Fresh Start founder is Church of Scotland’s moderator designate
Cramond Kirk’s Reverend Dr Russell Barr is the Church of Scotland’s moderator designate, it has been announced. Dr Barr, who has been minister at Cramond Kirk since 1993, will succeed the Right Reverend Dr Angus Morrison as moderator in May next year.
Dr Barr was involved in the formation of Pilton-based charity Fresh Start in 1999, when a group of people from Edinburgh’s churches came together to find a way of tackling homelessness.
The group worked with homeless people to find out the best way to help, and through listening and learning about the challenges faced by being homeless, the Starter Pack Project was launched. Since then Fresh Start has continued to listen and learn from clients and has grown and developed services to meet their needs – last year it provided practical and social support for 2,000 people who had been homeless.
Dr Barr is currently the convener of the Presbytery of Edinburgh’s superintendence committee and a member of the business committee. He previously served as presbytery moderator in 2011-12 and was chaplain to the Lord High Commissioner of the General Assembly in 2012-13.
He was convener of the Africa and Caribbean Committee of the Church of Scotland’s World Mission Council between 2011-2015 and has a doctorate of ministry from the USA’s Princeton Theological Seminary.
Dr Barr told the BBC he is “excited, honoured and overwhelmed” to have been appointed.
Picture: Andrew O’Brien
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