The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Following in the footsteps of the Tartan Pimpernel
Fife reverend moving to Scots Kirk in Paris, once home to wartime hero
A Fife minister is following in the footsteps of a legendary Second World War hero and taking up a new role in France.
The Rev Jan Steyn has been inducted into the Scots Kirk in Paris, which was once led by Rev Dr Donald Caskie.
Dr Caskie helped an estimated 2,000 Allied servicemen escape the Germans after setting up a series of safe routes out of Occupied France with the help of a network of contacts. It was the profits from his memoir, the Tartan Pimpernel, which twice helped rebuild the Scots Kirk, near the Champs-Elysees, in the 8th Arrondissement.
Mr Steyn, 56, said his appointment felt like a spiritual homecoming because he is descended from Huguenots, members of the French Protestant Church who fled persecution.
He said it had been a privilege to serve as the minister at Cupar St John’s and Dairsie United Church for more than five years.
South Africa-born Mr Steyn, who has been with the Church of Scotland since 2009, was inducted in the presence of French and international dignitaries and members of the International Presbytery of the Church of Scotland.
Mr Steyn said: “As a congregation and disciples of Christ, we will continue to be God’s light in the City of Lights.
“With Huguenot ancestry, this calling to serve in Paris is almost like completing a spiritual circle.
“Living and working in a city will be very different from the rural setting of Cupar and Dairsie.
“Not only will I have to improve my French, I will also learn what following Christ means in a cosmopolitan city like Paris.”
Mr Steyn said it was very encouraging to see that the congregation has the support of other churches and denominations in Paris.
Prior to serving in Cupar, Mr Steyn worked at Kinross Parish Church and Fordyce Parish Church in Portsoy.
Rhoda D Grant, Moderator of the International Presbytery of the Church of Scotland, said: “He will be a caring, compassionate and faithful pastor to his congregation and, along with his wife Linda, will bring to the church in Paris a fruitful ministry.
“Standing in the vestry before the service, looking at a picture of the Rev Donald Caskie, I felt a link to the past as he looked out of the photo with such hope.”