’Discipleship is not dull’

“TO respond to Jesus’ call ‘Follow me ‘is to begin an adventure of faith. Discipleship is not dull.”

The Rev Colin Sinclair, Moderator- Designate to the 2019 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is passionate about faith. He adds: “Since the time I became a Christian at 12 years old I have had adventures all over the world. It has been a great experience, though not without pain. I have enjoyed it all.” The theme “Jesus said ‘Follow me’” has been suggested to the Moderator- Designate for his year in office, which begins later this month.

The theme resonates with the father-offour, who is minister at one of Edinburgh’s most beautiful city centre churches, Palmerston Place, and the words ‘follow me’ neatly follow his faith journey, which led him at an early age to Scripture Union, Africa and parish ministry.

Born in the south side of Glasgow in 1953, he grew up in the city, attending Glasgow Academy from the age of seven. The family moved to Bearsden when his father, Alexander, a former district commissioner in West Africa, was offered a post lecturing at a management business school.

Whilst his family was not deeply religious – although attended Church – Colin clearly remembers the moment when he became a Christian.

“I became a Christian when I was at school, through Scripture Union which has been very significant in my life for over 50 years. I was trying to leave school early by going down the up stair, which was the worst crime you could commit and a prefect saw me and shouted ‘Stop!’ I belted to the top of the school as I thought he was after me. I ran into the art room and there was an after school club showing a film of a Scripture Union holiday.

“I found myself enjoying the film. I thought: ‘That sounds great fun.’ There was a religious bit which I thought I could put up with. “I went back home and asked my parents if I could go. My dad had been very influenced by the BB. He liked the idea of his son doing the same sort of thing. My first camp was 1964 at Dunbar. I then went to Kincraig near Aviemore. In all the camps I loved the activities, the atmosphere and, to my surprise, really enjoyed the meetings.

“The singing was lively and contemporary and the prayers were short and clear. “I remember the first time I was told the story of the Cross. I was deeply moved. “I began to realise that one of the reasons I enjoyed camp was because all the leaders cared for the campers and that came from their Christian faith.”

One of the younger leaders was the theologian Professor Tom Wright from St Andrews University.

“At the third camp I quietly and simply gave my life to Christ (though at first I was a Christian at camp but not much beyond that!)

“Between camps I tended to drift. “I played rugby a lot at school. I went to a lively Crusader Class in Bearsden. I did go to the BB a little too.”

Colin had taken O-Grades, Highers and A-levels by the time he was 16 and decided to study economics at Stirling University, where he was president of the Christian Union and played for the first XV at rugby. Sir Bill Gammell, founder of Nairn Energy and a Scottish internationalist was a contemporary.

Colin explains: “It was during my time at Stirling University that my call to the ministry came.

“I was Christian Union President and 18 years old. We were asked by local churches to do Holy Week services in some of the small places around Stirling, singing, giving our testimony and a talk.

“At one or two places they would say: ‘Hey son, have you ever thought about being a minister?’ If I was pushed I would say that I didn’t think I wanted to be a minister because they drank tea and spent their time with old ladies and I didn’t drink tea and wasn’t overly fond of old ladies!” “However, the call wouldn’t go away and the following year, about 1972/73 I was running a Christian Union house party and my minister, George Philip, was there as a speaker. I remember walking through Macrosty Park in Crieff with him, saying: ‘I wonder if God is calling me to be a minister.’ He replied: ‘Come back in a year and I will tell you’. A year later, I went back to him. He said: ‘I don’t need to tell you now; you know.’

The journey led him (successfully) to selection school in 1974 and he was chosen for ministry training, but the links with Scripture Union were maintained.

People can feel very isolated or exhausted. I would hope that Ruth and I can encourage them. I believe in God and I believe in transformation. I believe passionately in the Gospel.

“All through university I spent time helping with Scripture Union. I led at three camps back to back for six weeks every summer.” He also famously appeared as an extra in the film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”, which was filmed at Doune Castle, near Stirling.

Having completed his degree, Colin was looking to travel overseas before settling into ministry studies.

“I wanted to go abroad. Nothing seemed to open up and then Scripture Union England and Wales contacted me and said: ‘We hear you are looking to go overseas. Would you consider coming to Zambia for two years to allow two Zambian students to study in England?

“I went out initially for two years and stayed for three.”

Ahead of taking up his post – which involved travelling around Zambia, the Church’s Overseas Council wrote to those from the Church of Scotland who were working in Zambia to welcome Colin, as he was a candidate for the ministry of the Church of Scotland.

“Their welcome was real. They were also very positive about how they were looked after by the Church of Scotland. I was proud of that. Those three years changed my life. “I didn’t have a home. I spent most of the time travelling. I spoke every day at schools, preached at weekends and ran camps. I remember being sent off shortly after my 21st birthday on my first tour. I was told: ‘We don’t know if all these roads exist, but if you do everything we think you can do, you will be back on November 6.’ They just sent me off. I did arrive back on November 6 and my boss’s wife said later you have no idea how he sweated!

In the last 10 years we have started to see people from the congregation going into ministry. Three of my children have gone into vocational ministry. Others have gone into youth work, some have gone abroad.

“What was lovely about those days was that it gave me a chance to see what of my faith was mine and what was patched on by other people.

“It also gave me a chance to meet the world church.”

After Zambia, Colin studied at New College where his contemporaries included the Rev Professor David Fergusson and Will Storrar. The Rt Rev Susan Brown, who will hand over the mantle of Moderator to Colin was also within the faculty, studying for her degree.

Colin and David were part of the successful New College rugby team which won that year’s inter-faculty tournament in 1978. It was during his time in Edinburgh that he re-encountered his wife Ruth and they became a couple.

