New moderator announced by Kirk

Mr Lunan's duties will include taking part in international tours

The Rev David Lunan has been named as the next moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

Mr Lunan, 63, who was born in London but brought up in Cambuslang, is currently clerk to the Presbytery of Glasgow.

He will replace the present moderator, the Rev Sheilagh Kesting, at the Kirk's next General Assembly in May 2008.

His duties will include visiting Church of Scotland presbyteries and undertaking international tours.

After graduating from the University of Glasgow in 1968, he attended Princeton Seminary, New Jersey, before returning to the Glasgow to work in the east end.

Study tours

He was ordained in 1970 and has since served at Trinity College Missionary Society in Glasgow, in St Andrews Lhanbryd Church in Moray and Renfield St Stephen's Church in Glasgow, and was moderator of the Presbytery of Moray in 1985-86.

Mr Lunan was moderator of the Presbytery of Glasgow in 2000-01 and in 2002 he took up his present post.

He has also undertaken work for the wider church, serving on the first Assembly Council and on the executive of the Board of Social Responsibility.

With his wife, Maggie, he is honorary chaplain to the Church's mission partners and he has also been on study tours with Christian Aid to the Philippines, Malawi and South Africa.

The couple have four grown-up sons.