Thomas Baldwin reports on the award of a major honour from the Roman Catholic Church to a former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
THE former ecumenical officer of the Church of Scotland has been awarded a major honour by the Roman Catholic Church.
The Very Rev Dr Sheilagh Kesting was invested as a Dame of the Order of St Gregory the Great on Sunday November 6 by the Most Rev Leo Cushley, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh. The presentation took place at the Archbishop’s residence in Edinburgh, in the presence of the Catholic bishops of Scotland, at a dinner to celebrate her retirement.
She is believed to be the first member of the Church of Scotland, and only the second non-Catholic woman in the UK, to be honoured in this way.
Sheilagh, who in 2007 became the first female minister appointed Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, said she was ‘absolutely speechless’ at the award, which had been kept secret from her. “I had absolutely no idea. I thought I had just been invited to dinner!
“I am absolutely overwhelmed. It is just astonishing and unbelievable and it is a tremendous privilege.
“I am delighted that the relationship between our two Churches has become strong enough that this kind of acknowledgement can be given from one to the other, and it means so much that it comes from Pope Francis.
“We have been watching this new Pope with tremendous interest and excitement about the things that he is saying and the encouragement that he is giving to ecumenical relations. So to have this honour from Pope Francis just adds to its significance. It is wonderful.”
The award marks a career-long commitment to ecumenism, having been a member of the Joint Commission on Doctrine with the Roman Catholic Church since she was a parish minister in the early 1980s; and 23 years as ecumenical officer which ended with her retirement in the summer.
She added: “It was good to be able to go back and reflect on how things had changed, what we’d been able to do together. And it gave me the opportunity to say that the journey needs to continue, and to be seen to continue.”
The Pontifical Equestrian Order of St Gregory the Great was established in 1831 by Pope Gregory XVI. It is given to recipients ‘in recognition of their personal service to the Holy See and to the Roman Catholic Church, through their unusual labours, their support of the Holy See, and their excellent examples set forth in their communities and their countries’. It permits Sheilagh to style herself Dame Sheilagh Kesting DSG.
David Waterton-Anderson of the UK Association of Papal Honours said: “It is a very, very high honour and a very rare thing for a non-Catholic to receive the Order of St Gregory the Great. And this honour is something she can be really proud of because it is not political, but only given for good works.”
He said Lady Hazel Sternberg, who died in 2014, is the only other non-Catholic woman in the UK to have been invested as a Dame of the Order of St Gregory.
The Rev Alison McDonald, convener of the Church of Scotland ecumenical relations committee, said: “I am delighted that Sheilagh has been awarded this highly significant honour. It’s a tribute to the work she’s done in building a good relationship between the Church of Scotland and the Roman Catholic Church over many years, particularly through the Joint Commission on Doctrine.
“As well as a personal honour, it’s a sign of the good relationship which has been built up between our churches, and encourages us to continue to build on that relationship.”