The death of a magazine: a sad sign of the decline of the Church of Scotland?

It is always sad when people lose their jobs. It is even sadder when it is journalists, editors and staff associated with a magazine.

And that is made much worse when that magazine is a Christian magazine which has served the church for 146 years. But that was the shock announcement made at this year’s Church of Scotland General Assembly: their magazine Life and Work was to cease.

I’m not sure why, but among a plethora of bad news this one hit me the most. Perhaps it is because I am one of the few subscribers left? Perhaps because I know how difficult it is to edit a Christian magazine - having edited The Record, the monthly magazine of the Free Church of Scotland? Or perhaps it is because it is yet another indicator of the sad collapse of the Church of Scotland.