MEMBERSHIP is falling, ministers are thin on the ground and its pronouncements no longer get the attention they once did.
There are plenty of reasons why Church of Scotland members might feel gloomy as they survey the state of the Kirk.
But senior figures argue that while it will have to undergo radical change, the Church has a bright future.
Declining numbers are
nothing new – membership has been falling steadily since the 1950s. But as the drop in attendance has gathered pace and fewer have entered the ministry, more and more churches have closed, merged or been forced to share a minister.
In the mid-1970s Church of Scotland membership was still over one million. The number on the Kirk's roll dipped below the half-million mark in 2007 and it keeps on falling – another 3.5 per cent last year across the country.
In Edinburgh, Kirk membership fell from 33,218 at the end of 2007 to 32,375 at the end of last year – most of the losses through death.
The Rev John Munro, minister at Edinburgh's Fairmilehead Parish Church, says there are currently 148 vacant charges in Scotland, many of them in more remote parts of the country.
The problem has become so acute the Kirk is now planning "virtual ministries" in some rural areas, with congregations linked by screen to services elsewhere.
Mr Munro says: "Not enough people are coming into the ministry to fill the vacancies and when they do come they don't want to leave the Central Belt."
But he claims simply merging churches does not work. "Experience shows you often lose 50 per cent of the members," he says. "If you unite two congregations of 500, within five years you have a single congregation of 500 again."
And he says the Kirk needs to address "the whole business of how you get the Church into shape so it can be a force for good in the world".
He says: "We need to stop worrying about the pennies and the leaking roofs. Evangelical churches talk about moving from maintenance to mission.
"If you're having meetings all the time about how to keep a roof over your head you're not doing much else."
The General Assembly, which began yesterday with the usual pomp and ceremony, is dominated this year by the row over gay ministers and talk of splits.
But the agenda also includes a wide range of national and international issues, such as climate change, Trident, the economy, Zimbabwe, Israel-Palestine and human trafficking, as well as the Kirk's own internal affairs.
There was a time, before devolution, when the General Assembly was the nearest thing Scotland had to its own parliament – people gathered together from every parish in the land to debate the issues of the day.
In his address as Lord High Commissioner – or Queen's representative – at yesterday's opening session, former presiding officer George Reid said Scotland had changed ten years ago when the new Scottish Parliament first met in the Kirk's Assembly Hall.
But he added: "That did not mean the General Assembly is no longer a voice in the land."
He said he had heard ministers up and down the country preaching on issues of social concern, including the economic situation, and he praised the outgoing moderator, David Lunan, for speaking out on national and international issues in his year of office.
The Church of Scotland has a strong record of taking a stand on controversial issues – backing devolution, opposing nuclear weapons and objecting to the poll tax.
And Mr Reid reminded the assembly again of theologian Karl Barth's remark that sermons should be prepared with the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other.
Falling membership may mean politicians no longer feel the same obligation to listen to what the Kirk says simply by virtue of its numerical strength – but the church can still make itself heard by the weight of its argument.
And the Kirk has the advantage of being involved with people at grassroots level.
The Rev Peter Macdonald, minister at St George's West in Shandwick Place for the past 11 years and about to become leader of the Iona Community, says although some congregations are struggling to survive, a lot of good work is being done.
He highlights church initiatives at local level which have a real impact on people's lives, such as Richmond's Hope in Craigmillar, working with bereaved children.
He picks out changes in worship as another bright spot. "There are more hymns being written now than ever," he says. "There is a lighter touch to the way worship is conducted.
"Many churches have been changing their interiors. It's no longer cold, hard pews all facing the front – churches are much warmer, friendlier places to be."
And he says a surprising number of congregations have twinning links with churches overseas, in Africa or South America, and people from poor parishes in Scotland have been out to live with people there and welcomed their hosts back. He says: "Statistics and finance and all the bean-counting stuff does show decline, but underneath there are signs of new life.
"The old way of being the Church is dying and cannot be sustained, but underneath that there are real signs of hope."
He is convinced the Kirk will survive. "It will be smaller and there will be fewer buildings. It will be very different, but it will still be a vibrant Church."
