‘We need to stay united’

Jackie Macadam meets Lord Hodge, Lord High Commissioner to the 2022 General Assembly who describes his faith and deep connection to the Church of Scotland.

“WHEN I was a boy, growing up in rural Perthshire, we used to go to Rattray Church in Blairgowrie. I was always fascinated by the stained-glass window there. We could see it clearly from our regular place in the balcony. It was a picture of the Prodigal Son returning home and being welcomed by his father.

“The quote, ‘and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,’ stuck with me throughout my childhood and into my adult life.”

Lord Patrick Hodge, the Lord High Commissioner to this year’s General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, has roots deep in the Church of Scotland.

“My father was a farmer and solicitor; we lived on a farm near Blairgowrie and going to Rattray Church was an important part of my childhood. At age eight, I went to Croftinloan prep school which had an overt Christian tradition, leaning towards the evangelical wing. Afterwards, I was sent to Trinity College, Glenalmond, (just Glenalmond College now) which was established in 1847 by William Gladstone the Prime Minister.”

Patrick, as you can tell, has always had a keen interest in history.

“Glenalmond was an Episcopalian school but was ecumenical in nature and the local Church of Scotland minister would preach there as well as other celebrants.

“After school I went to Cambridge to study History. I was at Corpus Christi College, which was a lovely small college. It had an accomplished chapel choir, not like the King’s College choir, but nonetheless a good one. I left it to the choir to sing well.

I had enjoyed singing when I was young – indeed had been in the school choir as a youngster, but when my voice broke, my singing voice never came back. When my children were growing up they pleaded that I NOT sing when I was around them!”

Though history was an early love, Patrick came back to Scotland after university and went to work for three years at the Scottish Office in Edinburgh, where he worked on industrial strategy, new towns policy, fisheries and devolution. It was while working in Edinburgh, he developed an interest in the law and he decided to return to university to study law.

It was strange to return to study after working in the civil service, but it was an enjoyable experience which he funded by working as an assistant warden in halls of residence at Edinburgh University and by working as a bell-hop in a hotel in Germany in the summer holidays.

It was while he was an apprentice solicitor at the law firm Brodies that he met his wife, Penny.

“Interestingly enough, during this time, Tom Murray, who would go on to become the Queen’s Purse-bearer at the General Assembly, was one of my friends. He invited me to tea at his flat in June 1981.

One of his flatmates was this wonderful creature called Penny. I decided, almost immediately, that I would like to get to know her, and we married 18 months later.”

The couple have three grown up children: George, who works for the United Nations, Catriona, who is a barrister in England, and William, who is employed by Johnson & Johnson in marketing medical devices. They also have a growing number of grandchildren.

After working for two years as a solicitor, he then went to the Scottish Bar – became an advocate – and worked there for the next 22 years. He enjoyed his work as an advocate, and in particular the adrenalin rush of presenting cases in court. His practice covered a wide range of civil work, involving commercial cases and public law cases, including a defence of the first Act of the Scottish Parliament and defending the Inland Revenue against legal challenges by Mohammed Al-Fayed.

Patrick, while working in London, now lives in Yorkshire, which is the county of origin of his wife, who has retired from dental practice. Notwithstanding his move south, he retains his connection with the church here.

“My church, when I’m here in Edinburgh, is Greyfriars Kirk. I get there only rarely now. But they are doing the most wonderful work there. They have created a real community church and their outreach programmes are incredible. I retain a connection with their charity, the Greyfriars Foundation.

“I really have the highest regard for Richard Frazer, the minister there.”

Patrick’s career as an advocate led to him becoming a judge in the Court of Session, and he served in that capacity for eight years before being appointed to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in 2013. It’s a job he really enjoys.

“I’ve always been conscious of the need to try to conduct my professional life in a moral way in order to maintain one’s moral integrity.

“It’s a challenging job,” he says. “As the court of final appeal it gives us an opportunity, as judges, to look at the points of law of general public importance; to clarify the law and to move the law on so that it can best reflect changes in people’s social values.

“One example is with patient consent. Whereas once a doctor would administer treatments to a patient with a generalised consent at the start of the treatment, now, with a much higher interest in personal autonomy, and the right to know what is being done to you, doctors are required to explain the procedure or treatment and more actively seek your understanding and consent for what is being offered.”

Patrick was also involved in the judgment which overturned the prorogation of the UK Parliament in 2019.

It was a decision which stirred up much controversy at a time of divisive political debates and still rankles in some quarters.

But Patrick defends it as a principled decision based on established legal reasoning which properly upheld the rule of law and the supremacy of Parliament.

