This past Tuesday the Church of Scotland announced that its selection committee has chosen the Rev. Colin Sinclair as their Moderator Designate for the 2019 General Assembly.

Colin Sinclair, Moderator Designate, 2019 Church of Scotland GA (Photo: Church of Scotland)

Mr. Sinclair is the pastor of Palmerston Place Church, just west of the Old Town section of Edinburgh. He was ordained as an Assistant at that parish and moved on to be the solo pastor at Newton on Ayr. He returned to Palmerston in 1996 and has been on the staff there ever since.

He grew up in Glasgow and as a student at Glasgow Academy he first became associated with Scotland Scripture Union. As he tells it, he first attended a film to promote one of their camps as an escape route to avoid a reprimand in the school hallway. The film resonated with him and he attended the camp that year and again the following year. As he says in the Kirk announcement, “I went back to camp the next year and decided then to follow Jesus Christ. So started an exciting adventure of faith that has lasted over 50 years.”

After completing his Honors Economic degree at Stirling University he spent three years as a Scripture Union training officer in Zambia, travelling around the country living out of his car. He says of that time:

“Those three years changed my life. Being away from everything familiar I was able to sort out which parts of my faith were mine, and which were not. I encountered people from many different countries and with many different beliefs. I met all the Church of Scotland missionaries there and everyone was very supportive. I learned to trust God.”

His association with Scripture Union has continued since that time. He served as a General Director in Glasgow, and he recently concluded several years of service as the International Chair of Scripture Union. Scripture Union Global has a nice video where he recounts his time with the organization and how it has influenced him.

Besides his significant involvement with Scripture Union, he has served at both local and national levels of the Church of Scotland, most recently as Convener of the Mission and Discipleship Council.

In the Kirk announcement, he speaks of his experience as a minister. In the concluding quote he says:

“I think that has become my philosophy over the years. What’s lovely is seeing young people who started off as SU campers become leaders themselves. I have loved seeing folk grow up, whether it is to become elders in the Church or to go into vocational ministry or to take their Christian faith into different avenues of public service.”

Not surprisingly, his theme for his moderatorial year will be Discipleship.

If you are interested in hearing more from him you can check out the Plamerston Church sermon page, as well as an oral history recorded by the University of Stirling.

Mr. Sinclair’s wife, Ruth Murray, is a medical social worker.  They have four children – all of whom are involved in Christian ministry – and three grandchildren.

And finally, his nomination continues a recent trend of Moderators having a brush with celebrity. While the current Moderator officiated a celebrity wedding, Mr. Sinclair appears (as an extra) in the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. As that article says, “He spent the day running up and down a hill at Doune Castle in ­Perthshire with hundreds of other extras dressed as soldiers – only to be “attacked” by police in the film’s final scene.”

There is significant press coverage of the announcement: Besides the Church of Scotland official announcement and the official Life and Work article, other online media includes the Edinburgh Evening News, the BBC, Premier, and some local outlets like the Oxford Mail.

Our congratulations to Mr. Sinclair and our best wishes as he prepares for his moderatorial year. We look forward to his service as Moderator during General Assembly week and our prayers are with him. And I leave you with his thought which has been picked up by all the media stories I have read and seems to sum up his philosophy of ministry well…

“Our message is still Good News and it still changes lives.”