A former radio journalist from Lewis who became a Free Church minister has been inducted into his first pulpit.
Rev Alasdair Macaulay, originally from Breasclete, is the new pastor at Tain and Fearn Free Church.
Carloway man Rev Duncan Macleod, who ministers at Dornoch and is the Moderator of the Northern Presbytery, preached him into the pulpit at Friday evening’s induction.
Mr Macaulay was converted at the age of 21 whilst working in the offshore fabrication yard at Arnish in Stornoway.
Soon after that he moved to Inverness to take up employment with the BBC as a journalist, working mostly in Gaelic radio.
After seven years in the Highland capital, Mr MacAulay returned home to Lewis having got engaged to Mairi, who also worked for BBC radio, and they married the following year in 2001.
He received his Bachelor of Theology with distinction after studying at the Free Church College in Edinburgh, and was licensed by the Western Isles Presbytery in June.
Mr MacAulay said: “Having spent many years involved in the media, folk often observed that journalists seldom reported good news, so I am now looking forward to broadcasting the best news in the world – the gospel of Jesus Christ.
“This is something I have been avoiding for a while but I am pretty sure this is what God wants me to do but not something I would have chosen to do.
“I am looking forward to being more involved in the community and building new relationships in Tain, Fearn and the Seaboard villages.”
The 41-
Tain and Fearn Free Church has been vacant since August 2010 when Reverend R.F. Morrison retired.
Radio journalist switches microphone for pulpit 27/8/12
Mairi and Alasdair Macaulay