Patrick agrees that his faith has had an impact on his career and the decisions he has made.

“I would say it’s probably influenced it very profoundly,” he says.

“I’ve always been conscious of the need to try to conduct my professional life in a moral way in order to maintain one’s moral integrity. I’ve always felt that it is very important that people can trust what I say.

“I’ve also found it vital to know, and maintain, clear professional boundaries in law. I credit prep school with much of that,” he laughs. “Prep school knocked in to us the obligation to behave in an honest and responsible way. In many ways it has helped in my judicial career too with the emphasis of trying to get to the truth; to analyse the evidence to get as close as we can to the real truth.”

Every big and successful human organisation is made up of people with different views – we need to accommodate those views while maintaining the integrity of the institution as a whole.

His involvement in the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland also goes back a long way.

For several years, between 2000 and 2005, he was one of the legal advisors to the church and, as Procurator to the General Assembly, attended and provided legal advice when needed at the assemblies.

“That was an interesting experience,” he says.

So it was not entirely a surprise when he got a call asking him to help the church again.

“In 2009 I got a call from Laura Dunlop, who had succeeded me as Procurator, asking if she could come to see me. Laura arrived with Dr Russell Barr, the Convenor of the Appointments Committee, and rather dropped a bombshell that they were looking for a judge to be the convenor of the Special Commission to examine same-sex relationships and the ministry.

“Several people advised me not to take the position as they considered it a very hot potato. I took the role anyway. It turned in to one of the most interesting things I’ve ever done.

“I found myself the Head of a very evenly split Commission, full of people with very honestly held but very different beliefs on the issue who had come together to try find a way to encourage the church to live with the diversity of views we encompassed.

“Early on the commission decided to ask the church to instruct a scientific literature review in order to learn what was known of the causes of sexual orientation, and the church agreed to my request.

“The outcome of that scientific review gave us a strong pointer that sexual orientation is a given for many people and not an assumed lifestyle choice. Because of this, it turned out later that many in the church felt that homosexual people should be welcomed by, and not excluded from, the church.

“Before the Church got there, we carried out a further consultation exercise among the presbyteries – we asked all of them for their views – and they came back with almost a 50/50 split.

“For a while it looked like there might be a real schism in the church.

“I took it upon myself to write the report myself, though in full consultation with all the members of the Commission. I would have to say, at this point, they were excellent people to work with.

“We met with many people during the work of the Commission. People spoke about their pain; the difficulties they had with their decisions. All of us on the Commission could see the humanity behind the stories we were hearing.

It was a very moving experience.

“I learned so much over the two years.

The job I took on wasn’t so much a legal job but it did call for legal and procedural knowledge. The key was to find and build on common ground between the two sides of the debate that would allow people with strong views to coexist within the same organisation.

“I really wanted the emphasis to be on what we have in common, not on the things that separate us. For this great institution to have a voice in today’s society, we need to stay united and accommodate a range of views on matters that are not credal.

“We recommended that if the church chose to move in a liberal direction there should be a two-year period of further reflection so that both sides of the debate would have time to adjust and consider other people’s views before making any final decisions.

“The debate at the Assembly was very full. It lasted all day. There were some harsh words spoken. But the church reached a decision and moved on. To me, the key thing for the special commission had been to show due process and present everyone’s views fairly to the General Assembly so that it could make its decision in an informed way. It was not my task as convenor to advocate for a particular outcome.

“Every big and successful human organisation is made up of people with different views – we need to accommodate those views while maintaining the integrity of the institution as a whole.

“I thought the church handled it well.

I was worried that there was a danger that the Church might become irrelevant to – cut itself off entirely from – younger people who can’t see the grounds for the difficulties. It was a time of real danger for the church on the whole.

“It was handled with grace and compassion by all of those involved in the special commission and, to this day, remains the most interesting thing I have been involved in.”

I asked how he is feeling about being the Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly this year.

“I’m looking forward to it,” he says, “Though I understand it’s going to be full-on.

“One of my friends wanted to meet up for a meal one evening but, when he heard I was to be Lord High Commissioner, he laughed and said he’d take a rain check as I would be exhausted!

“I’m told the days will be full of attendances at the Assembly followed by visits to various charities and organisations and the evenings will be full of entertaining lots of people. But I do have the privilege of staying at Holyrood Palace for the week, so that’s something to look forward to.”

“Several people advised me not to take the position as they considered it a very hot potato. I took the role anyway. It turned in to one of the most interesting things I’ve ever done.