Face to Face: "You need a relationship not just with God but also with your church family, the people you sit next to in the pew" - Rachel Hutcheson

Interviewed by Russell Leadbetter

IT was, as ever, a busy week at the Kirk's General Assembly on the Mound.

People in same-sex relationships can now be called as ministers. A major new drive to recruit ministers was launched. Subjects ranging from food banks and poverty to fracking were all debated.

There were, however, also references to underlying problems facing the Church of Scotland, from declining membership to a disengagement from church by younger generations.

How the Kirk must wish it had more young people like Rachel Hutcheson. The 25-year-old has the church in her blood: both her parents are church elders, and she attended Sunday school and youth groups. Last August she became the latest Moderator of the National Youth Assembly, a post that lasts a full year. Engaging and thoughtful, she is good on the subject of the church but she also has an internationalist streak: she has worked as an aid worker in Romania, has camped in the jungle of Tanzania, and has spoken to Jews and Arabs in the Holy Land.

Added to all of which, she will begin working as a primary-school teacher despite having had her own problems with dyslexia. Inverness-born, she supports her local team, Caley Thistle. It's not much of an educated guess to say she will be at Hampden this Saturday, willing them to beat Falkirk in the Scottish Cup final.

"It's been brilliant," she says of her time as Youth Moderator, which runs until August. "It's been very, very busy. I've met so many wonderful people along the way and hopefully I've done some good as well."

Last year's NYA, which she chaired, got its teeth into some serious issues, examining "how we worship in the church, how the church spends its money, how we work intergenerationally, and the Middle East."

This last issue had a special relevance for her. She visited Israel and Palestine with the church in 2008 "and that really opened my eyes, because obviously I saw both sides of the story.

"I met Jewish people and listened as they told me how difficult it is for them, and I met Muslim people who are basically trapped within the walls. I sympathise with both sides but I cannot express how much I think there just has to be a way to find peace. The gates must be opened.

"One story that got to me was that some people who live in the city of Bethlehem have a farm on the outside. Since the security barrier has gone up, they've not been able to get to their farmland, and that has caused huge problems. Lots of talking, and lots of prayers for peace, are what is needed. You've got to have hope that peace might be possible." Last Tuesday, incidentally, Rev Páraic Réamonn, Kirk minister in Jerusalem, told the Assembly that Palestinian Christians might want the Kirk to reconsider the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hutcheson herself addressed the Assembly for 20 minutes on another issue. Hope runs through this one, too: intergenerational worship, and keeping young people engaged with the church.

"It's still very much a problem but, again, I think there's hope," she said. "One of the most important things in Church life for me is good relationships with people. You need a relationship not just with God but also with your church family, the people you sit next to in the pew.

"Working intergenerationally is the key to good relationships, to keeping young people in the church.

"In quite a lot of churches you have the standard hymn-prayer 'sandwich'," she says. "You have the Sunday school and the youth group, but the older folk will see these things and think, 'That's nice'. But they won't know if the younger people have any fears, or if little Johnny has an allergy, or even what they're all interested in.

"However, when people do take an interest in getting to know folk, that's what builds up relationships, and that's what keeps you there, because kids are just desperate to talk, to be listened to. That's what will keep a child interested in you: they'll want to tell you everything."

This support could be important to teenagers in the church once they start to question things they learned at Sunday school. Without support, some might leave the Kirk, a minority will "conform and not really know why they believe that."

It's "absolutely" her ambition for the church to attract "new" young people, though exactly how is something she, like others, has still to workout.

But she is intent on raising the NYA's profile, having been astounded by the number of church members who either didn't know it existed or, if they did, had no idea what it was all about.

"There are misconceptions that it's just a Scripture Union weekend, or a bible study. The NYA is the only tool within the church that allows young people to have their voice heard, and this is our formal mechanism for getting it into the General Assembly, for us to say - this is what the young people think, this is what we'd like you to do. Do you support us or do you not?"

She firmly believes that "society definitely needs the church: you see it in a time of crisis, that's where people flock to." To make the church more relevant, she acknowledges, "we have to think how we can serve the people more."

The day after the interview, Hutcheson finished her studies at the University of Aberdeen. She graduates next month, and in August she begins her time as a probationary teacher, "hopefully" in Inverness.

Asked if teaching could become her vocation, she responds, "I hope so ... until I marry Prince Harry ..." She was a Sunday School teacher, a Scout leader and a Beaver leader, and a friend asked her when she was going to apply to become a teacher. The wide-ranging nature of primary teaching is of real appeal to her; "you also have your own class, and I really feel I can make a difference to these children."

She admits that she struggled with reading while at school but managed to hide it by memorising books. In time, her dyslexia was diagnosed - her parents were so sure something was amiss that they bought a computer so that they could do research - and addressed. Now, she cannot wait to read aloud to her young charges in primary school.

Her own life experiences have included the time when, just 17, she went to Romania with a charity. "That was a real eye-opener," she recalls. "I got a big shock, as to what poverty really is." She raised £800 to take out with her, and she encountered an orphanage, a school and a hospital. "The hospital," she says, "was frightening."

Nearer home, she has bagged no fewer than 22 Munros, and recently climbed Ben Lomond with the Moderator, Rt Rev John Chalmers, to raise funds for the victims of the Nepal earthquake (Mr Chalmers later admitted that his son and Rachel had both kept him going). The total raised currently stands at £19,454.

As for the rest of the Munros - there are 282 in all - Hutcheson says she hopes to have bagged them all by the time she hits 40. You wouldn't bet against it.

LIVE AND LOVES

Best personality trait: I'm quite a positive person. A lot of people say I'm quite happy and smiley. I'm definitely a glass-half-full person. I have a very can-do attitude.

Worst personality trait: I'm very competitive. Worst loser ever. The Monopoly board has been launched across the living-room before.

Best advice received: When I was growing up my mum always said that good manners will get you anywhere in life. My parents invested a lot of time in teaching me how to conduct myself properly and that is a huge advantage, just knowing how to greet people.

Last film seen: I'm not really a film person, because I just don't have the time, but I did go to see The Hunger Games. I liked that.

Favourite food: I eat anything. A rare steak.

Ideal dinner-party guests: Through being youth moderator I have been invited to many functions and receptions and have met so many fantastic people with such interesting stories. I'm not too fussed about who you are, I want to hear what you've done.