Church of Scotland membership slips to new low

The incoming moderator of the Church of Scotland today admitted the Kirk has not been attractive enough to encourage would-be worshippers through its doors.

Rev David Lunan made the comments as figures show Church of Scotland membership has slumped below 500,000 to a new low.

Mr Lunan, who said he was not too despondent about the statistics, partly blamed society's materialism and pointed to a lack of children attending Sunday school.

But he conceded: "I think we have not probably been as attractive as we might have been. I think there's a lot of 'same old, same old' goes on."

The figures will be presented at the Kirk's General Assembly which begins next week in Edinburgh.

A report by the Church's legal questions committee shows that there were 489,118 communicants (members) last year, down from 504,363 in 2006 and 520,940 in 2005.

Full story at The Herald.