All are welcome

A GLEAMING double oven has pride of place within the kitchen of the Victorian manse of Morningside Parish Church in Edinburgh.

Shelves weighed down by recipe books provide the telltale signs of a ministerial passion for cookery and it will be no surprise to learn that hospitality will be the theme of the Rev Dr Derek Browning’s year as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

Photos: Derek Fett www.fettimages.co.uk

“The overall theme of this year’s General Assembly is ‘Word of Life’ and, thinking about different significant words in the life of the church, for me, one of them is and has been hospitality and also welcome and how we do that. It is also about inclusion. Inclusion has been a significant part of my ministry,” he explains.

Derek, the minister at Morningside since 2001, is both erudite and charming and with a quick wit – tempered by compassion and a passion for ministry and people. With a love for reading, theatre and the arts (he used to play the bagpipes), he is also no stranger to regular visitors to the General Assembly. He has served as Vice-Convener of the Assembly Arrangements Committee (which sits as the Business Committee during the General Assembly in May) and most recently as Convener of that Committee. His engagement with the central church has also included involvement with the Education for the Ministry Committee, the Board of Stewardship and Finance, the Panel on Worship, the Tenure Commission and most recently as a long-standing member of the Assembly Arrangements Committee.

Born in Edinburgh, he grew up initially in Penicuik, Midlothian, where he found himself removed from Sunday School.

“I was removed from Sunday School at the age of seven for being a disruptive influence because I was asking too many questions. That sense of wanting to ask questions is important to both my ministry and parish work and at the General Assembly. Questions are always in order,” he explains.

He moved to North Berwick and completed his education at North Berwick High School, which he hopes to revisit during his moderatorial year. He is warm in his praise of the encouragement and teaching he received there - and of the friendships forged in the East Lothian coastal town. The town was “the making of me” he says.

Reflecting on his schooling, he adds: “After that time at school at North Berwick, I got the opportunity to try for Oxford. I was the first one from our school that went to Oxford.

“I was offered a place at Corpus Christi College where I read history.”

Derek had no connection with the Church whilst growing up.

After being dispatched from Sunday School, the only time he participated in anything church-related was compulsory attendance at school assemblies (despite his protests of agnosticism) and with friends on a traditional Christmas Eve celebration, which included the Watchnight Service at North Berwick’s Blackadder Church. Worship at the services was led by the Rev Dr Donald McAlister, who would prove to be an important influence.

“I was always impressed by his integrity and his honesty. He would never give us a hard time for turning up on Christmas Eve or say: ‘Have you thought why you are here?’ I respected the man.”

Derek threw himself into Oxford life, absorbing the academic and social opportunities on offer, joining the debating union, the Scottish Country Dance Society and doing ‘a lot’ of drama and some writing. His contemporaries at Oxford included the former Conservative leader William Hague, the journalist Andrew Sullivan, the Labour MP Chris Bryant and the chief executive of the Pensions Regulator, Lesley Titcomb. He also helped out by volunteering with student counselling services.

During his last year of studies he developed an interest in the Reformation.

“One of my tutors knew a little about John Knox because he had featured in the English Reformation, but I started doing some research when I came back here for summer vacations. I worked as a student with the Saltire Society during the Festival Fringe.

Working in Edinburgh in the summer allowed him to research the Reformation at the National Library for Scotland. As part of a thesis on the life of Knox, he made an appointment with the then minister of St Giles, the Very Rev Dr Gilleasbuig Macmillan and, out of courtesy, attended a service at the Cathedral.

“Gilleasbuig was incredibly gracious with all the questions I had, but at the end, he said: ‘For the last hour we have maybe spent two minutes talking about John Knox. The rest has been spent talking about church and ministry. Have you reflected on that?’ That’s all he said. I hadn’t thought about it before.”

Having completed his degree, job offers came from the BBC as a continuity announcer and he was also drawn to personnel work.

“I had a job interview with Shell and was about to be offered a position. Sir Bob Reid, the (then) Head of Shell, who came from Cupar, was involved and he asked: ‘What would happen if you didn’t get this job? What would you do if the job offer from the BBC fell through?’

“And out of nowhere the words: ‘I could always go into the ministry’ came out.

“There was a stunned silence, not only from them, but from me.

“I went back up to Oxford.

“I had a maiden great aunt who had given me a copy of the Bible which I treasured. I sat down and read it that night from cover to cover. At the end of it, I was not quite sure what had happened.

I thought I would write to the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

“The letter was passed on to the then Education for the Ministry Committee. I got a letter back from them saying: ‘This may be a call. These are the things you need to do.’ I wasn’t a member of the Church at that point. I was still finishing my finals. I didn’t know what training I would need or where I would go.

“I turned down the jobs I had been offered, which was a brave thing. I stayed with friends in North Berwick. Donald McAlister invited me to move into the manse with him and his wife. I went to his communicants’ class. The day before I went to selection school, I joined the Church.

The overall theme of this year’s General Assembly is ‘Word of Life’ and, thinking about different significant words in the life of the church, for me, one of them is and has been hospitality and also welcome and how we do that. It is also about inclusion. Inclusion has been a significant part of my ministry.

“I don’t think anybody expected me to get through because I had no Church background. I worked with the Rev Douglas Nicol on the summer missions at North Berwick in those months.”

The Summer Missions offered great insights into working with children. “When you worked with children on the beach at North Berwick, if they got bored, they just walked away. That taught me an important lesson about how to engage with children.”

Selection school at St Colm’s College in Edinburgh followed and a week later, Derek found himself, perhaps unexpectedly, accepted for the parish ministry of the Church of Scotland.

