page_title: Religion in Scotland
section_title: Church of Scotland
hierarchical_section_title: Religion in Scotland / Religions / Christianity / Protestantism / Church of Scotland
caption_attribution_description: stained glass "nec tamen consumebatur", St. Mungo's Cathedral, Glasgow.
context_page_description: Christianity is the largest religion in Scotland. In the 2011 census, 53.8% of the Scottish population identified as Christian when asked: "What religion, religious denomination or body do you belong to?". The Church of Scotland, a Presbyterian denomination often known as The Kirk, is recognised in law as the national church of Scotland. It is not an established church and is independent of state control. However, it is the largest religious grouping in Scotland, with 32.4% of the population according to the 2011 census. The other major Christian church is the Catholic Church, the form of Christianity in Scotland prior to the Reformation, which accounts for 15.9% of the population and is especially important in West Central Scotland and parts of the Highlands. Scotland's third largest church is the Scottish Episcopal Church. There are also multiple smaller Presbyterian churches, all of which either broke away from the Church of Scotland or themselves separated from churches which previously did so.
context_section_description: The British Parliament passed the Church of Scotland Act 1921, recognising the full independence of the Church in matters spiritual, and as a result of this and passage of the Church of Scotland (Property and Endowments) Act, 1925, which settled the issue of patronage in the Church, the Church of Scotland was able to unite with the United Free Church of Scotland in 1929. The United Free Church of Scotland was itself the product of the union of the former United Presbyterian Church of Scotland and the majority of the Free Church of Scotland in 1900. The 1921 Act recognised the kirk as the national church and the monarch became an ordinary member of the Church of Scotland, represented at the General Assembly by their Lord High Commissioner.
  In the second half of the twentieth century the Church was particularly affected by the general decline in church attendance. Between 1966 and 2006 numbers of communicants in the Church of Scotland dropped from over 1,230,000 to 504,000. Formal membership reduced from 446,000 in 2010 to 398,389 or 7.5% of the total population by yearend 2013. dropping to 380,164 by the end of 2014 and 336,000 by 2017. Further dropping to 325,695 by yearend 2018 representing about 6% of the Scottish population.  In 2016, the actual weekly attendance at a Kirk service was reckoned to be 136,910. In the twenty-first century the Church faced financial issues, with a £5.7 million deficit in 2010. In response the church adopted a "prune to grow" policy, cutting 100 posts and introducing job-shares and unpaid ordained staff.
caption: Stained glass showing the burning bush and the motto "nec tamen consumebatur", St. Mungo's Cathedral, Glasgow.
exif: {"Image Copyright": "KODAK DC280 ZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA"}