The death of a magazine: a sad sign of the decline of the Church of Scotland? EN

It is always sad when people lose their jobs. It is even sadder when it is journalists, editors and staff associated with a magazine.

And that is made much worse when that magazine is a Christian magazine which has served the church for 146 years. But that was the shock announcement made at this year’s Church of Scotland General Assembly: their magazine Life and Work was to cease.

I’m not sure why, but among a plethora of bad news this one hit me the most. Perhaps it is because I am one of the few subscribers left? Perhaps because I know how difficult it is to edit a Christian magazine – having edited The Record, the monthly magazine of the Free Church of Scotland? Or perhaps it is because it is yet another indicator of the sad collapse of the Church of Scotland.

The report to the Assembly noted that “the circulation of Life and Work in December 2024 was 6,328, made up of 5,162 copies sold in print, 554 sold in digital, and 612 promotional digital copies, (sent to parish ministers and parish magazine editors).”

These figures are bad enough, but when you consider that it includes those bought by congregations for congregational distribution – many of which, if my experience is anything to go by, will just end up in the bin – then it is disastrous. Little wonder that it lost £250,000 last year. Much of this was blamed on the drop in advertising – but who is going to pay a lot of money to advertise in a magazine that very few read? Even the funeral directors and organ makers were not going to buy into this niche market.

The committee seemed to suggest that this was primarily because of a cultural shift from print to digital media – and cited The Scotsman as an example – whose circulation we were told has fallen to 7,000 – (another newspaper to which I subscribed – it seems as though I have a habit of backing the wrong horses!).

But there is another side to that – some quality newspapers and magazines are doing a lot better. The Scottish editions of The Times and The Telegraph, for example, sell twice the number of The Scotsman and The Herald.

I remember writing to the editor of The Scotsman, after being a subscriber for many years. There had been a plan to take the newspaper out on a more national scale – even in the rest of the UK – aiming for a circulation of 80,000. That failed and so I suggested to the editor that his newspaper was in danger of just becoming a lifestyle magazine for the Edinburgh middle classes. He kind of agreed and suggested that that was where the money was, at least in terms of advertising. Such a narrow vision, combined with its insistence on only reflecting the values of the progressive middle classes (what the SNP call ‘Scotland’s values’), has resulted in the decline of The Scotsman to its current state of irrelevance.

Much like the Church. Go woke, go broke, is the mantra for both.

At one time Life and Work was read by one quarter of the Scottish population – it even provided subsidies to the Church – but then that was at a time when around half the Scottish population professed to belong to the Kirk. From a high point of 1.3 million in the 1950’s the Kirk has also descended into irrelevance, with only an estimated 68,000 attending its services each Sunday.

Church of Scotland finances

The financial situation is getting desperate; with years of living off legacies from the past now coming home to roost. In December we were told that the Church of Scotland’s deficit had grown to £6.5 million – despite the efforts that had been made to both increase revenue and cut costs. The Church is planning to close around one third of its churches and sell off more that 400 buildings. Soon there won’t be much family silver left.

But the Church continually struggles to face the reality of what is happening, and why they are declining. We were spun a positive tale about the ending of Life and Work – “this is not the end – it is about looking forward…a new model of communication” etc. But it is the end. And the end of the magazine is a symbol of the end of the Church (unless the Lord intervenes and resurrects the almost lifeless body).

The Church can talk as much as it wants about a new way of doing religion, and new worship centres, and bringing Jesus to the people of Scotland. But if they have rejected the Jesus of the Bible, then who are they worshipping? And why should they expect the Lord to bless an organisation which has shut Him out?

For me the ultimate symbol of that was the appointment of the Rev Scott Rennie to the Kirk’s flagship church in Edinburgh, St Giles. Mr Rennie was the minister who, having left his wife and set up with another man, precipitated a crisis and battle when he accepted a call to a church in Aberdeen in 2009. The subsequent decade saw the Church of Scotland, aided and abetted by some evangelicals who compromised on the issue, accept same sex marriage. Rather than halting the decline in the Church by becoming more “modern and relevant”, it has only accelerated that decline. The appointment of Mr Rennie to the St Giles post, without a whisper of opposition, is the canary in the church mine.

The Spectator, rather than the Scotsman, is the model that the Church should have been looking at. It has stuck to its principles and produces a high quality, well written current affairs and arts magazine. I love reading it. Especially the physical copy.

I was also saddened to read that the Free Church magazine, the Record, may also close. Although this time not because of financial reasons – but largely because they cannot get an editor. There is still a market in Scotland for a good Christian, Reformed magazine, even more so now that Life and Work has gone. If the Free Church will not fill it then perhaps others like Evangelicals Now will stand in the gap!