From the Minister

Hello!

I’m Teri, and I’ve been the minister at St. John’s since March 2018. As soon as you hear me speak, you’ll know that I wasn’t brought up here, though — I moved here from the Chicago area, where I was a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) for eleven years before moving to Scotland in 2017. I was brought up in the Pacific Northwest (Oregon and Washington State), and my family is still on the west coast of the USA.

By way of introduction…I love to read, and I love my cat, and I love the view from the manse window. I enjoy traveling, learning, and cooking. I have a degree in clarinet performance from DePaul University in Chicago, but I don’t play the clarinet anymore. I have a Master of Divinity from Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta, and I have served as a volunteer on Iona, a missionary in Egypt, a minister in two different suburban Presbyterian churches outside Chicago, and I spent 8 months as an associate minister in Edinburgh during my familiarisation placement. I don’t drive, so luckily I love both walking and public transport! I also serve on the board of RevGalBlogPals, an international organisation of women in ministry.

I know we probably aren’t supposed to have favourites, but….my favourite chapter in the entire Bible is Isaiah 55, and my favourite story in the gospels is in Mark 2 where a man’s friends are so determined to bring him to Jesus that they dig a hole in the roof. I trust Jesus when he says that the greatest commandments, the things that organise our lives and that tell us how to interpret scripture, are to love God and love our neighbour. And I hope that together we can build a community that loves…God, each other, the creation, and the world.

I look forward to getting to know you — feel free to email me anytime: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk.