‘I don’t think God is done with us yet’

Lynne McNeil learns about the importance of mission to the Moderator-Designate, the Rev Iain Greenshields ahead of this month’s General Assembly.

“MISSION must be the absolute priority of the Church going forward.”

The Moderator-Designate to the 2022 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has a clear vision for the way ahead for the Church which he has served as a parish minister since 1984 with ministries deeply rooted in mission.

The Rev Iain Greenshields is minister at Dunfermline: St Margaret’s and feels privileged to have been elected to serve as the Church’s ambassador in 2022/23. “I think it is an honour to serve the Church in a different way – and an honour for St Margaret’s and the other churches I have been privileged to serve because they have been fundamental in shaping my life and ministry – along with God of course!”

Born in Glasgow, he was the elder son of Lewis-born Katie and John (known as Ian), who was born in Skye, but grew up in Lochgilphead in Argyll before moving to Glasgow and serving as a policeman. His brother Callum is five years his junior and he recalls they had a happy homelife, but not one where the Church played a key role.

“Our parents both came from Christian families and when I look back on it, it is very surprising they were not churchgoers.

“They were very moral and very supportive parents, and we are both deeply thankful for their love, guidance and support.

“I became a Christian in my early 20s. My mum and dad did return to church soon after.”

Yet the young Iain could be found in a church hall on a regular basis.

“I was in a church probably five days a week playing badminton. It was the Glasgow Churches Badminton League, but I never made the connection.”

He also has experience of living with epilepsy, which was diagnosed when he was aged just eight.

“It looked really grim until eventually a new medication brought the grand mal under control and the seizures ceased. I never put in a full week at school from aged eight to 17 but I managed to catch up somehow.”

He attended Stonedyke Primary School in Drumchapel and Victoria Drive Secondary School in Scotstoun and as a teenager, he had thought of becoming a social worker in the east end of Glasgow but was advised by his neurologist that it was ‘too much pressure and stress’ but also that he had not got enough life experience.

“It was good advice. He knew me well,” says Iain.

Leaving school at 17 Iain joined the Weir Group as a commercial apprentice and also studied for cost management accountancy, until a serious accident at the age of 22.

“I ended up in hospital for several months recovering from what were life-threatening injuries.

“I remember just lying in the ward and the words of hymns kept coming back to me – hymns from school assemblies, especially, There is a Green Hill Far Away.

“It started me thinking. When you almost die, you consider your mortality seriously.”

Initially, he did not know where to begin and tried Christian Science reading rooms, Buddhism and Catholicism until a neighbour called at his home.

“He came to me and said: ‘Would you like to go to church with me?’

“It was one of those moments where I thought and said: ‘I’d love to’.

“It was Gardner Street Church of Scotland in Partick, Glasgow. There was a deeply loved older minister there who had just died, and lay preachers were filling in. One I remember in particular was Raymond McEwan who was an outstanding preacher – he worked as a carpenter in the shipyards. I started really seriously thinking about what he was saying. I set about reading the New Testament.

“I came to the conclusion that either Jesus was deluded, or he was speaking the truth about himself and eventually became a Christian and in time, a member of the Church of Scotland.

“One thing that stood out about the Church that grabbed my imagination in particular, was that here was a church that was here for everybody.”

After fully recovering, Iain returned to work, but it became clear to him that his future lay elsewhere.

“I was in Lewis when I was about 24. I really did not know the direction my life was going to take. My mind was drawn back to the earlier conversation about social work in the east end of Glasgow.

“One thing that stood out about the Church that grabbed my imagination in particular, was that here was a church that was here for everybody.

I knew that what I was doing was not my future.

“I was on holiday in Lewis, in Ness and they had mid-week meetings. It was a kind of Bible Study, come prayer meeting that they had in this wee church in the machair. The minister was the Rev John Ferguson and he said: ‘Iain is with us today from Glasgow,’ which meant ‘come up and preach’. I’d been reading something from Ephesians, so I preached on that and he said afterwards: ‘You have got to take this further. There is a gift and a calling there.’

“Eventually I presented myself to the Church of Scotland selection school and I got through. If I hadn’t got in, I would have gone back to it again. It got clearer and clearer that this is what I had to do.”

Lewis, where his mother and grandparents were born, has played a pivotal role in his life, and it was here that he also met his wife, Linda.

“Linda’s little sister was dying, and she came to Lewis for a break with a friend. John Ferguson had asked just before I started university if I could do a pulpit supply and Linda was at Ness with her friend and that was how we met.

“Linda’s intention was to get a degree and teach in primary schools but eventually she chose instead to become a secondary school teacher, qualifying in English and RE and has taught, what is now called RMPS (Religious, Moral and Philisophical Studies) for 40 years.”

He took up studies at Glasgow University.

“I loved the privilege of being able to spend four years of my life studying. As a mature student it was not just about studying to pass exams.”

Several student placements during university, in particular in Tollcross followed. He then served as a probationer at Glasgow: Broomhill with the Rev Jim Aitchison.

