As the Kirk's annual gathering opens, he will be given the mantle of Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, a title he will carry for the next 12 months.
Like his immediate predecessors, Mr Lunan takes on the weighty role
at a time when the Kirk faces challenges both from within and without.
Congregation figures continue to fall. There were 489,118 communicants last year, down from 504,363 in 2006, while civil society becomes more secular with each passing year.
As a minister of 40 years, Mr Lunan has stated that he intends to be a "no-frills" Moderator, seeking to serve the Kirk and its members. Despite having been born and spent his early childhood in London, he spent his formative years in the west of Scotland, living in Cambuslang, attending Glasgow High School and then Glasgow University.
As a minister he has seen both sides of life. Starting off in Glasgow's East End working among the gangs, he later moved with his teacher wife, Maggie, to Moray, where they brought up their four sons.
Returning to Glasgow after 12 years, this time to the ministry of Renfield St Stephen's in Bath Street, he subsequently became moderator of Glasgow Presbytery in 2002.
While moderating the largest presbytery in Scotland may have proved the perfect preparation for Mr Lunan, the challenge of the Kirk's General Assembly will be a serious test of his skills.
Q & A: THE REV DAVID LUNANMembership figures of the Church continue to drop. How concerned are you about this?
Sometimes we have tried to persuade ourselves that they are not as bad as we thought. But the truth is that during the years of my ministry, they have dropped from about a million and a half to a million. And while numbers are not the be-all and end-all, it is a concern that fewer people are responding to the gospel. As most of our members are in the upper age group, there's a kind of inevitability about that.
What do you attribute this fall to?
The external factors which mean that people have other options; there's a lack of social pressure that would have been present. Also, people have more money and options; more sport, more travel, second homes, hobbies. And I'm happy about recreation, that's fine that people do these things. It does mean that the Church does drop down the list of priorities, and even those who are committed are probably going to church less.
I also think we can't blame others for not coming to church. We've not been winsome, we've not portrayed a lifestyle that is attractive to folks. We've not been different enough, I don't think we've been loving enough.
I also think we've not always addressed the spiritual questions. I think we've been good on the ethical and moral questions, but on the level of helping people find a vocabulary for their spiritual life – I don't think we've been addressing that.
How can we nurture our inner-being so we can cope with life's disappointments, tragedies and sadnesses, so we're not thrown off course? Because they will happen, and when they do, people ask profound questions. All profound questions become religious.
I also think there is a group who are very committed to Jesus Christ but cannot find it in themselves to be worshipping in the way we do week by week with the style we have devised. That's a question for those of us who remain within the structure as to how we hold on to folks like that, because they have a lot to offer.
The General Assembly has been criticised as not having the same level of passion or debate as it once had. How do you react to that?
Nothing is what it used to be. I suppose I would be old enough to remember some of the old debaters of the General Assembly. There was a time when it was regarded as the Scottish Parliament by default because there wasn't a forum for people to air their views.
The Church has, of course, supported the Scottish Parliament, so now that there is one, we don't want to be cast in the role of complaining that this has happened, because we rejoiced that it did. But it does mean I think we have now addressed some internal problems, but it's not just house-keeping issues, we still address the national and the global issues. It's not just house-keeping; it's how we impact society.
There may other reasons, the use of microphones to speak has taken away some of the spontaneity. People could speak for some time and the constraints of our business nowadays means that we have to limit this, but that's true for the whole of society. We don't hear the oratory that we might have heard in days gone by.
Civil partnerships is an issue that the General Assembly and the Kirk as a whole has had to address over the past two years. Is this something it has moved past yet?
I think the Church is living with the question just now, and I think the debates the Church has had have been the Assembly at its best, on both sides of the argument. There was a maturity and a grace and a willingness to listen on the issue.
It's a year since the SNP came to power. What's your opinion on this new political landscape?
I would say this has been the most interesting year we have had in politics for some time. There is just more of a buzz, more talk, which I'm very much in favour of. It's only for the good. People were critical of the Scottish Parliament initially, and I think people's expectations were too high. But I think the people who drew up the constitution and devised the way of working, so there's access to the debates, petitions and consultations. I think we are modelling the way forward, so I'm very positive about the Scottish Parliament. I'm not sure why there was so much negativity to begin with. But perhaps it's the administration that has raised the level of interest.
To what extent do you feel independence is more likely now?
I suppose for the first time since 1707, it's on the agenda and the Scottish people recognise that. We're all democrats, so it will be the will of the people. I just think it's interesting. I can remember talk of the SNP when I was at school and it wasn't taken that seriously. As a general rule, it was seen as something that was romantic or backward-looking, rather than something that was forward-looking.
