MODERATOR-DESIGNATE ANNOUNCED

A Lanarkshire parish minister has been announced as the Moderator-Designate of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland for 2024-25.

The Rev Dr Shaw James Paterson, minister of Strathaven Trinity Parish Church, will take up the role at next year’s General Assembly.

Minister at Strathaven Trinity Parish Church in Lanarkshire since 1991, Dr Paterson was expected to become a bricklayer like other family members before him, but took a different path and went on to complete four degrees at Glasgow University, including a doctorate.

The father of three, who is originally from Holytown, was told by teachers that there was no point continuing his studies, but was encouraged to do so at home.

“My father recognised something in me and I got in to study biology at Glasgow University,” he explains. “He pushed me in a gentle and encouraging way.

“That moment when they shout Moderator – it will be for my Dad.”

Straight after finishing his undergraduate degree, Dr Paterson married Christine at the University of Glasgow Memorial Chapel. She is now a senior member of the community nursing team.

Immediately thereafter he began a degree in divinity.

“They talk about a calling – it was this sense that God was chipping away and chipping away. I did not want to be a minister and I felt a bit like Jonah – I thought go away, I want to do my career in science.

“Eventually I had a torturous night and I thought of Isaiah 6: ‘whom shall I send… send me’.

“I basically woke up and said ‘OK God you win, send me I’ll do it’. Having made the decision, I then knew it was the right one.” Reflecting on more than 30 years in a parish, including 10 years also working as a Presbytery Clerk, he says: “I have sought to be a faithful and loyal parish minister, which has been a tremendous privilege and honour.”

Dr Paterson believes listening to people is at the heart of supporting people who are going through a difficult time for any reason.

He plans to spend next year ‘listening to as many people as possible’. Acknowledging that ‘there is a lot of upset’ currently across the Church of Scotland, Dr Paterson says: “As a Church we have strong foundations and it might not be my building or your building that’s kept, but our foundations are in Christ.

“We’re a Church together and we need to go forward together to build on the foundations of all our forebears.”