The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Munro-bagging church leader stresses the power of prayer
CHALLENGE: Moderator has ‘fabulous time’ scaling four peaks
An Angus minister and Church of Scotland leader has climbed Scotland’s four Cardinal Munros to draw attention to the power of prayer.
The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Rt Rev Dr Martin Fair, scaled the peaks during his church’s Week of Prayer, held to bring believers together.
The Cardinal Munros are the most northerly, westerly, southerly and easterly mountains over 3,000ft high in Scotland. They are Ben Hope, Sgúrr na Banachdaich (on Skye), Ben Lomond and Mount Keen.
Dr Fair, who has been the minister at St Andrew’s Parish Church in Arbroath since 1992, reached the summit of Mount Keen on Saturday after “four mountains, 750 miles, limited sleep, lots of rain and midges”.
He posted a social media message from the summit. He said: “Here we are on the summit of the fourth and final of our Munros.
“We’ve had a fabulous time. This is the most important thing. I was thinking what can you do when you are the moderator and you can’t do the normal stuff. One thing I absolutely can do is to be praying for the church and for our nation in these days.”
He thanked followers who joined him for online prayer gatherings on Zoom.
Joining him were Gregor McIntyre, one of his chaplains, and Richard Begg, one of the Kirk’s Army chaplains, who organised logistics. The trio scaled 3,193ft Ben Lomond on Friday.
Dr Fair said on social media: “Exciting times. But most importantly, as at the other mountains, we prayed for church and country.”
The biblical context of the challenge relates to a quotation from the Gospel of Luke: “We’ll be following in the master’s footsteps: ‘Jesus went up on a mountain to pray...’ Luke 6:12.”