16/04/2017 Reporting Scotland

A survey of Christians claims that the number of regular

church goers in Scotland has fallen by more than half

The Scottish Church Census said the number of attendees

and that elderly people make up a higher proportion.

The census, held last year, was the fourth to be undertaken on Scottish

church attendance since the first one in 1984.

In that year, around 854,000 people regularly attended church.

That figure fell to around 390,000 by last year.

The research also revealed that 42% of churchgoers

The number of congregations in 2016 was around 3,700,

So, do the figures indicate a crisis in Christianity across Scotland?

This report shows to us what we already sense,

the scale of the challenges facing churches in Scotland today.

Scotland is a hugely different country which has changed a lot

over the last 50 years but there is still a huge

appetite to understand what Christianity is all about.

But churches also have to change the way in which it is

But the Census also revealed growth amongst some denominations

It's not as if all churches in Scotland are failing at the same

time, and all churches are deserted at the moment.

Many churches have been filled today, it is Easter Day.

And I think that you have to look at the churches that

This church has grown by 20% since last year,

and that indicates that some churches are doing very well

While they do not necessarily make happy reading, the figures

are being seen by some as an opportunity to bring

The parents of Molly Grace, a young girl with cerebral palsy,

have praised volunteers at a Scots charity who travelled from Glasgow

to Newcastle to deliver a vital feeding tube.

Molly Grace has cerebral palsy and cannot walk or talk.

The seven-year-old from Newcastle has to be fed through a tube

attached to her bowel, but the one she had was not

the right size, and last week she became very sick.

Getting hold of the device she needed quickly was proving

difficult because of a national shortage, and in desperation her

parents made an appeal on social media.

we felt like we were doing something in the meantime, not expecting

The right bit of equipment was found in Glasgow,

and volunteers at the medical transport charity

They even got to meet Molly and her family.

Very humbling, obviously, to meet a brave girl like Molly

and speak to her mum and dad and see what they have been through

and what Molly has been through as well.

And to get to know that this could potentially give her a bit

Molly was fitted with her new tube, and has been recovering in hospital.

Her family thanked the drivers with this home-made card,

and have started another home-made campaign to raise money for

Andy Murray has joined leading environmental campaigners in warning

the Prime Minister against watering down commitments to tackle climate

change in order to secure post-Brexit trade deals.

The tennis star, along with Greenpeace, WWF,

and Friends of the Earth have signed a joint letter to Theresa May.

Downing Street says the government's commitment to green issues

Football, and Ross County drew 2-2 against Celtic in the Premiership

Liam Boyce scored from the spot, then Celtic captain Scott Brown

Brown will be available for next Sunday's Scottish Cup

semi-final against Rangers, with the club planning to appeal

Ricky Burns says he won't quit after losing his super-lightweight

unification fight against Julius Indongo

The Coatbridge boxer had put his WBA belt on the line,

with the unbeaten Namibian putting his IBF and IBO

It's over to Kirsteen now with the weather forcast for tonight

Good evening, for some of us it has been a fine enter the day. This was

the scene in the West Highlands this evening. Tonight it looks largely

dry, with some clear spells. Perhaps a touch of frost developing in

sheltered rural areas. Wintry showers moving in through the

northern isles, much of Sutherland, Caithness and the north-east during

tomorrow morning. As these showers pushed further south eastwards, they

will fall as rain, and a lot of dry and bright weather elsewhere.

Tomorrow afternoon across the UK, showers continuing to track south

and eastwards, and there will be some brightness and sunshine in

between the showers. Much of Scotland dry during tomorrow

afternoon. Really quite chilly, if not cold field for most of us,

particularly across Scotland with a fresh northerly breeze across north

eastern and eastern areas. Tomorrow evening, most of the showers will

die out a lovely spells of sunshine to end the day, and overnight under

clear skies with relatively light winds, fully widespread and sharp

frost will develop, with lows in rural areas of minus five Celsius.

On Tuesday, high pressure in charge, lots of dry and bright weather,

sunshine in the morning at least. Cloud increasing over the course of

the day, turning the sunshine somewhat hazy. Light winds and still

on the chilly side.