A minister appointed to lead two Church of Scotland congregations in Sutherland will take up the post this week via video conference.
Lorna Tunstall will be ordained and inducted into Clyne linked with Kildonan and Loth Helmsdale churches on Friday after being unanimously chosen by members of the linked parishes.
Mrs Tunstall and her husband, Mark, will move into a manse in Brora which she describes as a something of a “homecoming”.
In 2017, the couple stayed there for 10 weeks as she undertook a training placement at Dornoch Cathedral with Very Rev Dr Susan Brown, a former Moderator of the Kirk’s General Assembly.
She said: “I am overjoyed and thrilled and terrified in equal measure. I couldn’t have been made to feel more welcome by members of the congregations.”
Mrs Tunstall, a former telecommunications project manager, studied theology at New College in Edinburgh from 2016-19.
While at Dornoch, she also worked with the Very Rev Dr Susan Brown’s husband, Rev Dr Derek Brown, a NHS chaplain at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness.
She did a placement at Letham St Mark’s Church in Perth and spent her 15 month probation at Barnhill St Margaret’s Parish Church in Broughty Ferry.
Mrs Tunstall is a former member of the World Mission Council of the Church of Scotland which is now part of the Faith Impact Forum, convened by the Very Rev Dr Brown.