A Church where all are welcome is new minister’s dream

Former teacher Rev David Donaldson is looking forward to his next challenge following his ordination as a Minister of Word and Sacrament with the Church of Scotland.

Mr Donaldson was ordained at Mauchline Church, where he did his first placement at the beginning of his ministry training, though he is currently based at the vacant charge of Hurlford near Kilmarnock.

Among the hymns he chose for the ordination was "Build a church where love can dwell and all are welcomed in".

This is very much a personal statement from someone who acknowledges he may not be an archetypical Church of Scotland minister.

He said: "Congregations take a long time to understand that I'm not married, that I don't have children, that I am a gay man and think that we have to be church and do church rather than just talk church.

"I would like to think that any church I was in would offer a true church for all. That is so important and so different from the church when I was young."

His commitment to such a church is reflected in his participation in the Presbytery of the South West's Reach Out group, which aims to make church more accessible for people with disabilities of all kinds.

"We say that the Church is welcoming, but how welcoming is it if you have to be wheeled through the back door or someone who is blind doesn't know what to sing?" he asked.

"Congregations tell us that they don't have any disabled people so don't need to worry about this. Well, first of all, you do: there is no family unaffected by Alzheimer's, old age, learning disabilities or physical disabilities. But if you genuinely don't have anyone with disabilities, then that's an issue. It's about making the Church aware of its ministry to those on the margins. It's about going back to basics."

That gulf between what the Church said and how its members behaved was partly what led Mr Donaldson to stop attending after he left Ayrshire for university, but he still believed and prayed regularly.

He became a regular church-goer again after a "niggling feeling" led him to search for a church where he felt comfortable, and found it in St Marnock's, Kilmarnock, where he gradually joined in with worship and was eventually invited to take a sermon.

"There's a really high pulpit in St Marnock's and going up those stairs, my legs were like jelly, but as soon as I was in that pulpit, I knew that was where I was meant to be and the nerves fell away. That was when I knew this was what I had to do," he recalled.

After that first placement at Mauchline and Sorn, he moved to busy Alloway Church, which showed how much a force for good the Church could be.

"They ran a bereavement support group, a musical memories group for people with Alzheimer's, and they had a lot of links with Malawi. It was such a warm, charitable congregation," he said.

Asking the big questions

His next placement at Ayr St Columba's, was followed by a return to rural ministry at Kilmaurs Church before he was able to achieve a long-held ambition of working in chaplaincy with NHS Fife.

Mr Donaldson said: "It's very different because you are working beside people who are not necessarily Christians, but being able to journey together, particularly towards the end of life, is just a really important ministry. You never know what you are going to go in to, so it is very challenging, but so worthwhile.

"It made me realise that for all the talk about Scotland being a secular nation, people are still asking the big questions and have belief, they are just not necessarily framing it in Christian language. Then there is the power of prayer – when someone asks you to pray with them, you can see the healing that brings. It's a real privilege."

While he admits that as a young man he "couldn't wait to get away", he would like to stay in Ayrshire for his first charge.

As for what he might bring to a new parish, Mr Donaldson says he hopes that will include new ideas and thinking outside the box.

"Jesus was radical. We need to be radical. We have to disrupt," he declared.

Mr Donaldson also wants to see the Church acknowledge the hurt felt by gay Christians who can feel rejected or ignored.

"Everywhere I have been, I have done a prayer for Pride Month or Gay History Month and one of the comments I get after that is: ‘You are incredibly brave.' But I don't think that is incredibly brave," he said.

"It should be no different from when I am praying for the gala day or any other event.

"You see some of the comments when churches do anything with the gay community: ‘We love you, but…' ‘You are welcome, but…' That ‘but' just takes away everything Christ tells us.

"It is so different from how the church felt when I was younger, but we still have to get our house in order in terms of equality and diversity.

"it is not being ‘woke' – or maybe it is, but Jesus was woke first."