Ordination of the Rev. Carol Rattenbury

Friday 22 September 2017 was a very special day for Carol and for church and congregation of the Culbokie Church Centre. It was a pleasure and privilege to host the Presbytery of Ross as they ordained Carol into the Ordained Local Ministry (OLM) of the Church of Scotland.

The service was conducted by Jimmy Maxwell, Moderator of Presbytery and the Rev Mike MacDonald who did the ordination. We had a great evening with tremendous singing and we even had a piper (Ruraidh Jack) to pipe Presbytery in and then to lead the singing of Psalm 139 to Highland Cathedral. Both of which I think were firsts for Presbytery!

Mike, Carol's husband, has done a bit of research on the history of ordinations in Urquhart parish and it is quite interesting as they are few and far between. However, Resolis folk are a bit more used to it.
• George S M Walker (Resolis 1953-1958) was ordained to Resolis in May 1953, having previously been an Assistant Minister in St. Andrews.
Before that, you go back to...
• Robert MacDougall (Resolis 1871-1911) who had previously been a Missionary in Argyll (!), and then Assistant at Kilmonivaig. Resolis was his first actual church. (As far as can be told the Assistant Minister posts were the equivalent of today's probationers). If Assistant did count as fully ordained, you have to go back a bit further still, to...
• Robert Arthur (Resolis 1774-1821)
You do have to go back to the same year, 1774, for Urquhart!
• Charles Calder (Urquhart 1774-1812) was licensed by Inverness Presbytery, and Urquhart was his first (and only) church. So for Urquhart at least, Carol's was the first Ordination of a new minister for 243 years, and possibly for both!