Something to cherish

Corrie Douglas-Young describes a journey of faith that has led him to work for the Church of Scotland and join the Catholic Church

AS spring turned to summer, I marked one year since joining the Kirk as a communications officer and three since entering the Catholic Church as a convert.

I didn’t intend originally to do either: I trained as a journalist and I was raised in a secular household. The Good Lord, however, had other plans.

I come from the Scottish Borders, where the Kirk remains comfortably in the identity of the people that live there.

Like many teenagers, I had little interest in anything pertaining to God. I was fortunate then that my first personal experiences with Christianity came from good ministers.

I remember in high school the Rev Michael Scouler encouraging questions I had about the Faith. For the first time in my young adult life, Christianity went from an abstract idea to a devout example in front of me. In those often-short interactions a seed was planted that I am eternally grateful blossomed.

As I made the journey from school to university my temperament towards religion changed. I started to realise that what was missing within and around me didn’t lie in this world.

Journalism is a wide subject and I probably spent as much time studying the religions of the world as I did reporting.

In 2021, after years of focusing my enquiry, I was baptised and confirmed into the Catholic Church by Father Patrick Burke. Many things led me there, but I can’t help but credit much of it to the devout personal example set by Fr Patrick, not unlike that set by Michael.

“ Journalism is a wide subject and I probably spent as much time studying the religions of the world as I did reporting.

The pandemic came and ended Scotland’s longest running Catholic newspaper – the Scottish Catholic Observer.

By chance, I met one of its former editors, and I joined as a junior reporter to launch a new magazine, The Scottish Catholic.

We ran for a good year and a half, but it’s a tough industry.

In that time, I reported on the St Margaret Declaration of friendship between the Catholic Church and the Church of Scotland. My editor, Ian Dunn, wrote an article for Life and Work on the historic achievement.

Journalists often make the switch to communications, becoming a sort of inverse of a reporter. I applied for a lot of jobs, but I prayed the hardest for this one at 121.

Coming from a part of the world which owes so much to Presbyterianism – from Robert Burns to Walter Scott – I had the feeling that this job was an opportunity to learn more about my heritage. But I’ve gotten more than just that.

From the General Assembly, to the staff in the offices, to the Church members I speak to as part of my job, I’ve come face-toface again and again with those Christian examples that draw people to Christ Himself.

And I think that’s something to cherish. ¤