Iain recalls: “He was the loveliest guy who taught me so so much. He invested a lot of time in conversation and guided me in so many ways. I remember him saying: ‘I’m going to teach you one important thing – how to do a funeral.’ After conducting 130 funerals in my first year in Cranhill I really valued that. “The people of Broomhill were great.” Licensed by the Presbytery of Glasgow, he was first called to Glasgow: Cranhill in a way which would be regarded as unconventional today.

“I was preaching in the evening service at Broomhill and Jim said to me: ‘There is a vacancy committee here. I have just talked to the them. Would you like to be interviewed by them? They are from Cranhill.’

“The secular culture in which we live is really not as secure as it imagines. We have just got to be more proactive. There is no reason to believe that because we are a smaller entity we have nothing left to say. I don’t think God is done with us yet.

“I had preached as a student in Cranhill. The minister’s wife had died so a number of us had spent time there. They knew who I was.

“I still remember how Linda and I were walking across to the car outside the church and a man called George Watson, approached and said: ‘Would you like to be our minister?’”

Both Iain and Linda agreed it was the right thing to do and moved to Cranhill for a nine-year ministry which saw him establish the Bellrock Trust (later the Cranhill Trust).

“It was a fabulous nine years. I am not going to minimise how difficult it was sometimes especially when there were over 1000 funerals during that time with a significant number of those under the age of 50.

“There was just some absolute gold dust among the people in Cranhill and they were honestly supportive of everything we were trying to do, particularly with young people.”

The couple’s two sons, Alistair and Ross arrived during this time, before a call came to a second nine-year ministry at Larkhall: St Machan’s where daughter Caitlin arrived

“It was interesting coming from a congregation of 130 on a Sunday to a church with nearly 1000 members and a Kirk Session of over 70 people.

“Again, we met a lot of fine people. We look back very fondly on our time there.” It was during this time that Iain was introduced to prison chaplaincy, beginning with the Young Offenders Institution at Longriggend before moving to the then new national detention centre at Shotts.

He developed ecumenical connections through this work and helped to run missions behind bars.

Iain also fondly remembers football matches involving chaplains and prisoners and prison staff. One of the chaplains recently phoned him to remind Iain that he was the only person ever “sent off” during the prison’s Saints and Sinners football matches.

After a busy nine years in Larkhall, Iain was called to Skye –a call sealed by a phone call from his mother, Katie.

“My cousin had spoken to the vacancy committee at Barvas in Lewis and said: ‘What about my cousin Iain?’

“Then out of the blue John Ferguson, the minister who had been at Ness, contacted me to say: ‘There is a congregation next to me in (Snizort) Skye, in vacancy now.’

“We went on the Friday to Lewis. Barvas wanted to call me on the Friday night. We said: ‘We can’t do that, we are going to Skye too.’

“There were many strong things pulling me to Barvas, but I preached in Skye. We came home completely puzzled. “Two churches wanted to call us. “We had done all of this without telling anyone about it.

“As we were thinking about it all, my mother phoned me on the following Monday morning. Dad had been dead about ten years at that time. She said that an incredible thing had happened last night. I am not sure if it was a vision or a dream but she said your dad was sitting in the chair in the bedroom talking during the night. Dawn came and he said: ‘I have got to go now Katie,’ and she had said you can’t leave, and he had said: ‘I have got to go to Skye to see Iain.’

“After hearing of that dream and speaking to Linda, we went to Skye!” “It was a very different kind of experience for five years.”

He served as a hospital chaplain, Moderator of the presbytery of Lochcarron and Skye and as presbytery finance convener during his time on the island. In 2005, the call came back to the mainland – and to Dunfermline in Fife, to the congregation of St Margaret’s.

“It has been a very happy experience for us –a church that has just been outstanding. They are good people, welcoming people and loyal people.”

He has served as clerk to the former presbytery of Dunfermline and also as a national assessor for ministry and also played a key part in bringing together three presbyteries to form the new presbytery of Fife.

The family has also doubled in size since 2004 as Iain and Linda adopted three girls from different parts of China, Eilidh, Siona and Susaidh and set up a charity Hope4China, which seeks to make a difference to the lives of girls in the Guangxi Province of China.

Iain is impressed with the growth he has witnessed in Christian churches in China. “I am energised by the relationship with China. We have got to know people we met when we adopted Eilidh. Our friends belong to a Christian house church in China and we have seen this church grow and grow year on year. There are no buildings – just almost out of nothing God has raised a church in China and what a church he has raised. We have witnessed a small part of this first hand.

“I think we measure the Church in the wrong way. We don’t measure in world terms but from what we see happening in the West – we see through the eyes of decline.

“What have we got to learn from those other churches?”

He is looking forward to the challenge of a year which will include presbytery visits to Glasgow and Clyde and overseas to South Korea and the Caribbean.

He said he will wear a kilt when circumstances are appropriate, and the symbols of office.

Iain firmly believes there is hope for the future, despite the challenges of today.

“The secular culture in which we live is really not as secure as it imagines.

“We have just got to be more proactive. There is no reason to believe that because we are a smaller entity we have nothing left to say. I don’t think God is done with us yet.”