THE Church of Scotland should not be obsessed by negative statistics and instead concentrate on delivering its positive messages, according to the Moderator-designate, writes Chris Holme.

The Rev Professor Alan Main, 62, said although Kirk membership fell by 20,000 last year, actual attendances on a Sunday were up, as was income from congregations.

''We live in a culture now when people are much less willing to join big institutions than they were in the past,'' he said. ''The question of decline is a fact and there are reasons for it, not excuses. We are seeking to address these.

''However, I think we can get mesmerised by statistics. For some time, we in the Church have focused too much on negative aspects of our life. We fail to see the signs of positive initiative around us and the initiatives across denominational boundaries where the walls that have divided us are coming down.''

Invoking Archbishop Temple's dictum 'The Church that marries the spirit of the age will be the widow of the next', he said there was a danger of populism but the Kirk's core values needed to be expressed in everyday language.