WE write in response to your report relating to changes to the pension arrangements notified to the 220 central services staff in the Church of Scotland ("Kirk tells workers accept deal or face being sacked", The Herald, August 19).

We struggle to recognise the picture painted in this article.

Not least because of the financial sacrifices being made by members of congregations across Scotland, the church is addressing the funding position of all of its pension schemes for ministers and staff.

There is a deficit of more than £30m in pension funds. It is regrettable that the current scheme is unaffordable and unsustainable.

Under the new arrangements the church will contribute at least 11.5% of an employee's salary and a maximum of 14% if employees contribute 2.5%. This will be more than double the average employer contribution. The most recent data from the Office of National Statistics gives an average private sector employer contribution rate of 6.6% with a 2.8% employee contribution.

We began talking to staff and the union Unite about the pension issue almost a year ago, put proposals to them earlier this year, complied with statutory requirements and reported proposals to the church's General Assembly in May.

We have no wish to lose any member of staff and believe in reality this will not happen but strictly speaking, under employment law, if employees choose to decline revised terms and conditions after statutory consultation and due notice of the change has been served, their current employment contract is deemed to have come to an end. This is the same background to pension consultations which most organisations have carried out in recent years.

We would also wish to highlight that as a result of representations from staff and Unite, we have agreed to increase the new employer contribution rate by 2.5% to a minimum of 11.5%.

Angus McPherson,

Convenor, Central Services Committee, Church of Scotland,

121 George Street, Edinburgh.

THE priorities of the Kirk are once again regrettably highlighted by two quite unrelated reported articles in The Herald. One deals with Prince Charles's interest in and donation towards saving a historically acclaimed church in Bothwell ("Prince Charles gifts donation to save historic Scots church", The Herald, August 19), whilst the other reports on the apparent ill-judged overtures by senior management to staff at the Church of Scotland headquarters in Edinburgh.

As a retired Unite member my sympathy is with the employees more from the alleged heavy-handed tactics used than the pragmatic inevitability of adjusting pension conditions in these uncertain economic times.

Similarly, I would question the decision by church hierarchy to expend upwards of £2m to restore an edifice which from age and previous building collapse appears to be well past its life expectancy. Historical interest, nostalgia and both church and royal patronage are all very commendable, but pale into insignificance when the stark reality on the future of loyal staff is highlighted.

Surely any institution, especially our national church, must live in the present, look to the future and gracefully leave the past to be remembered as such.

Allan C Steele,

22 Forres Avenue,

Giffnock.