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'God is Already Out There'

'God is Already Out There'

Friday May 17 2024

Lynne McNeil meets the Moderator-Designate to the 2024 General Assembly, the Rev Dr Shaw Paterson.


If the Moderator-Designate to this month’s General Assembly was a stick of seaside rock, the lettering inside would spell out ‘parish minister’ such is the commitment to his congregation and community.

But whilst the Rev Dr Shaw Paterson loves ministry, his passion is clearly for people and he is no stranger to rolling up his sleeves and getting stuck in with the practicalities of church life – on one occasion digging an eight-foot deep hole with his eldest son to resolve a plumbing issue at the church hall.

“I like it when people can see me with my jacket off and a pair of overalls on. I just get out there and get on with it.”

He is still stunned to have been nominated for the role: “I still can’t believe this is happening to me.”

But as our conversation continues, it is abundantly clear that he possesses the many gifts needed for the Moderatorial chair at this time – including an understanding of the pain of loss experienced by many and the challenges of linkages and union. He has served as a part-time presbytery clerk in the former Presbytery of Hamilton and as co-Moderator of the new Forth Valley and Clydesdale Presbytery.

As minister at Strathaven: Trinity for more than 30 years, he is a familiar figure in the South Lanarkshire town, which now has its first Moderator-Designate to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

In the days that followed the formal announcement of his nomination, he wasstopped countless times and congratulated on his nomination.

He becomes emotional when talking of leaving his flock to take up the mantle of Church of Scotland ambassador for the year: “I struggle with the concept of leaving my folk, but as my Session Clerk has said to me: ‘you are coming back’.”

Born in September 1964 and brought up in Holytown, North Lanarkshire, Shaw was the youngest of three boys born to his parents Jim and Anne.

Church was a regular part of life – a forebear, a master stonemason, constructed the church in Holytown – where his father was a an elder and leader with the Boys’ Brigade.

He was not encouraged to consider university during his schooldays, despite a passion for science, and he was expected to become a bricklayer. However, with gentle encouragement from his father, he became a science student at Glasgow University, where he graduated with the first of four degrees with a focus on plant physiology. He supported himself through university by taking on various jobs – including as a tiler, developing DIY skills which he plans to deploy during his moderatorial year.

All through this time he was a regular worshipper with the Church of Scotland and tussled with an unrecognised call to ministry.

 “I just had this niggle that would not go away. It wasn’t that I was not part of the Church. I was faithful. I was diligent. It was one night after I had a sleepless night and the words of Isaiah 6 came to me: ‘Whom shall I send… send me,’ and I gave in and said: ‘Okay, I give in. I can’t resist this anymore’.

The toughest part, he said, was telling his now wife, Christine. The couple, who have been together since they were 14, were due to marry.

“I remember meeting her at her door and asking if I could talk to her. I said: ‘I have something to tell you’ and said I wanted to be a minister. She said: ‘I wondered when you were going to tell me. I have known for a while.’

“I knew everything was okay then. We got married in September 1987 and two weeks later I started university again, this time for divinity with a three-year full-time course.”

He graduated in 1990 after student placements in Motherwell: Dalziel and Hamilton: Gilmour and Whitehill and East Kilbride West. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Hamilton and completed his probationary year at Hamilton Old under the watchful eye of the late Very Rev Dr Hugh Wyllie, his mentor and who was himself called as Moderator to the General Assembly just after Shaw completed his probation. The two remained close friends until Dr Wyllie’s death late last year.

Shortly after his probation concluded, he was called to Strathaven: Rankin linked with Chapelton in 1991, where he has served ever since with a ministry encompassing a four-way union in 2018 to form Strathaven Trinity with three places of worship.

He has also been unafraid to innovate, setting up a lunchtime space for secondary schoolchildren in the church hall, offering a warm space, hot chocolate and toasties.

He also set up Strathaven Memory Group for those living with memory issues and their carers after recognising a need in the local community for support. He is also involved with youth musical theatre and is a lay advisor with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Glasgow.

He is also passionate about the work of foodbanks, an area where his congregation have engaged and hopes to raise their profile of during his Moderatorial year.

He also hopes to offer encouragement to the people of the Church of Scotland during his year in office.

“I hope we can build together. It is not building back, it is about building on the foundations that Christ laid and we need to remember that.

“We need to be doing this together and seeing the greatness of God.”


A longer version of this interview appears in May's Life and Work. Buy in digital or print here.

General Assembly 2024: Full Coverage


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