Former Evening News advertising executive is Church of Scotland's newest minister

A former advertising executive with the Evening News has swapped his career in newspapers to become the Church of Scotland’s newest minister.

John Gow was ordained and inducted at Portsoy Church in Aberdeenshire on Friday night.

The 56-year-old grew up in Falkirk and joined the News and The Scotsman back in 1989 as a tele-ad, working in classified telesales on the sixth floor of the old North Bridge building.

He later moved on to various other positions – advertising exec, sales support exec, sales support manager, planning manager.

And he was still involved with the News as business control manager when he finished in 2016, although by then it was for all Johnston Press Scottish titles and he had moved to the Falkirk Herald office.

During his 27 years with the papers, Mr Gow was also an occasional copywriter and feature writer. And he self-published a children’s book a few years ago.

He left to train for the ministry and studied at Highland Theological College in Dingwall and graduated in 2019.

Mr Gow said he was excited about his new role in one of the most beautiful parts of Scotland.

Rev John Gow used to work at the Evening News

“I’m so glad that God has called me to ministry and I’m so glad he has called me to Portsoy,” he said. “The town is full of friendly, warm folk with a real sense of togetherness and I’m looking forward to further strengthening the church’s place at the heart of the community.”

He will be the first full-time minister at Portsoy Church, which also serves the communities of Fordyce and Sandend, for nearly five years.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.