Cornerstone No. 189, page 8
The minister of Dornoch Cathedral, the Rev Susan Brown, has been announced as the Moderator-Designate of the 2018 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Mrs Brown said she was‘ deeply moved and honoured’ to be chosen for the role. She said:“ This is probably the highlight of any minister’ s lifetime’ s work. It’ s an enormous responsibility, an enormous pleasure and it’ s incredibly humbling to think that others should think me worthy of chairing such a prestigious gathering.“ Being Moderator will not be about what I can do, but about what God wants to do. I am conscious that it is both a great privilege and a great responsibility – one I can only undertake at God’ s prompting.” Mrs Brown grew up in Penicuik, Midlothian, where her father was a miner. While the family was‘ not especially religious’, Susan and her sisters attended Sunday School at Penicuik North Kirk. She was 15 when she sensed a call to the ministry, and went on to study Divinity at New College in Edinburgh. Her first charge was at Killearnan on the Black Isle, where she spent 13 years before moving to Dornoch Cathedral – following former Moderator the Very Rev Dr James Simpson. She was in the headlines in 2000 when she performed the marriage of pop star Madonna to Guy Ritchie, and baptised their son Rocco. She also gained international media attention last year when she wrote a spiritual reflection for each of the 18 holes of the Royal Dornoch golf course.“ Dornoch is a beautiful place to be and Dornoch people have a warmth and hospitality,” she says.“ When you’ re in the far north you are much more likely to be at the heart of everything and that’ s very important to me. In the Highlands you will find the church at the heart of the community and the community in the heart of the church.” After 32 years as a parish minister, she says she still feels pride in the role:“ I am one of those strange creatures who went straight into ministry from school, and I have thoroughly enjoyed every experience I have had It’ s a great privilege and also a great responsibility. You see people at their most vulnerable and their most ecstatic.” Mrs Brown was the first woman to serve in both Ross and Sutherland Presbyteries and the first woman to be moderator of both.