From Ness to the Sudan – a long Christian journey

However, that stretch of his Christian journey was completed this week by Rr Rev. Iain Macleod Greenshields, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

Along with other church leaders, he was invited by the government of South Sudan as part of efforts to bring peace to the impoverished country of 11 million, almost two-thirds of them Christian.

On his return, the Moderator said that the "door is open" to finally sign a stalled peace agreement in South Sudan. He prayed that the goodwill built up during the historic ecumenical pilgrimage of peace in which he had featured would mark a turning point in the troubled country's short history – it was formed only in 2011 after decades of civil war in Sudan.

He said he had the "most extraordinary few days" in South Sudan and it was humbling and a privilege to come alongside and stand in solidarity with ordinary people who are suffering profoundly from continued armed conflict, violence, corruption, floods and famine.

The Church of Scotland was invited to represent the Presbyterian family due to its strong partnership with the Presbyterian Church of South Sudan. Both Churches have been working closely together since 2015 on a peace, reconciliation and conflict resolution programme.

As Iain Greenshields recalled in a previous interview with the Gazette, he traces his career in the ministry to a meeting in the “wee church on the machair” – Lionel Mission House – in his mother’s native Ness.

He had been a typical “Glasgow Highlander”, spending holidays in Ness, when an encounter with Rev. John Ferguson “was fundamental to my call to the ministry”. He went on to Glasgow University to study Divinity.

The Moderator-Designate’s mother, Katie MacLeod, was from 3 Port of Ness. She was orphaned when just six; her mother died from pneumonia in childbirth while pregnant with twins and her father from tuberculosis. Katie was brought up by her grandmother and left Ness at 14 to work in Glasgow.

Iain’s father was a police officer and member of Glasgow Police Pipe Band, travelling extensively. He too was a Gaelic speaker, born in Camuscross, Skye.

It was in the Church of Scotland in Cross, Ness, that the Moderator-Designate met his wife Linda who was on holiday with a friend from Dell. The couple have six children, the three youngest having been adopted from China. In 2005, the Greenshields set up a charity called Hope4China's Children which provides education, support and medical care for around 800 girls in Guangxi Province.

Iain’s first parish after ordination in 1984 was in Cranhill, close to Easterhouse, and after nine years moved to Larkhall, where he worked to build ecumenical relations. He was chaplain to Shotts prison and Lochriggend Young Offenders Institute, which added substantially to his insights into Scotland’s social realities and the failings of the penal system. His current parish is in Dunfermline.