A FORMER social scientist has swapped surveys for sermons at a Port Glasgow church.

Reverend Lisa Curtice is delighted to be the new rector at St Mary's Episcopal Church after an absence of four and a half years.

Lisa, 71, recently qualified in the ministry following an academic career as a social scientist working in qualitative research for more than 30 years, much of it with community based initiatives.

Reverend Lisa Curtice  (Image: Duncan Bryceland)

She was called to the ministry and spent three years at the Scottish Episcopal Institute, training as a curate alongside local minister Reverend Susan Henderson of the United Reformed Church.

Lisa, the priest in charge, said: "I was curate for the Episcopal Church in Renfrewshire, so I had previously served at St Mary's, my last placement was at St John's in Johnstone."

The grandmother quipped: "This is my first and last post in the church."

She said: "I am loving Port Glasgow, I am using public transport to get around, it's a good way to meet new people. I have been chummed off the bus, when I found myself at the wrong stop.

"People are so friendly. I've been finding out what used to happen in the church before Covid, such as bingo.

"I am hoping to build up the community connections, we have hired the charity shop in the town for four weeks and we have the Heartland Circle which meets every Thursday for people with dementia and their carers, we hope to build that up again and also revive the Clydemen Lunch Club for ex-shipyard workers and generate a list of guest speakers."

Lisa added: "I am keen to get to know the community and what they want and their needs.

"We all know Sundays worship no longer suit young families, we want to engage with meaning and purpose. Church is not just about a Sunday."

Lisa is also enjoying the views over the water from her window and is looking forward to tackling the garden, a 'work in progress'.

Her academic career has seen her working at Liverpool, Edinburgh, and Glasgow universities.

But her research into the conditions of patients in the former Lennox Castle Hospital led her to change direction and work for the Third Sector.

Scotland's largest hospital for people with learning difficulties closed 20 years ago amid claims of torture and neglect.

She added: "I was so shocked that this was happening in my city."

Her last post was the Director of the Craighead Institute as a pastoral tutor.

Other posts include Director of the Scottish Consortium for Learning Disability and Programme Director for People Powered Health and Wellbeing at the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland.

She has carried her faith since childhood and says her calling to the ministry is just an extension of her previous work and who she is.

Lisa was born in Blackburn but her family moved to Brighton when she was five.

But her faith has been with her since childhood and says her calling to the ministry is just an extension of her previous work and who she is.

Her mother was a Quaker and her father a Roman Catholic but she became a member of the Episcopal Church and her own church for the last 30 years has been St Mary's Cathedral in Glasgow.

But she loves her new church and is delighted with all the modern facilities that go with it, including a meeting room and hall.

Lisa said: "The original church dates back to the 19th century - 1855 - and was in the town. It's a beautiful church, the glass and altar were brought up the hill to this church, which was built in the 1980s."

She said: "The view is absolutely amazing. It is a very friendly community."