Finlay Macdonald (moderator)

Finlay A. J. Macdonald
Born	1945 Watford, England
Occupation	Minister
Spouse(s)	Elma

Finlay A. J. Macdonald is a retired minister of the Church of Scotland. He was Principal Clerk to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland from 1996 until 2010. In addition to his rapid rise up the ranks of the Church of Scotland, Macdonald is known for fostering co-operation between the various boards and committees which administer the Church and for steering the Church smoothly through its annual business meetings.

Born in 1945 in Watford, England, his family returned to Scotland in 1949, settling in Dundee. His father, John - from the Hebrides - was also a Church of Scotland minister and his grandfather, also John, was a missionary [1]. Finlay Macdonald attended the High School of Dundee, one of Scotland's leading independent schools (and the only such school in Dundee). At age 16, Macdonald began his lifelong career in the ministry when he joined Camperdown Parish Church as an organist. At age 18, Macdonald left the High School of Dundee with the intention of becoming a lawyer.

In 1963, Macdonald matriculated at the University of St Andrews, the oldest university in Scotland and third oldest in the English-speaking world. In his first year of university, Macdonald combined law studies at the city's Queen's College (then part of St Andrews University) with arts subjects in St Andrews. Macdonald subsequently took up the study of philosophy and received his Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in philosophy in 1968. At some point during Macdonald's questioning and creation of theories about the nature of reality, the call to be a lawyer for God had taken hold and Macdonald entered St Mary's College in 1968 with the goal of becoming a minister.

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