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Welcome to Holy Smoke, the Spectator's Religion podcast.

I'm Damien Thompson.

The Church of Scotland, which has lost more than half its members since the year 2000, is selling off its churches, not just one or two here or there, but a lot and for cut price rates.

Of course, the church insists that the move is painful but essential, aping the language

of a corporate multinational's HR department,

yet the sheer scale and decisiveness of the move belie the patronising smiles of the church hierarchy.

I'm quoting from a very striking article in this week Spectator by William Finnetter,

an undergraduate at St Andrews University,

who began investigating this story after noticing a steady stream of historic churches

up for sale in local newspapers.

As he reports, anywhere between 20 and 30% of parish churches, that's about 400 of them,

are being put on the market. And since many of Scotland's oldest and most beautiful churches

require the highest maintenance costs, that puts them at risk. Right now, in Aberdeen,

just £390,000 could buy you St St Marks, Alexander Marshall-McKenzie's

huge neoclassical church in the city centre. If you're in the market for something a little

cosier, 110,000 will get you the 18th century Kirkpatrick-Juckster parish church. Beautifully set against the Lather Hills,

this little whitewashed brick church with Celtic cross windows currently serves the village of

But that's about to change. Like most of the churches facing the chop, if bought it will probably

...