Church of Scotland Reviews 

My wife placed a bid to buy a church. We had to hire solicitor to do for us. Their closed bid system is joke and it is based on email which any agent in church can open bidder’s email read, reveals to others and unread again prior the decision. On the closing day she was inform that they want 1 week time to say if we won. We didn’t hear anything for couple of days. I noticed church was already sold online and we informed our solicitor about it. They did not make our solicitor aware of it. They were not honest with procedure and they hide the winning bid and our bid ranking in the competition. We felt they just wanted to buy themselves the property and all they wanted to show everything is diverse and following the equality. I don’t recommend to involve with them and they just good for nothing.

A very dishonest, nasty and underhanded organisation.

When I visited I was so impressed with everything! It couldn’t be better! I am in love with this church I wish I could go back. It was amazing, brilliant, wonderful I wish I would be there all the time. It really shows you perspective on life; it shows you what life should really be like, it shows you God. I loved it here and would 100% recommend going. It was a great opportunity for nuns like me!

The Church of Scotland has been and continues to be in decline (20% reduction of membership every 5 years.) The top-heavy ecclesiastical body tragically refuses to embrace, new ideas, fresh blood and renewal programs like their southern neighbor. Accordingly, the downward trend seems highly unlikely to be stemmed. The service essentially contains no liturgy nor form; it is a "hymn sandwich" as one parishioner described it. The sad truth is that the hymns (whether traditional or modern) are unfamiliar and the preaching too long and too irrelevant to reach a dweller of the 21st century.
I have only been in Scotland a few months and I'm an American Fire Department Chaplain. Already an active member of local charities and community groups, I have not seen hide nor hair of the local C of S parish.
When a highly respected pillar of the community perished in Fife, I was honored to be asked to perform the funeral. The family and mourners were mostly Scottish and they specifically asked, "don't make the funeral like the Church of Scotland." A full pipe band piped in the local hero and a 150 person procession escort made his final journeywith him.
This supposed "national" church takes its once elite status very much for granted! Where is this professed creed in play? To add insult to injury to the sharp decline, the main office seems totally inconsiderate of its own country parishes. These are often the center of community for the over 70's. These magnificent historic edifices are being ripped away from the parishioners and sold to the highest bidder leaving elderly Scots without a decent place to congregate.
It appears that the Church of Scotland has found the selling of chuch real estate to be more profitable than promoting the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This lends credence to the theory that emptying churches, rather than filling them, is their core mission.

Thanks to the Church of Scotland for speaking up in protest at the mass murder perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinians since 'Land Day'. In a somewhat ambiguous statement on their website, the Church appears to offer support to peacemakers on both sides, with a subtle caveat about the suffering of the Palestinians. It would have been more convincing had the Israeli violence against unarmed Palestinians been condemned clearly by the church. But at least it's a gesture in the right direction.

As the church's website states:

"The UN has stated that 'Gaza may be uninhabitable by 2020' unless serious measures are taken to end the structural injustice that has driven the already desperate people of Gaza into further despair in what has been described by many as 'an open air prison', the ongoing blockade of Gaza by Israel has led to serious privations for the two million people living there."