Rev Rosemary Frew is Moderator Designate for 2025-26

A Scottish Borders minister who is happy to be described as "a cheerleader for the Church" has been chosen to be the next Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

Rev Rosemary Frew, minister of Bowden and Melrose Parish Church, will become the Kirk's ambassador at home and abroad next May, succeeding current Moderator Rt Rev Dr Shaw Paterson.

Rosie, as she prefers to be known, comes to the 12 month role with not only experience of parish ministry in Fife and the Borders, but of church involvement at presbytery and national level including as convener of the Faith Nurture Forum.

"It is incredibly humbling that other people see in you the qualities and experience that they think a Moderator should have," she said.

"A very small number of people knew I was going forward for interviews and they all said the same thing: ‘You have got to be yourself.'

"That's what I will bring to the job: I am bringing myself and my faith, my hope, my passions and my enthusiasm.

"Someone described me as ‘a cheerleader for the Church' and I love that, I still have that passion and enthusiasm that I had when I was licensed for ministry despite all the hard times we have gone through."

Originally from Clarkston on the south side of Glasgow, Rosie feels incredibly grateful that Church, and especially Giffnock South Parish Church where she began attending Sunday school, has always been part of her life.

The church connection continued when the family moved to Linlithgow when she was 14 and she joined St Michael's Church, going on to become a member of the youth fellowship and the hill-walking group and a Sunday School teacher.

A seed of call

It was around the time of the family's move to the West Lothian town that she read about the first married couple in Scotland to be licensed for ministry.

"It was a kind of epiphany," Rosie explained.

"My experience up to that time had just been of older men in ministry and this realisation that a woman could be a minister was the planting of a seed of call at the age of 14.

"That seed was nurtured by a whole load of people, experiences and opportunities until, by the age of 21, I felt that call had to be tested."

These experiences included working at a Christian outdoor centre, Compass Ski Centre at Glenshee Lodge, where she took a gap year while deciding if she should study for ministry.

It was a very special place for Rosie, perhaps not least because it was where she met her husband Dave, with whom she shares son Pete (29) and daughter Bex (26).

She recalled: "I'd been in a little Church of Scotland bubble until then and I met people from a lot of different backgrounds and denominations, but we all shared a love of Christ, but also a love of skiing and the outdoors and that bound us all together."

That love of the outdoors and the spiritual connection it can bring has also been a recurrent theme for the keen skier, walker and sometime Munro-bagger.

She explained: "There is something about being in God's creation and the companionship of people you walk with, whether on pilgrimage routes or up hills.

"It's a wonderful way of sharing with people and there can be an honesty often with people you may never see again."

Accepted as a candidate for ministry, Rosie studied theology at New College in Edinburgh, where she found herself part of a group of supportive and encouraging young – and not so young – trainee ministers.

During her studies, she and Dave married and the couple moved to Fife where Dave worked as a civil engineer.

Rosie completed placements at Abbotshall and Viewforth churches in Kirkcaldy and her probationary period at Markinch Parish Church, before being ordained and inducted to her first charge, Largo and Newburn with Largo: St David's, in May 1988.

"They were the congregation that really did nurture me," she said.

"I had around me a group of young mums and others who had taken early retirement and wanted to dedicate their lives to the church, so we did some amazing things such as setting up a mothers and toddlers group and organising holiday clubs because all these people were keen to be involved.

"I really enjoyed being part of that community and being involved with so many things.

"It's interesting that I have gone back to a smaller place after going to a town for my second charge. In my heart, I think I am more of a rural minister than a town minister."

That second charge was a return to Abbotshall Parish Church in Kirkcaldy where she moved to take on a new challenge after 17 years in Largo.

"When I read the parish profile, it was talking about the skillset I had developed in my time in Largo," Rosie said.

"The four town churches knew their future would be together, so we became an informal grouping and we did a lot together.

"We were actually five colleagues, because one was a job share between a married couple, and I loved having colleagues so close, working together where we could, and supporting each other creatively, practically and prayerfully.

"I did love my time in Kirkcaldy and the opportunities we had."

These included setting up a local Street Pastors network and working with a newly built primary school where she was able to work closely with the head teacher to deliver the best that school chaplaincy could offer, especially when one of its pupils died in an accident abroad.

"Everyone came together to ensure that a school family were cared for as best as we possibly could," Rosie said.

"You look back on things like that and it was a really hard time in ministry, but also an incredible privilege because of good relationships and that openness of a head teacher being willing to engage with a local congregation,."

After a couple of years in ministry in Kirkcaldy, Rosie added the role of presbytery clerk.

She said: "Being a presbytery clerk is a particular calling because you have to deal with all the really hard stuff, the problems and complaints, but also you see the best. It was hard and it was challenging at times, but you are surrounded by a great team of people and again, a lot of happy memories from that time."