He opted to study Church History at St Andrews to complete his divinity studies, where he studied under the tutelage of Professor James Cameron and became friends with the late Very Rev Professor James Whyte (who served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1988) and Professor Bill Shaw.

During his time at St Andrews he undertook practical training in Dundee at St Peter’s McCheyne, Tayport and at St Andrews: Hope Park under the guidance of the Rev Dr Bill Henney. He also had the benefit of the experience of another former Moderator the Very Rev Dr Hugh Douglas, who had served in Dundee. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Lothian in July 1986 and served as a probationer at Troon: St Medan’s before looking for his first charge in 1987.

“The congregation of Cupar Old and St Michael of Tarvit was looking for a minister. They were not looking for a probationer or a bachelor but it just clicked between us. There were some significant people there who were generous, understanding and talented.

“One lady, Margaret Anderson, a primary school teacher, was a huge support through my ministry until her death.” Derek remembers her wry advice in his first year when he was being a little too enthusiastic about change: “Remember, Derek, there were Christians in this Church before you came here!”

The Rev Dr Derek Browning

Sometimes you are a shepherd. Sometimes you are a commander. Sometimes you have to be decisive, but the catalyst that has always been important in life and ministry is to bring people together. We spend so much time in different silos when people would simply talk to each other. That is where hospitality and welcome comes in. “All are welcome.”

His 14 years in Cupar taught Derek the value of ‘taking people with you’ and explaining what you are trying to do.’ Recalling his first charge, he says: “It was a big church. There were lots of opportunities to do different things. They were good people and always up to try new things. We did some interesting projects there.”

One of the projects with the Cupar congregation involved a twinning with the First Presbyterian Church of Allentown, Pennsylvannia. Another involved founding The Lighthouse, an ecumenical bookshop, coffee shop and resource centre, and establishing the K2 project, which worked with local churches and Scripture Union with children in schools in the North East Fife.

It was during his time in Cupar that he decided to undertake doctoral studies at Princeton. He offered his doctoral thesis on leadership and management of change and entitled it, ‘It’s Aye Been’.

“It was principally about redefining the role of the Moderator (of the Presbytery), contrasting with what you can do as a Kirk Session Moderator. I’d just become the Moderator of the Presbytery of St Andrews and looked at what were legitimate leadership roles within a Presbyterian structure.

“I might just have a quick flick through it again!

“Sometimes you are a shepherd.

Sometimes you are a commander. Sometimes you have to be decisive, but the catalyst that has always been important in life and ministry is to bring people together. We spend so much time in different silos when people would simply talk to each other. That is where hospitality and welcome comes in.

“All are welcome.”

After his time in Cupar, he felt the need for a fresh challenge and was called to Morningside in 2001, where he has overseen major property changes, including the building of new halls. The parish is not without its own challenges as Derek explains: “Morningside has the highest per capita retirement population in Europe, but there is also a growing large number of families moving in, so you have both ends of the scale.

“In our hugely successful Baby and Toddler groups, we not only have mothers coming it, but we have got a lot of grandmothers, occasionally fathers, and nannies who come from different parts of the world. There is also a large student population.”

In bringing the generations together, Derek has increased the role of children in worship.

“Our children play an important part at the beginning of services. They lead a weekly prayer. They help with the offering. Offerings have gone up since they started to help! We also have an all age communion service every year. Our Sunday Club is maintaining its numbers and growing because children feel welcome.

“When children are collecting the offering, they come down the aisle to the communion table and some of them skip down the aisle carrying the offering bags. I see the congregation loving it too. There is connection and transformation there.”

His diary for his year in office is already filling up. There are presbytery visits to St Andrews (where he served as Presbytery Moderator in 1996), Glasgow, Dumfries and Kirkcudbright and Ross. Overseas visits to the Middle East and Sweden have also been pencilled in.

“During the year, I want to look at how refugees are treated. I’m hoping to visit refugee groups in the Middle East.”

An invitation to Wittenberg in Germany for Reformation Day and the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation is also in the diary.

His two chaplains for the year are the Rev John McMahon, chaplain to Broadmoor Hospital and Anne Mulligan DCS, the recently retired chaplain to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.

“Chaplains are on the cutting edge of ministry, again very often ministering to people you don’t see in churches. They are engaging with people who are not necessarily coming to church, but their needs are being met in the places where they are.”

The Moderatorial outfit has already been planned: “The congregation has purchased my gown, which is hugely significant as it means I will carry a little bit of Morningside with me through the year. I’m going to wear a traditional court coat with buttons.” He promises that lace will feature.

Turning back to the theme of hospitality, Derek is particularly proud that the Morningside congregation has had welcome and hospitality at the heart of its mission with a series of speaker supper events and high profile speakers including Jim Naughtie, Baroness Goldie, Archibshop Leo Cushley, Brigadier Paul Harkness (son of the Very Rev James Harkness who served as Moderator in 1995), the Lord Lyon, and Lord Hope, (a former Lord High Commissioner) each drawing around 80 people.

“It is about how we welcome people in to the church and make them feel comfortable and then we have a fighting chance of seeing them coming to services. We don’t start with worship. We start with the welcome.

“This is so important as within 30 seconds of people walking into the church building they will know whether they are welcome or not. If there is anything I can do to encourage people to take that seriously, then I will do it.”

Derek remains ‘counter-culturally confident’ about the Church’s future:

“As a colleague has said, the Church is not dying. It is reforming.”

This article appears in the May 2017 Issue of Life and Work

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