A FORMER supermarket checkout worker from Selkirk is helping to bring girl power to the pulpit.

Louise Mackay has been ordained and inducted as minister into St Nicholas Church in Lanark.

Family and friends gathered last week for her ordination service last week.

Louise told the Border Telegraph: "I am delighted and blessed that I have been called to St Nicholas.

"I am excited about what the future holds for myself, for the congregation and for the local community.

"I hope that I am able to use my energy, creativity and zest to lead my new congregation and in the context of the wider work done by the Church of Scotland."

The 27-year-old was raised in Selkirk before gaining a degree in psychology from Napier University in Edinburgh.

She worked as a checkout supervisor at Morrisons in the city's Gyle shopping centre during her studies

Louise was mentored by the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Right Rev Dr Russell Barr, as well as the Moderator Designate for 2017-18, Rev Dr Derek Browning.

Around 300 people, including 40 from Dr Barr’s church in Edinburgh, attended the ordination service at St Nicholas Church last Thursday evening.

The Moderator said: “As well as being a very special occasion for Louise, her family, and her new congregation, it was also a special occasion for me and the people of Cramond Kirk

“She spent the final 15 months of her training there and it was a delight to see her grow and develop into the thoughtful, caring and highly skilled minister which she has now become.

"It was a pleasure to supervise Louise and, despite the wintry conditions, about 40 people travelled from Cramond to attend the service and show their support which is a sign of how highly she is regarded.

“She could not have been made more welcome by the people of St Nicholas and by her new colleagues in Lanark Presbytery.”

The protege of the Moderator becomes the third new minster to bring girl power to the pews in neighbouring parishes in less than a year.

Rev Elspeth MacLean, 61, a former small animal vet, took up her post at Forth St Paul's Parish Church in September last year.

And Rev Maudeen MacDougall started work as the minister for the parishes of Carstairs and Carnwath, last March.

All three ladies, along with Dr Barr, are strong supporters of the Church’s Tomorrow’s Calling campaign.

Ms MacDougall was ordained in 1978 and in 1984 became the minister at Dundee: Meadowside St Paul's Church where she spent more than 25 years.

She said: ""Speaking as a minister who remembers the days when it was quite usual to be the only woman among a multitude of men, it is good to have many women in the ministry.

"We all - women and men - have our unique personalities and distinctive gifts.

"We are ever equipping ourselves afresh for the challenges of the 21st century, with the assistance of the wealth of talent within the Church’s membership.”

Edinburgh raised Ms MacLean moved to Forth after spending five years working as a minister on the Inner Hebrides island of Tiree.

She worked as a vet in Glasgow then Aberdeen before she decided to change career when she was in her 50s.

Ms MacLean described the move as a culture shock but she successfully graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity degree from the University of Aberdeen then took up her first minister post on Tiree in 2011.

Reflecting on her time so far in Forth, Ms MacLean said: “I have been made most welcome here.

"I am enjoying working in a larger church with a great team of elders and a delightful congregation who are all ready to help and support each other, and their minister.

"The church is physically, and spiritually, in the centre of the village, and I have been amazed at how well the whole community support any church events.

"Lanark Presbytery has also welcomed me with open arms, and I am revelling in the novelty of having neighbouring ministers with whom I can meet up for a coffee and a chat without a three-day weather dependent trip by boat or plane.”