She had already begun to play a larger role within the national Church during her time in Largo.

"I was asked to become convener of one of the National Mission committees and with that came a seat on the executive, that was the first time I took on a bigger responsibility," Rosie added.

"That was 2003 when the Church was going through a major restructuring of its boards.

"There was a lot of work in that because restructuring is really hard, jobs were under threat and people were upset.

"These were really difficult times, but out of that came the council structure that we had until 2020, I was asked to become vice-convener of the new Mission and Discipleship Council.

"That involved a lot of presbytery visiting, and a lot of creation of resources, particularly for Church Without Walls, which was being promoted at that time."

A new challenge

Rosie's presbytery clerk duties took precedence over any national work, but after moving to Melrose in 2017, she was asked to consider Convenership of Ministries Council.

"Again, it is a kind of calling. It did feel like I was being called on to take on a new challenge, something that when you look back, you realise you had been prepared for," she explained.

"Again, very quickly, I was involved in a restructuring process so a lot of my previous experience was put to good use.

"Then Covid (pandemic) hit and it became even more unsettling.

"We did a lot of stuff, but against a really difficult backdrop."

This was while Rosie continued to serve her home parish in the Borders, an appointment which also owes something to her love of the outdoors.

"We came to Melrose 10 years ago to walk St Cuthbert's Way," she revealed.

"Dave was keen to do long-distance walking when he retired and this was a test to see if he could manage a week's walking.

"Two years later, when my predecessor Alistair Bennett left, I read the parish profile and from that we ended up here.

"St Cuthbert's Way remains a big part of local ministry.

"A lot of people walk it and all the churches along the route have come together to look at ways of enhancing their experience to make it more of a pilgrimage and engage with walkers.

"One of my churches, Bowden Kirk, is just off the route, but we signpost it and it is always open so it has lots of visitors and we get a lot of lovely comments in the visitors' book about people finding a place where they can sit in peace and where God has been worshipped for almost 900 years.

"There is just something special about it."

However, it was Rosie's other church in Melrose which attracted national attention when it hosted the funeral of the late Doddie Weir after the Scottish rugby international died from the effects of motor neuron disease (MND) aged just 52.

Following a private family service in Stow Church, she and Stow minister Rev Victoria Linford led the public service in the larger Melrose kirk.

"It was an honour to be asked to do it and gave me a bit of an insight into the planning of an event of that scale because we didn't realise at the time how big it would get, especially as at the heart of it were a wife and three boys who had just lost their dad," she recalled.

"But it was an amazing day and Doddie's charity does so much work around here to raise funds for research into MND - his legacy carries on."

In 2019, Rosie became convener of the Ministries Council then the first convener of the Faith Nurture Forum.

This experience at national level led her to decide the time was right to put herself forward as a potential Moderator.

"I have been approached a number of times about the role and it was easy to say no because the time wasn't right," she admitted.

"But it is like so many things, it is like that call to ministry or calls to charges.

"That seed gets planted and with hindsight you recognise that seed has been nurtured by experiences you have had, particularly in the last five years as Ministries and Faith and Nurture convener and my involvement in the General Assembly.

"It's not an ambition thing, it's very much about call and as that seed of call grows, you recognise that it is not going to go away and has to be tested.

"You are tested by the committee deciding on who will be the next Moderator and you leave it in their hands and prayers that the right decision has been made."

A busy and exciting year

Excited about the possibilities and opportunities the year ahead will bring, Rosie added: "I'm looking forward to meeting congregations and learning more about them and the challenges they face, but also about what excites them and the good things that are happening and using the particular platform the Moderator has to showcase that.

"The example I gave the interview panel was new worshipping communities.

"In my last General Assembly as convener, we reported that there were 400 new worshipping communities at some stage of development in the Church of Scotland.

"That is an amazing figure and that is an exciting figure. Just the fact that there 400 different things happening out there, whether it is Messy Church, Forest Church or Café Church, there are so many ways people are trying to engage with communities in different ways.

"I'm also looking forward to leading worship in all sorts of settings and seeing more of the wider work of the Church and all opportunities to represent the Church in a whole host of different ways and in different places.

"I know it will be a very busy year, but a very exciting and very privileged one."

Although the Church has been going through a sometimes painful period of restructuring as churches close and congregations unite, Rosie is looking ahead to a positive new phase for the Kirk.

"Much of the hard, difficult work has been done and all these new things are being launched - that's the positive," she stated.

"We maybe have to do things in a very different way and the future will be very different from the past, but I love the hymn ‘Lord, For the Years' and its message: ‘Past put behind us, for the future take us.'

"We do not know what the future is, but it is about being open to possibilities and trusting God will stand by his Church."