The minister who had to stand down as Moderator of the Church of Scotland last year due to ill health is to be next to take the post.
The Kirk said Rev Dr Angus Morrison has recovered from illness and will be Moderator Designate of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland before taking on the role in May.
Mr Morrison, 61, minister of Orwell and Portmoak Church in the Presbytery of Perth, was forced to withdraw from the role last March and was replaced by Right Rev John Chalmers, who was then Principal Clerk of the Kirk.
Mr Morrison said will oversee the next stage of the Kirk's move towards further acceptance of gay ordination sparked by the appointment of the openly gay Rev Scott Rennie to an Aberdeen church in 2009.
The one-year post also includes an ambassadorial role with engagements and visits around Scotland and abroad.
Mr Morrison said: "It is a great honour to have been nominated as Moderator Designate for 2015.
"I am thankful that a very good recovery, following surgery, has made it possible for me to accept the nomination.
"My wife and I are deeply appreciative of the support and prayers of so many across the Church during this recent difficult period.
"In dependence on God's grace, I look forward to the opportunities and challenges of the year ahead."
He added: "On various fronts these are difficult days for our Church, as they are for many other denominations.
"We may at times find ourselves perplexed and saddened, but as people of Christian faith there is no real place for discouragement.
"The Church exists, not for itself, but as God's agent for the extending of His kingdom's just and gracious rule in the world.
"The mission of our Lord continues, and it is our privilege and responsibility to join him in this. In that connection, good news stories are plentiful of faithful and imaginative work going on in congregations and parishes throughout Scotland.
"Despite all the problems we face, God's Spirit is evidently at work among us. The challenge before us is to resist distraction, allowing the commission given to us by Jesus himself, to 'go and make disciples', to remain firmly at the top of our agenda."
Dr Morrison, who has served as a chaplain to the Queen, began his church career when he was ordained in the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland.
He served parishes in Oban and Edinburgh before he transferred to the Church of Scotland, becoming the minister of St Columba's Old Parish Church in Stornoway.
He added: "My main hope and prayer for the year ahead is that it may be possible to encourage a fresh focus on the centralities of our faith and calling, and that we may find new ways to bring encouragement and support to one another, so that in the power of the Holy Spirit, the vital ministries with which we have been entrusted, in fellowship with all God's people, may truly flourish, for the enrichment of the people of Scotland and beyond."
Mr Morrison, who has a degree in Classics and speaks Italian and Gaelic, is married to Marion who is a primary school teacher in Fife.
The couple have four children between the ages of 16 and 29.
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