ROSEMARY Goring makes interesting comments and conclusions in the light of the most recent statistic that Humanist weddings now outnumber those carried out by the Church of Scotland (“No wonder humanist weddings are putting Church in shade”, The Herald, August 3), not least that church/ Christian weddings are now likely to be more than tokenism, that commitment to marriage is to be encouraged whether or not it comes from a faith or from a Humanist point of view and, of course, that Humanist marriages are very much on the ascendancy.

I, nevertheless, find that Ms Goring uses the “Kirk” statistic unfairly in suggesting that it represents the full complement of faith-based marriages. Surely, that should include those ceremonies carried out by other Christian denominations for example Catholic, historic off-shoots of the Church of Scotland (for example, Free Church of Scotland), traditional non-conformist churches (Methodist, Baptist, Brethren and the like) as well as new independent Christian fellowships now found in our towns and cities. Rev W Gordon Smith (Letters, August 4) also notes that not all Church of Scotland ceremonies are carried out in church buildings.

Undoubtedly formalised faith appears to be in decline in this country and formalised non-faith on the increase. However, a more accurate statistic would be helpful to the discussion.

Stephen Downs,

28 Griffiths Street, Falkirk.