A NEW minister will be inducted to Aberlady and Gullane Parish Churches later this month.

The Rev Lis Stenhouse was overwhelmingly endorsed by the congregation after taking a joint service in Aberlady on October 22.

A total of 97 members of the congregation voted and the result was 95 in favour and two against.

The minister, who has been in place at Cleish and Fossoway Churches in Kinross for nearly 10 years, follows in the footsteps of the Rev Brian Hilsley, who stepped down in October 2020.

She described it as “a great privilege” to be there for people through “some of the joy and some of stress of their lives”.

Originally from Edinburgh, she previously worked as a volunteer development co-ordinator with the NHS before becoming a minister.

She said: “It was a long process.

“I had already graduated with my degree in Biblical Hebrew and Old Testament studies.

“Just the work I was doing as a volunteer, people kept asking me why I was not a minister.

“I was working with the chaplain at Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline and I had worked with the chaplain at the Borders General Hospital when I lived in Galashiels.

“I just had that interest in chaplaincy work and many ministers I came into contact with and other people asked me why I had not applied to be a minister.”

The vacancy at the East Lothian churches was highlighted to Lis, who attended Aberlady’s primary school for a short spell.

She told the congregation at the joint service of her “buzz of excitement but maybe a little nervousness”.

Now, she is going through the final stages of the process, which will see her leave her role in Kinross. It is hoped she will be inducted into her new position at the end of the month.