Alison Elliot | |
---|---|
Born | Edinburgh, Scotland | 27 November 1948
Nationality | Scottish |
Occupation | academic session clerk |
Known for | first woman elected as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland |
Academic background | |
Education | Bathgate Academy |
Alma mater | University of Edinburgh University of Sussex |
Academic work | |
Institutions | University of Lancaster University of Edinburgh |
Alison Elliot [1] (born 27 November 1948) [2] is an honorary fellow at New College,Edinburgh. [3] She was the former Associate Director of the Centre for Theology and Public Issues at the University of Edinburgh,Scotland. In 2004 she became the first woman ever to be elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. [4] An elder and session clerk at Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh,she was also the first non-minister to hold this post since George Buchanan in 1567.[ citation needed ] [5]
Alison Elliot was born in Edinburgh in 1948. She was educated at Bathgate Academy,the University of Edinburgh and the University of Sussex. [6]
Her professional career is in psychology,but her public profile has been chiefly through her church work. She was Research Associate in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh 1973–1974,then lecturer in psychology at the University of Lancaster 1974–1976 and at the University of Edinburgh 1977–1985. She is the author of two publications:Child Language (1981) and The Miraculous Everyday (2005).[ citation needed ]
She served as Convener of the Committee on Church and Nation of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 1996–2000,as well as Session Clerk at Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh. She was involved in building ecumenical relations,and was a member of the Central Committee of the Conference of European Churches (CEC) 2003-2009 (and also moderated CEC's Assembly held in Lyon,France,in July 2009). She played a key role in Action of Churches Together in Scotland. In 2004 she was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and was the first woman to be elected to that post. [4] [7] The OBE was conferred upon her for her ecumenical work. [6]
In 2016,she became only the third person to receive the Scottish Public Service Awards' Lifetime Achievement Award. [8]
She is a founding board member of the Palestine Festival of Literature. Since 2007 she has been Convener of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations.[ citation needed ]
In 2018 she became General Secretary of The Royal Society of Edinburgh,of which she has been a Fellow since 2008. [9]
She is married to John Elliot;they live in Edinburgh. They have two children.[ citation needed ]
In 2004 the Scottish National Portrait Gallery commissioned a portrait of Elliot by Jennifer McRae. [10] [11]
Ruth Patterson,is a Presbyterian ministry from Northern Ireland. She was the first woman to be ordained to the ministry of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland and is a director of the charity Restoration Ministries.
The Church of Scotland was one of the first national churches to accept the ordination of women. In Presbyterianism,ordination is understood to be an ordinance rather than a sacrament;ministers and elders are ordained;until recently deacons were "commissioned" but now they too are ordained to their office in the Church of Scotland.
The Free Church of Scotland is a conservative evangelical Calvinist denomination in Scotland. It is the continuation of the original Free Church of Scotland that remained outside the union with the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland in 1900,and remains a distinct Presbyterian denomination in Scotland.
Greyfriars Kirk is a parish church of the Church of Scotland,located in the Old Town of Edinburgh,Scotland. It is surrounded by Greyfriars Kirkyard.
The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is the sovereign and highest court of the Church of Scotland,and is thus the Church's governing body. It generally meets each year and is chaired by a Moderator elected at the start of the Assembly.
Sir Iain Richard Torrance,is a retired Church of Scotland minister,theologian and academic. He is Pro-Chancellor of the University of Aberdeen,Honorary Professor of Early Christian Doctrine and Ethics at the University of Edinburgh,President and Professor of Patristics Emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary,and an Extra Chaplain to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in Scotland. He was formerly Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland,Dean of the Chapel Royal in Scotland,and Dean of the Order of the Thistle. He is married to Morag Ann,whom he met while they were students at the University of St Andrews,and they have two children.
George Husband Baird FRSE FSAScot was a Scottish minister,educational reformer,linguist and the Principal of the University of Edinburgh from 1793 to 1840. In 1800 he served as Moderator of the Church of Scotland General Assembly.
William Wishart (secundus) (1691/92–1753) was a Scottish clergyman who served as the Principal of Edinburgh University from 1736 to 1753. He served as Moderator of the General Assembly for the Church of Scotland in 1745.
Sheilagh Kesting is a Scottish minister of the Church of Scotland. She served as Moderator of the General Assembly from May 2007 to May 2008. She was the first female minister to be elected Moderator;she was the second woman as a female elder,Alison Elliot,had been elected for the 2004/2005 session. Since 1993,she has been based at the Church of Scotland Offices in Edinburgh as the full-time Secretary of the Church of Scotland Committee on Ecumenical Relations. She retired in September 2016 and was created a Dame of the Order of St Gregory the Great by Pope Francis in November 2016 in recognition of her exceptional service to the Holy See,and as a result of her commitment to ecumenism in Scotland.
Andrew Rankin Cowie McLellan is a minister in the Church of Scotland. He was Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons for Scotland from 2002 to 2009.
Finlay A. J. Macdonald is a retired minister of the Church of Scotland. He was Principal Clerk to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland from 1996 until 2010. In addition to his rapid rise up the ranks of the Church of Scotland,Macdonald is known for fostering co-operation between the various boards and committees which administer the Church and for steering the Church smoothly through its annual business meetings.
Archibald Hamilton Charteris was a Scottish theologian,a Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland,professor of biblical criticism at the University of Edinburgh and a leading voice in Church reforms. He is credited as being the father of the Woman's Guild and founder of "Life and Work" magazine.
The moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is the minister or elder chosen to moderate (chair) the annual General Assembly of the Church of Scotland,which is held for a week in Edinburgh every year. After chairing the Assembly,the Moderator then spends the following year representing the Church of Scotland at civic events,and visiting congregations and projects in Scotland and beyond.
Andrew David Keltie Arnott is a retired minister of the Church of Scotland who was the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland from 2011 to 2012.
Elizabeth Lorna Hood,is a minister of the Church of Scotland. From 1979 to 2016,she was the minister of North Parish Church,Renfrew. From 2013 to 2014,she also served as Moderator of its General Assembly. She is an Extra Chaplain to the King in Scotland,appointed in September 2023.
John Inglis (1762–1834) was a Scottish minister of the Church of Scotland. He served as minister of Greyfriars Kirk and was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1804.
Angus Makellar (1780–1859) was a Scottish minister of the Church of Scotland who served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1840. Leaving in the Disruption of 1843 he also served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland in 1852.
Patrick Clason was a Scottish minister who served as Moderator of the General Assembly to the Free Church of Scotland in 1848/49.