Church of Scotland urged to adapt funding model

The Church of Scotland has been told it needs to maneuver towards a more sustainable funding model and will higher adapt itself to the work of God in the current age.

The outgoing convener of the Church of Scotland’s Assembly Trustees, Rev David Cameron, presented the General Assembly with a final report that showed an operating surplus of £1.207 million for 2025. The Church had budgeted for a lack of £6.06 million for the yr, meaning that the yr was financially higher than anticipated.   

Despite this, the report noted that it was built largely on one-off or unpredictable income, akin to legacies and better than expected investment returns.

Funding has been a key issue for the Church of Scotland. Earlier this yr, former Moderator, the Rt Rev Rosie Frew, warned that the top of a government funding scheme for historic churches threatened the viability of some its properties. Indeed, the Church has already sold off a lot of historic buildings on account of changing demographics and unsustainable costs.

In his report, Cameron appeared to hint at this, “We have been liable to entering a cycle of ever-deepening cuts. We have taken difficult decisions and people have bought us time, but we cannot proceed to chop our solution to sustainability.”

He added that the Church had been searching for to simplify its processes in order that more time and energy could possibly be put into the core mission of “worship, witness and repair”.

In his report Cameron proposed a shift within the Church funding model, during which churches could be encouraged to be more creative and proactive in their very own fundraising. The aim could be for every congregation to be self-sufficient, but a Solidarity Fund would even be in place to help churches which are struggling.

Cameron said, “Covenant means no congregation or presbytery stands alone and all of us bear each other’s burdens together.”

He also said, “The query will not be whether God is at work. The query is whether or not we are going to align our structures, our funds, and our imagination with that work and that requires change.”