Rev heeds Hebridean calling
A former Larkhall minister has been appointed to lead two Church of Scotland congregations in the Outer Hebrides that have been vacant for eight and five years.
Rev Dr Lindsay Schluter was inducted as minister for Barra and South Uist congregations on Thursday, August 18.
The 52-year-old previously spent 21 years at Trinity Church in Larkhall.
The charge of Barra became vacant on the demission of the Rev Eleanor D Muir on March 11, 2008, while South Uist has been without a minister since May 31, 2011, when Rev Jacqueline G Petrie left. Dr Schluter, who has moved into the Manse at Cuithir on Barra with her 12-yearold black Labrador Calag, said that she was very much looking forward to her new role.
She paid a warm tribute to local people for their Herculean efforts to keep the two congregations going in the absence of a minister.
Dr Schluter, who is fluent in German and once worked as a translator, interpreter and guide at the Glenfiddich distillery in Moray, can’t wait to really get started in her new role.
She said: “I am very pleased here.
“I feel very content and it feels like the right place to be.
“I like the Hebrides a lot and I have family connections here which means I had an idea of what life would be like before I moved.”
She is also looking forward to a new way of life that is very different from Larkhall and added: “I am settling in and need to work out how to deal with a linked charge because there is an awful lot of water between the two parishes.
“A single boat trip is about 40 minutes.” and excited to be
Dr Schluter joked that she had repeatedly been asked by people on Barra whether she has “mastered the art of walking on water yet in case the ferries don’t run in winter storms”.
She said she took two years to consider moving to the Hebrides and was eventually asked by members of the churches to consider the call.
Dr Schluter added that she would miss her old parish in Larkhall and said that she had a “very good time” there.
Her former congregation are now seeking a new minister.