EAST Lothian’s newest minister has been enjoying getting to know her new parish over the festive season.
The Rev Aniko Schütz Bradwell took up her role in the parishes of Humbie with Yester, Bolton and Saltoun earlier this month and has already visited primary schools and joined in carol singing as she gets to know the communities.
And she hopes she will be able to draw on her experience working within the ecumenical Christian community to ensure she can offer pastoral care, not just to her congregations but to the wider community as she looks to the new year in her new home.
Ms Schütz Bradwell, who is originally from Germany, came to Scotland nine years ago to work as a volunteer with the Iona Community.
Initially here for a two-month stay, she found the experience so fulfilling she applied for a full-time position and stayed on the island for another two-and-a-half years.
Offered the chance to work in Edinburgh, she followed an internship with the Scottish Churches Parliamentary Office with a role in the Church and Society Council of the Church of Scotland and spent three years working in the Capital before considering becoming a minister.
She said: “I was always someone who said I would never become a minister but after leaving Iona there was something missing in my life. In Iona all staff members lead worship and I really missed that. I realised this was what I was meant to do.”
Ms Schütz Bradwell served as a probationer minister at Corstorphine Old Parish Church in Edinburgh before coming to East Lothian. Raised in the Lutheran Church in Germany, her husband David is a Methodist and she hopes her experience of ecumenism will help her provide an open-door approach.
She said: “I am very committed to being involved with the whole community. Of course the congregation is vitally important but it is also important to be open to all those who need support.
“We have a lot of young families in our parishes and I look forward to working with the community and getting to know them.
“The church traditionally used to be at the centre of the community but that has changed in recent times. I want to be there for people. I have been really welcomed by everyone I have met and look forward to serving people in my parishes in East Lothian. Arriving at Christmas time has given me a great opportunity to meet many of the families and attend the festive events, I am looking forward to the new year.”