Theologian calls for reform and renewal
Thomas Baldwin outlines some of the radical proposals for change in the church made in this year’s series of Chalmers Lectures.
A leading Scottish theologian has called for widespread reforms in the Church of Scotland, if it is to arrest the decline in membership.
Among the Rev Dr Doug Gay’s proposals were radical changes to minister and elder recruitment, the management of church finances and wholesale reform of presbytery and central structures.
Dr Gay, principal of Trinity College at the University of Glasgow, made the proposals during the Chalmers Lectures in Edinburgh in February.
Opening the series of three lectures, he warned that the Church was the fastest declining denomination in the UK, and said it required spiritual and liturgical renewal, missional refocusing and institutional reform.