The Church of Scotland's first female Asian minister has been named Woman of the Year less than 12 months after she was ordained.
Reverend Aquila Singh said she felt "honoured" to be recognised at the 12th Scottish Asian and Business Awards in Glasgow on Thursday night.
The Woman of the Year accolade recognises the achievements of an inspirational person who has made a positive impact on society.
Rev Singh, who was ordained and inducted into Fernhill and Cathkin Parish Church in Rutherglen in January, was voted for by the public.
She said: "I am honoured to receive this award, it has been quite a year for me.
"I began it being ordained and inducted into my first charge, and I ended it winning Woman of the Year.
"It was quite a night with lots of worthy people winning awards, including many women.
Rev Singh, who still thinks of herself as the "wee lassie from Pollokshields", said "God worked in many strange and wonderful ways".
She added: "If you would have told me eight years ago that I would become a minister and then win Woman of the Year I would have laughed heartily at the suggestion.
"I want to thank the Church of Scotland for believing enough in me in the first place and accepting me into the ministry programme.
"It was hard work and at times challenging, but I have the most amazing time and made lifelong friends."
Rev Singh was born in Pakistan and moved to Glasgow when she was two.
Rev George Cowie, clerk to the Presbytery of Glasgow, congratulated Ms Singh on her win.
He said: "We were delighted to hear that Aquila has been recognised in this way.
"In many ways, her award acknowledges the increasingly inclusive nature of modern-day Scotland where people from different cultures and backgrounds are valued for the contributions that they make.
"The Church can be part of that story, by welcoming and affirming others."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here