No taxing matter for newly ordained minister

It was no taxing experience for ex-HMRC inspector Rev Eleanor Hamilton when she was ordained at Cairnlea Church in Airdrie.

Ms Hamilton gave up a career she loved as part of a specialist tax investigation team to train as a minister of Word and Sacrament with the Church of Scotland.

"I was part of the Cross Tax team as a VAT inspector, but we looked at everything. It was interesting: I loved my job and loved the people I worked with," she said.

However, she has no regrets about leaving her public service career to pursue her vocation as a minister.

"I grew up in the church and you hear people talking about that ‘Road to Damascus' moment that they have, but I never really had that," she said.

"But when I look back, I firmly believe that God calls people in the way that they need to be called. Each step in this journey, there was a gentle hand guiding me along. There was no big moment, it was just a step and a realisation and then another step and another realisation."

Studying remotely with Highland Theological College, part of the University of the Highlands and Islands, proved to be an advantage when the COVID pandemic saw the country go into lockdown and with her team unable to carry out in-person investigations and switched to answering queries, Ms Hamilton was able to immerse herself in her course between calls.

She also received support and encouragement from deputy director, Liz Cunningham.

"She backed me and encouraged and cheered me and I couldn't have done it without her. She was just so supportive," Ms Hamilton said.

Liz was among the many friends and family who joined Ms Hamilton for her ordination, including the brand new minister's mother Heather and daughter Emma, members of her home church of Moncreiff Kirk in East Kilbride, and the congregations where she completed her training placements and probation: Jackson Parish Church in Airdrie, Motherwell St Mary's, Cambusnethan North in Wishaw where she was locum minister for nine months, and New Wellwynd Parish Church.

Ms Hamilton, who has also been a chaplain for the Girls' Brigade chaplain in Glasgow for five years, will begin her career as an ordained minister by returning to Strathaven Trinity, where she carried out her discernment, completing a circle in her ministry journey, and will also be returning to New Wellwynd Parish Church, the Airdrie congregation where she completed her probationary period, to officiate at a baptism.

She is now looking for a congregation she will feel a call to as her first charge.

She said: "People always ask you about your first charge, but I have always said that I will go where I am needed the most. I firmly believe we are sent to places for a reason and a season and some of those seasons are longer than others, but that is where God needs us and that is where I go.

"I'm looking forward to building relationships that are sustainable and long-term and just being with people. I believe that ministry is about presence in every walk of life and it is about walking alongside people wherever they are. Which is why I love having conversations with people at supermarket checkouts or people you randomly meet just walking the dog. I love those little chance encounters with the people that God has put in your path for a specific reason. That's what ministry is."

Having faith for what is to come is no problem for someone who is both a minister of the Church and an experienced fairy godmother – "with wings and a wand and everything" – thanks to being a long-serving member of Greenhills Panto Club in East Kilbride until she stepped down last year.

Not only has she appeared in pantos, she has also written one, as well as having written poetry and a hymn, which has already been recorded.

Ms Hamilton admits she finds it difficult to do nothing.

"I think that is partly from working in the tax office because we worked very hard and it's taken me a long time to be able to just take a day off and not do anything," she explained.

She is looking forward to applying that energy to her next challenge when she finds that first charge.

"God has a plan for Scotland," she declared.

"He's not finished with us yet. But I think that a lot of us in the Church need to wake up and listen to what God is saying to us to do. God has a plan, but we need to listen."