The Rev Ian Galloway, Convenor of the Church and Society Council, said the poor and most vulnerable in society must be at the forefront of decisions by MSPs at Holyrood over the next four years.

Mr Galloway said: “We wish well all who are preparing to take up the challenges that face our MSPs in the months and years ahead, and thank those who will not return for a new term.

“But it is crucial that the interests of those in our society who are the poorest and most vulnerable are given real priority as choices are made about how best to use our scarce resources.

“Parliament has an opportunity to show that deeply held principles of social justice are a mark of the character of the Scottish people in facing the difficult times we are in.

“While an election rightly has winners and losers, we remain together in the need to build a Scotland everyone can be proud of.”

The head of the Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, congratulated SNP leader Alex Salmond on his party’s historic election, after it swept to power with an outright majority.

It is the first time that a party has won an outright majority since the first Scottish Parliament convened in 1999.

Cardinal O’Brien offered his congratulations to Mr Salmond on his success in the elections.

“I also offer my commiserations to those parties who have seen their representation in the Parliament fall,” he said.

“The Catholic Church greatly values its collaboration with civic society and tries to offer an ethical foundation for political choices based on objective moral principles.

“Inspired by our faith, Scotland’s Christians always seek to promote and encourage dialogue at every level of national life, while respecting the boundaries between religion and politics.”

The Scottish elections were a wash out for the Lib Dems and a bad night for Labour, which has traditionally dominated in Scotland.

The SNP increased its share of the vote by a staggering 12 per cent on the 2007 election, winning 69 out of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament.

Although Labour’s share of the vote decreased by only 0.6 per cent, under Scotland’s complex voting system it lost nine seats in the Scottish parliament.

The greatest losses were suffered by the Lib Dems, whose share of the vote decreased by 7.6 per cent. The Conservatives’ share fell by 2.6 per cent.

Mr Salmond has pledged to hold a referendum on Scotland’s independence before 2015.

He said: “The SNP has been bestowed trust in a way that no party ever has before in a Scottish election.

"We will take that mandate and that trust forward. We’ll take it forward to increase the powers of our parliament.”