A new report has claimed that Church of Scotland leaders have lost touch with the views of members at the grassroots level of the Church on issues such as abortion and homosexuality, reports the The Sunday Times.

|TOP|According to statistics gathered by Robert Anderson, a minister in West Lothian and author of the report, 60 per cent of 1,200 surveyed churchgoers said they thought the church had lost its way spiritually and theologically and three-quarters said the appointment of moderators did not reflect the church membership.

“There are two competing movements in the Church of Scotland – the establishment ‘top down’ movement and the grass roots membership movement,” said Mr Anderson.

“Moderators tend to be from the liberal political wing and there is frustration among members that their views are not being represented. Our moderators never seem to say anything that reflects the central purpose of Christianity,” he said.

Mr Anderson added: “People feel there is too much fear of giving offence and fence-sitting.”

|QUOTE|A survey of readers of the Church of Scotland’s Life and Work magazine has revealed a further irk among members of the Kirk, with 86 per cent of respondents agreeing that decision-making powers should be given back to congregations, Kirk sessions and presbyteries.

When asked to suggest what single thing would most help the Church of Scotland, the largest proportion of respondents advised reducing the power at the Kirk’s headquarters in Edinburgh.

“There is a feeling things are far too centralised,” said Ian Watson, secretary of the evangelical group Forward Together. “There are certain people in positions of influence who feel that, if they contradict the politicians, they will be marginalised.

|AD|“They have a left-wing, liberal agenda but it runs counter to the general feeling of ordinary numbers.”

Counter to the decision by the Kirk’s church and society council last month to back Scottish executive plans to support gay adoption, Watson urged the Church to make a statement distancing itself from supporting gay adoption.

A Church of Scotland spokesman said opinions within the Kirk reflected the diverse nature of contemporary Scottish society.

“The central administration of the Kirk had undergone a period of radical restructuring over the last two years, and this is a process that has been debated in, and endorsed by, the general assembly,” he said.

The findings of the report were deemed “devastating” by Harry Reid, author of Outside Verdict, a study of the workings of the church.

“There is a constant criticism that the Church does not speak out on public issues in a way that the Catholic Church does,” he said. “A lot of people think back to when the Church of Scotland used to be a voice in the land.”