“I first met Ruth at Stirling. Her father was one of the university doctors. Ruth had grown up in Africa.

“David Murray, my father-in-law, used to go to the university chaplaincy. I had meals with the Murrays and they had three daughters and one son. One of the daughters would become my wife. “I met her again during my first week in New College. “We married in 1981 at Methven Parish Church (in Perthshire) 38 years ago.”

The couple have four children – Jo, who is the youth and children’s ministry co-ordinator at Holy Trinity Church in Wester Hailes; Tim, is minister at Partick Trinity Church; Rachel is the International Project worker for asylum seekers and refugees with Glasgow City Mission and Bethany, who has worked for a year in the Congo, will shortly graduate as a midwife. The couple have three grandchildren and a fourth was expected in March. “Everything that is good about them comes from my wife and God,” says Colin.

After New College, Colin completed probation at Palmerston Place (where he would later minister) with the Rev John Cumming. During the time he was asked to do a series teaching the whole bible to the congregation and his work at this time was updated and later published by Lion Books as A Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Bible. Through their respective African connections, Colin and Ruth knew the Rev Ian Paterson, who had ministered in Kenya and had been called to Linlithgow: St Michael’s. A vacancy had fallen at Newton-on-Ayr and Ian suggested that Colin might be interested in the parish.

“My predecessor, the Rev Bill Whalley, had been there for 37 years before me. It was a strong town centre congregation. That’s where I learned what ministry was all about.

“I used those years to learn all that it meant to be a minister in the varied and fascinating nature of the work.”

After more than six years in the Ayrshire parish, Scripture Union Scotland came to him. “Scripture Union came and said our General Director is retiring, would I consider applying to be the General Director and I said no.

“They came back a year later and said: ‘We think God is calling you to be our General Director’ and so I went.” Colin, Ruth and their growing family moved to Glasgow and worshipped at Stonelaw Parish Church. It was during this time that he would discover Spring Harvest. “Spring Harvest was coming to Scotland and I was sent to spy it out. I ended up chairing Spring Harvest and a speaker for 30 years. I enjoyed the way that from a biblical base every area of life could be explored as a Christian.”

Colin recalls with fondness the many opportunities he had during this time, including work with Mission Scotland and its school of evangelism and attendance at the Lausanne Conference in Manila but emphasises the connection with the Church of Scotland remained important. Against this backdrop, Colin and Ruth also continued to run Scripture Union camps every year for teenagers for over 25 years, bringing the family along too.

In 1996 he received a call from Palmerston Place, which had fallen into vacancy as Colin’s predecessor, the Rev (now Very Rev Dr) John Chalmers, had been appointed Depute Secretary to the Church’s former Board of Ministry.

“I said: ‘That was very kind but no thank you. However, I will pray about it.’ I did and knew it was time to come back (to parish ministry). I have now been here 23 years. It was a great decision.”

During his time at Palmerston Place, Colin has taken up a number of appointments within presbytery and the central Church, most notably serving as Convener of the Presbytery Superintendence Committee, Convener of the Church’s Nomination Committee and most recently from 2012 to 2016 as Convener of the Mission and Discipleship Council. He also served as chair of Spring Harvest during this time and in 2004, out of the blue, was elected International Chair of Scripture Union, a position he held for 14 years.

“That (Scripture Union appointment) was wonderful and took me all over the world. Latterly Ruth was able to travel with me too. It was as if God had given me back Scripture Union.”

There have been a number of developments and changes at Palmerston Place during Colin’s ministry but he speaks with special joy about the church’s most recent track record on presenting candidates for parish ministry. “We have always had students coming for training.

“In the last 10 years we have started to see people from the congregation going into ministry. Three of my children have gone into vocational ministry. Others have gone into youth work, some have gone abroad. “We have four from the congregation currently in training for the ministry of word and sacrament.

“It has been really exciting over the last decade. We’ve started a regular church weekend away.

“Ruth and I have student and young adult lunches every month at the manse and get 20 to 35 for that. “We’ve had a dementia café for the last couple of years.” (On the day of the interview the sanctuary is set up for the dementia café) He speaks warmly of his Session Clerks and of his assistants who ‘set him free’ to follow where he is called to help.

The Rev Bill Taylor, recently retired Senior Prison Chaplain, will act as Interim Moderator at Palmerston Place during Colin’s moderatorial year, ably assisted by ministerial assistants, candidates from the congregation and retired ministers including the Rev Douglas Nicol, the Very Rev Albert Bogle and the Rev Willie John Macdonald.

He speaks warmly and proudly of the Palmerston Place congregation – and his predecessors “We have never had cliques or divisions. The four ministers before me were totally different from me. I have heard all four of them preach in Palmerston Place. Each brought different gifts but none tried to undo the work of their predecessors. There is a nice Catholicity about it all.”

Looking at the year ahead, presbytery visits to Caithness, Inverness, Dundee and Lanark are already in the diary. Overseas visits to Ghana and Zambia have also been pencilled in.

He also promises to maintain the Moderatorial tradition of lace. “I am going to wear a kilt with the Sinclair tartan which will have some lace.”

His chaplains for the year will be his son, Tim, with the Rev Andrew Anderson, who was minister at Edinburgh: Greenbank and is chaplain at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies.

Looking ahead to the year, Colin hopes to offer encouragement and confidence to the Church and wider world. “People can feel very isolated or exhausted. I would hope that Ruth and I can encourage them.

“I believe in God and I believe in transformation. I believe passionately in the Gospel.

“I have tried to follow Christ for all these years and he has never let me down although I have often let him down. If I can help to encourage people, if I can give them confidence in the Gospel, I will be content.”