Nearly 50,000 people have abandoned Scotland’s national church in just three years.
Official figures have revealed that membership of the Church of Scotland has now dropped below 400,000 for the first time.
According to a report being presented to the Kirk’s General Assembly in Edinburgh next month, there were 398,389 members as of December 31 last year, down from 445,646 in 2010.
The number of congregations within its 46 presbyteries has also fallen from 1,414 to 1,389 in just 12 months.
A church source claimed the situation could be worse than it appears, as membership numbers in the report bear little relation to actual weekly church attendance.
He argued that if the Kirk had 398,389 active members that would mean 287 people were filling the pews of every congregation each week which was not the case.
A spokesman for the Church of Scotland insisted last night it remained one of the largest member organisations in the country and “cares about the values people live by and the conditions they live in”.
The Scottish Secular Society claimed the Kirk was “out of touch with society and struggling to stay relevant” – citing the backing at Holyrood for same-sex marriage as an example.
Highland Conservative MSP Mary Scanlon recently revealed that threats from anti-gay marriage campaigners convinced her to back the legislation.
She received vitriolic e-mails from individuals, not churches, which warned she would be “struck down” if she voted in favour of same-sex unions.
It is also likely many people have left the Church over a controversial proposal to allow congregations to appoint openly gay ministers if they wished. The debate was sparked by the appointment of the Rev Scott Rennie to Queen’s Cross Church, in Aberdeen, in 2009 and has still to be settled.
A Church of Scotland spokesman said: “We remain one of the largest member organisations in the country.
“We care about the values by which Scotland lives, and the conditions in which people live and we put our money where our faith is, in the work we do amongst the most vulnerable and marginalised.
“The moderator, the Right Rev Lorna Hood, used her Easter message to address the urgent need to recruit women and men to train to be ministers and to let society know that there is something very meaningful about living the life of faith.”
But Garry Otten, founder and secretary of the Scottish Secular Society, said he was not surprised membership was declining.
“The Church of Scotland is disengaging itself from society at large,” he added.
“Look at same-sex marriage; most people feel it is perfectly OK for two men and two woman to marry and the Church is struggling with this.
“Most people are beginning to see humanists and atheists as the voice of moderation because as the Church retreats it is becoming nastier.
“The Church is struggling to stay relevant and alive.”