I NOTE there is a bleak future envisioned by many after financial loss in Church of Scotland ("Mission impossible? Kirk looks at radical shake-up after £4.5m loss", The Herald, May 15, and Letters, May 17). It is time to take the church back into the community, as Jesus did. Instead of meeting in large church buildings which are costly to maintain, form house groups. Take Jesus's work and word to people who need it, the vulnerable, the needy, the dispossessed. Show the world that we do not need big fancy (cold) buildings to do good works. We just need to show people of all faith (and none) that somebody cares.

I write as a practising Buddhist, not a Christian, and I am describing what our Buddhist tradition practis-es.

Margaret Forbes, Kilmacolm.

DOUG Clark (Letters, May 16) is behind the times in urging churches to take out the pews and install modest toilet and shower facilities and make them available to the growing number of homeless peo-ple.

At Gorgie Dalry Stenhouse Church in Edinburgh we have just done that in our Stenhouse building and since just before Christmas of last year Bethany Christian Trust, supported by ourselves and other churches, have been providing for up to 70 homeless people each night. In January the mattresses on the floor were replaced with beds and we have gone further than Mr Clark has suggested by providing washing machines.

It would help if Mr Clark and others who support this use of church buildings could write in support of our application for a permanent change of use of the building to the provision of accommodation for the homeless. If such an application is refused Bethany Christian Trust will be unable to reopen in Sep-tember on a permanent basis in our building and will have to use church halls on a temporary basis across the city, without beds and shower facilities.

Sandy Gemmill,

Edinburgh EH3.