Katie ready to teach at Old Parish Church
The new minister at Rutherglen Old Parish Church has thanked locals for the warm welcome she has received since moving to the parish.
Katie Morrison is currently serving as the locum minister at the Main Street church, after Calum MacLeod retired from the role due to ill health.
Katie, 65, will fill the position until a permanent replacement is found, and the former school teacher intends to work hard to help the church.
She has been impressed by events like Thoughtful Thursday, the church’s regular drop-in services.
She said: “This has been my first experience of Rutherglen and it’s been wonderful. It’s been very warm and welcoming – that’s the whole parish, not just the church and I feel very at home.
“I hope that we can get the good news of the Gospels out to the whole parish and have them involved with the church.
“Something like Thoughtful Thursday, it would be good to develop that.
“I want to be out and about in the parish, getting to meet people and learning more as I go.”
Prior to her calling for the church, Katie was a school teacher, before working with the Church of Scotland’s Crossreach caring programme, helping those who faced difficulties in life.
She then trained as a reader before working in Shettleston Old, Newland South and St Enoch’s Church in Riddrie before coming to Rutherglen.
The Galloway native explained: “I just felt like I was called to do this work.
“I can use my teaching skills in a slightly different way, and my skills as a carer too – they are very useful, so both my previous careers are helpful to what I am doing now.”
Katie first started taking some services at the Old Parish at the end of last year, as Calum began taking time away from the parish.
She was full of praise for the advice Calum gave her before she began in Rutherglen, however. Katie added: “Calum was a wonderful help. I learned a lot from him in the short time that I knew him – he was a very gracious man and a huge help to me.”
Rev MacLeod became the Old Parish’s first minister in over five years when he was called last year.
The church was previously linked with a union with Rutherglen West and Wardlawhill Church but in May 2016 the Presbytery of Glasgow gave approval for both churches to call new ministers, with Malcolm Cuthbertson taking over at West and Wardlawhill Church.
Rev Jeanne Roddick is now acting as the church’s current interim moderator as they look for a permanent replacement for Rev MacLeod.
I want to be out and about in the parish, getting to meet people and learning as I go