Portmahomack minister chosen as moderator-designate for church assembly

Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) have announced the moderator-designate of their 2020 General Assembly is Rev. John MacLeod, minister of Tarbat Free Church (Continuing) in Portmahomack, Easter Ross.

Mr MacLeod, originally from Fearn, worked for two years in the legal documentation department of an Edinburgh insurance company before commencing studies for the ministry in the early 1970s.

Upon completion of his studies in the Free Church College, Edinburgh in 1974, Mr MacLeod worked among students in Aberdeen, before going on to spend two years preaching in North America.

Inducted to his present charge in 1978 he has now been minister of the parish of Tarbat for more than forty-one years.

While in North America he met and married Joy Morrison, a native of Prince Edward Island, whose forebears had left the Island of Handa, in north west Sutherland in the mid-nineteenth century.

They have nine children and 14 grandchildren.

A keen singer, Mr MacLeod has always showed a great enthusiasm for teaching Psalm singing. He has also been involved in broadcasting both in Canada and in Scotland. He is currently the church’s press officer.

Mr MacLeod has served as Moderator of General Assembly on one previous occasion.

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