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Barlinnie prison chaplain named next Church of Scotland moderator

Church of Scotland Rev Jill Clancy, standing in a corridor of Barlinnie Prison with various cells on either side. She has brunette hair, a pink shirt and a dark jacket.Church of Scotland
Rev Jill Clancy will become only the seventh female moderator in the Church's history

The chaplain of Scotland's biggest prison has been named the next moderator of the Church of Scotland.

Rev Jill Clancy will become the Kirk's ambassador at home and abroad next May, succeeding the current moderator, Rev Gordon Kennedy.

The 56-year-old has spent nine years working at HMP Barlinnie in Glasgow and previously served as a parish minister in Gourock, Glasgow and Ayrshire.

As well as being the first prison chaplain to hold the post, Clancy - who heard she was nominated for the role while on holiday in Benidorm - will become only the seventh female moderator in the Church's 466-year history.

Rev Clancy said she had previously questioned whether her age and strong Ayrshire accent would stop her becoming a minister.

She grew up in Kilwinning in North Ayrshire, where her father Derek was a salesman with the gas board and her mother Pam ran a hair stylist business.

She said: "I have the same questions now about becoming moderator as I did at the time of my calling to ministry - I'm too young, not intellectual enough, I've got a strong Ayrshire accent.

"I know I will not be to everyone's taste, but I am who I am, and God has a reason and a purpose for me to be called into this role at this particular juncture in the life of the Church."

Church of Scotland Rev Jill Clancy sitting in a radio studio, holding a vinyl record . A poster or cover of a Johnny Cash LP is on the wall behind her.Church of Scotland
During the pandemic, Rev Clancy helped run a radio station at the prison

Rev Clancy said she was shocked to learn she had been nominated, and had never previously considered going for the role.

She said: "I was lying on a sunbed in Benidorm and got texts on the same day from two different people.

"One was somebody who had been my student, and one was a prison chaplain, and both of them said they wanted to nominate me as moderator.

"I said that is crazy, absolutely crazy."

She added that she was told by her former student she would be "a breath of fresh air" in the role, while the chaplain told her that both Barlinnie and the Church were going through transitions.

She takes over next May, with the Church facing challenges - including parishioner numbers declining and many historic buildings being sold off.

The moderator chairs the General Assembly which involves commissioners - ministers, elders and deacons - examining the work and laws of the Church and making decisions that affect its future.

They also act as the church's ambassador, representing the church in Scotland and abroad.

Rev Clancy said the theme of her year as moderator would be love.

During the Covid-19 pandemic she ran Barlinnie's Barbed Wireless radio station and styled herself as DJ Jolly Jilly, while she also once jumped out a plane at 10,000ft to raise money to take her community choir to New York for Tartan Week

She lives in Ayrshire with husband Frank, a retired residential care worker who she says is her "rock", and the couple's two abradors, Freddie, and Mairi, a retired prison sniffer dog.