Free Church Continuing choose Moderator 12/3/12
Rev James Gracie has been appointed as the next Moderator for the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing). He takes up his duties in May.
The Edinburgh pastor was formerly a minister in North Uist. Mr Gracie was born and brought up in Partick in Glasgow. His family was associated with the former Grant Street Free Church of Scotland where his father was an elder.
On leaving school, he attended the West of Scotland Agricultural College for four years after which he joined the Scottish Milk Marketing Board as a farm management assistant.
He moved to Lairg in Sutherland in 1979 to take up a post as agricultural officer for the Crofters Commission under the former Department of Agriculture.
It was during this time that he began to take a very much deeper interest in spiritual things and came to a living personal faith.
Mr Gracie was transferred to the Department of Agriculture office in Portree where he took up residence in his family's ancestral home in Uig. He was asked to help by lay preaching in different congregations throughout Skye and further afield.
He then applied to become a candidate for the ministry, was accepted and entered the theological course of the Free Church College in Edinburgh.
He met his Catriona, who also comes from a Skye background, while a theological student. They have three daughters: Rachel (14), Alison (12) and Lydia (10). Mr Gracie first charge was on Arran in 1994.