Ministry Team
The Rector – The Reverend Nick Bowry
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Nick is Rector of the linked charge of St James the Less Penicuik and St Mungo, West Linton.
A relatively recent entrant to the priesthood, Nick was ordained Priest in 2017. In his previous career, he held many posts in HR with a range of organisations, including the Medical Research Council, the University of Edinburgh and Bethany Christian Trust.
He has been a member of the Scottish Episcopal Church’s Personnel Committe, the Administration Board and served on General Synod. He has also initiated many projects involving local communities, and is an advocate of asset-based community development. He currently represents the Scottish Episcopal Church (SEC) on the Scottish Faiths’ Action for Refugees group, and is a member of the SEC’s Inter-Faith Relations Committee.
He likes a fairly traditional style of worship, likes a wide variety of types of music and greatly values the role of music in worship. He is a member of the Iona Community, has participated in and supports the Cursillo movement, and enjoys worship in the style of Taizé.
He continues to enjoy walking the pilgrim way to Santiago de Compestela when he can. Apart from walking, he likes reading and meeting and chatting to folk around our local communities.
Other members of the Ministry Team
The Reverend Neville Suttle (part-time voluntary ministry)
Our dear brother in Christ died on 3rd May 2023, and his funeral was held in St James the Less on 30th May. Neville was buried in the cemetery in Eddleston, next to his wife Tilly, who died in March this year. Our prayers and sympathies go to his family. A copy of the eulogy can be found here.
Neville came to live in Penicuik from Aberdeen in 1964, with wife Tilly, to become research scientist at Moredun Institute, Edinburgh. Neville was ordained Deacon in 1976 and Priest in 1977. He served in both St Mungo’s and St James-the-Less Penicuik as a self-supporting priest.
The Reverend Peter Woodifield (part-time voluntary ministry)
I have been worshipping at St Mungo’s for more than 30 years, but was only ordained in 2019 and am now in the final year of my curacy at St Mungo’s and St James the Less.
I grew up in the south o
f England and had never lived north of Oxford until Markie and I moved to Scotland in 1988. I had spent the previous 12 years working as a political journalist at the Houses of Parliament, mainly for the Aberdeen Press & Journal. I soon switched to writing about business and finance and spent most of the next 25 years working for first The Scotsman and Bloomberg News, the American equivalent of Reuters, with a spell in public relations sandwiched in between.
My church background was broadly traditional Anglican in my childhood, but as a young married couple we found ourselves attracted to the more evangelical, charismatic style of worship, which is what I still prefer. I particularly enjoy preaching the Gospel and offering Biblical studies. I am currently studying for a Masters in Theology as I still have lots to learn.
Outside my work in the ministry team in St Mungo’s and St James, I am fully retired, giving me more time for my hobbies of golf and bridge. I follow most sports to a greater or lesser extent – apologies to those who love angling! Like most football fans, I despair at the inability of my two favourite teams, Tottenham Hotspurs and Aberdeen, to challenge regularly for trophies. All too often it is a case of so near and yet so far!
Joy Middleton – Lay Reader
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I have been a Lay Reader for about ten years – originally licenced and working in south-west London, within the Southwark diocese. I was also licenced to the Diocese of Glasgow and Galloway to enable me to work (mainly during a vacancy) in Kirkcudbright where Pete and I have a holiday home.
I have spent most of my life living and teaching Religious Studies in the London area. I have taught every secondary year-group in multi-ethnic secondary modern, comprehensive, grammar and private-sector schools.
I was originally a Baptist, but trained at the Anglican Christ Church College Canterbury (now Canterbury Christ Church University) as a Religious Studies teacher. That was half a century ago when RS was still called Divinity.
We moved to West Linton in 2018 to be near our grandchildren. I was licenced as Lay Reader for St James the Less and the Diocese of Edinburgh in June 2020.
Chris Shaw – Lay Reader
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My husband and I moved to West Linton in August 2019 after 35 years in North Yorkshire. There I worked as a General Practitioner until retirement in 2010 and trained to be a Lay Reader in the following 2 years. I love preaching the Bible and have a passion to see our lives increasingly match the Christian model we see in the New Testament.