A Tayside minister has been chosen as the next Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
Rev Dr Martin Fair, 55, will become the first moderator from Arbroath to serve as the Kirk’s ambassador.
Mr Fair, who was ordained and inducted into St Andrew’s Parish Church in 1992, trained at the Faculty of Divinity at Glasgow University, then had a two-year appointment with the Church of Scotland congregation in Bermuda.
Upon his return to Scotland, he fulfilled a six-month contract as associate minister at St Mary’s Church in Dundee before taking up the Arbroath post.
Mr Fair, who grew up in Thornliebank on the southside of Glasgow, said he is excited and a bit daunted about taking up his new role.
Fittingly, he will serve in the 700th anniversary year of the Declaration of Arbroath.
He said his one regret is that his parents, Ena and Bill, who were born and bred in the church, did not live long enough to see him take up the 12-month role.
He said claims the Kirk is in its “death throes are well wide of the mark” and he can see “green shoots of growth and live in hope for what is going to come”.
“I am really excited about the future of the Church and quite frankly, if I solely focused on statistics that suggested terminal decline I would have quit the ministry years ago.
“It is at a key crossroads and we are letting go of some of what has been and embracing what is to come.
“I am looking forward to getting out and about and being alongside folk in the local church and hope to be an encouraging voice to help prepare all of us for what God has in store.
“There is a wonderful opportunity for the Church right now to rediscover its meaning and purpose for the people of Scotland and beyond in the here and now.
“I am totally fired up as a minister and as Moderator, I want to communicate that excitement and positivity.”
When he is not engaged in ministry in all its permutations, Mr Fair enjoys exploring outdoors and is a keen hill walker, mountaineer, camper, football fan and golfer.
As a teenager, he had a golf handicap of two and a favourite family story is the time he forfeited the chance of winning a club championship by walking off three holes early because he feared he would miss a cinema date with his now wife.
Golf continued to be a passion into adulthood but a freak accident in August 2017 means his handicap of eight has slipped.
He tripped and fell in the street after jogging back to his car in Arbroath and broke his left arm, which has never properly healed despite three operations.
His left hand does not function properly and he is unable to tie his own shoelaces and necktie and relies on a specially adapted car to get around under his own steam.
Mr Fair said: “While I wish this had not happened to me, good things have come from it because when you are dependent on people for help you take on a different view of life.
“The support I got from my family and the Christian community was phenomenal and I think I am a more rounded person because of that experience.”
Mr Fair, who will take up the ambassador role next May, grew up on the same street and attended the same school as his wife Elaine.
The couple have three sons, Callum, 23, Andrew, 20 and Fraser, 18.
Frightened Rabbit star’s death prompted new projects
Mr Fair set up the Havilah project in Arbroath in 2006 to provide a safe haven for addicts and paid staff and volunteers have helped around 1,000 people to date.
He oversaw the rollout of three services delivered by Havilah earlier this year after the singer of one of his favourite bands took his own life and he decided he could no longer stand by and do nothing.
The introduction of a community choir, a therapeutic garden and a drop-in service were put in place after Mr Fair was left “devastated” following the death of Frightened Rabbit frontman Scott Hutchinson in May last year.
Mr Fair said: “Suicide is a horrendous endemic problem and we decided, as a church, that we had to do something.
“I have buried too many people who have taken their own lives over the years because they felt alone and helpless in the darkness which many think is their only friend.
“I am a big fan of Frightened Rabbit and was absolutely devastated by Scott’s death.
“When his body was found something snapped within me and I decided that I could not go on merely saying ‘isn’t it terrible’ every time someone took their own life.”
He said faith groups and other bodies have an “obligation” to fill gaps in public provision because the level of statutory support for drug addiction and mental health in Scotland is “desperately short” of what is needed.
He said too many vulnerable people were being failed and politicians must redouble their efforts to address the crisis.
“My favourite Frightened Rabbit song is ‘Living in Colour’ which is a brilliant anthem and a metaphor for what is possible in life.
“For me, that is what Jesus meant when he said ‘you can have life in all its fullness’ – it is living in colour as opposed to monochrome and that is what my ministry has been all about.”
