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Reformation. As part of a thesis on the life of Knox, he made an appointment with the then minister of St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh, the Very Rev Dr Gilleasbuig Macmillan.“ Gilleasbuig was incredibly gracious with all the questions I had, but at the end, he said:‘ For the last hour we have maybe spent two minutes talking about John Knox. The rest has been spent talking about church and ministry. Have you reflected on that?’” Having completed his degree, job offers came from the BBC as a continuity announcer and he was also drawn to personnel work.“ I had a job interview with Shell and was about to be offered a position. Sir Bob Reid, the( then) Head of Shell, who came from Cupar, was involved and he asked:‘ What would happen if you didn’ t get this job? What would you do if the job offer from the BBC fell through?’ And out of nowhere the words:‘ I could always go into the ministry’ came out.“ There was a stunned silence, not only from them, but from me.“ I had a maiden great aunt who had given me a copy of the Bible which I treasured. I sat down and read it that night from cover to cover. At the end of it, I was not quite sure what had happened. I thought I would write to the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. I got a letter back from the then Education for the Ministry Committee saying:‘ This may be a call. These are the things you need to do.’ I wasn’ t a member of the Church at that point. I was still finishing my finals. I didn’ t know what training I would need or where I would go.“ I turned down the jobs I had been offered, which was a brave thing. I stayed with friends in North Berwick. Donald McAlister invited me to move into the manse with him and his wife. I went to his communicants’ class. The day before I went to selection school, I joined the Church.” He opted to complete his divinity studies at St Andrews, undertaking practical training in Dundee at St Peter’ s McCheyne, Tayport and at St Andrews: Hope Park. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Lothian in July 1986 and served as a probationer at Troon: St Medan’ s before looking for his first charge in 1987.“ The congregation of Cupar Old and St Michael of Tarvit was looking for a minister. They were not looking for a probationer or a bachelor but it just clicked between us. There were some significant people there who were generous, understanding and talented.“ It was a big church. There were lots of opportunities to do different things. They were good people and always up to try new things. We did some interesting projects there.” It was during his time in Cupar that he decided to undertake doctoral studies at Princeton, USA. He offered his doctoral thesis on leadership and management of change and entitled it‘ It’ s Aye Been’.“ It was principally about redefining the role of the Moderator( of Presbytery). I’ d just become the Moderator of the Presbytery of St Andrews and looked at what were legitimate leadership roles