Kirk announces its new moderator

Mr Christie will take up his new role as moderator in May

The Reverend John Cairns Christie has been named as the next moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

Mr Christie, 62, is currently interim minister at St Andrew's Parish Church in West Kilbride, and in the Scots Kirk in Lausanne, Switzerland.

He will replace The Reverend William Hewitt at the next general assembly of the church in May.

The moderator is responsible for chairing general assembly meetings.

The role in an honorary one which is held for a 12 month period.

Mr Christie was ordained and inducted into Hyndland Parish Church in Glasgow in 1990 and served there for 14 years before being called to the interim ministry, in which ministers are deployed for up to two years to congregations which need help.

He has been married to Annette, who is a Scottish indoor bowling internationalist, since 1995.

His first wife, Elizabeth, died in 1993. The couple had a daughter, Margaret.