You have said that one of your themes during the coming year will be money. What did you mean by that?
There is something going on just now with money, maybe more than in the past, whereby it determines almost everything we do. People will change jobs for more money, people will move house for money. I fear sometimes that some people's lifestyles are dictated by their income more than by their faith. They've bought into the lie that more money buys you more happiness. I've spent all my ministry fighting poverty, and it's a curse. But the problem is not poverty, it's wealth, because it is wealthy people who make the decisions that decide that half of the world is starving.
Money is a good servant but a bad master. To a certain extant it's neutral, but because we've become obsessed with it, it distorts all our other values.
We're three years on from the G8 meeting at Gleneagles. Have the western powers made good on their promises to end Third World debt?
The European countries, Japan and America have decided the terms of trade, how the World Bank operates and it comes down to "if you cannot pay your debts, your children will die. Business is business".
The Church has to keep on saying: "It is wrong". Gordon Brown has been just as courageous as any government leader, but the vested interests are huge and don't care if Indonesians or Zambians watch their children die.
Iraq and Afghanistan is still a major issue for the Church, as is Iran. Are you hopeful for change there soon?
We shouldn't be there. I am surprised the British government allows us to remain there. We should know better, you never win. We will leave sooner or later. There may have been a justification for toppling Saddam Hussein, but I marched with the others that we should not have gone to war. The whole thing is about oil. It's not about ideas, it's about money.
Since the last General Assembly, we have suffered the Glasgow Airport terrorist attack. Have we become a nation increasingly divided on ethnic lines?
Not at all. I think that was an aberration. Living in Glasgow with a large Muslim community, yes we've had our difficulties, but my goodness it's pretty good.
I was at a dinner last Christmas organised by the Asian Christian Fellowship, but at that dinner I was sitting with Hindus, Muslims, Christians, whites and Asians, and the Asians were saying: "I don't think this could happen anywhere else in Britain. Glasgow's different, Scotland's different."
We get on well together, so I'm not pessimistic at all about it.
What's your view on the current stem-cell research debate.
I'm concerned about the human beings we have already that we're allowing to die, and if we want to be passionate about anything there's no question that would be the area I'd be passionate about.
You will be travelling around the world over the coming year as an ambassador for the Kirk. What message will you be taking with you?
I will have different messages for different countries. But with Israel and Palestine, I think it will be more about listening, and if we have things we have to say, I think it will be questions on fairness. Does this promote justice, does this allow human beings to develop their full potential? I think to some of the churches I will be saying: "We have things to learn from you".
We are secretly embarrassed by some of our brothers and sisters of Christ in countries. We are singing dismally into our hymn books while they are leaping and dancing.
Have they found something that we have lost or taken for granted?
The coming year will be extremely busy for you. How do you relax?
I listen to music, watch telly, though less than I used to. But, primarily, I walk. I love the hills. We live in the centre of Glasgow, so we know all the parks and the canal and streets. I just think walking is fundamentally therapeutic.
I like the west of Scotland, sometimes taking a wee trip down to Dunoon, see the Clyde in all its splendour and that takes it to another realm.
I pray. I read, though not as much as I might like to. I enjoy talking, I enjoy company.
I see the job as a vocation. I don't work hours, it's a life thing. It's also fulfilling.
There is a continuity because you hope that everything you do is honouring God. And God's good, he says that's fine "go off and climb hills; put your feet up". It's not as if he's a taskmaster, and yes I do have hobbies. Somebody as a farewell gift has given us membership of the Edinburgh Film Club, which was nice, it's something we'll take advantage of.
We've already got a book of city walks in Edinburgh. I've already been for a walk down in Dean Village.
What is your impression of Scotland as a nation in 21st century?
I'm positive about it, and that's possibly coming from Glasgow, we are on an up. When I was brought up there, I can remember the shipbuilding, the boats to Ireland, the crowds and then the collapse of that whole industry with lots of highly skilled people being put out of work. We kind of lost our nerve, and perhaps that's true of the whole country.
When I came back to Glasgow in 1987, that was the year before the Garden Festival and then there was the year of culture and then architecture, and there is now more money being invested in Glasgow since the 1880s, both private and public, and that is amazing. I think the leadership of the city has taken a broad view.
I think you could say the same of Edinburgh, what they are doing with their trams. That's long-term thinking, and it takes courage.
I think the Church perhaps needs to take a similar long-term view. Not what's right for the next year or the next two years, but strategically plan for the next 50 to ensure the Christian witness to Scotland.
The full article contains 2174 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
