A MINISTER who publicly forgave the perpetrators of a terrorist attack that killed his mother and four other close relatives, will become the first person born in South Asia to be installed as a Presbytery Moderator.
Rev Aftab Gohar, who is originally from Pakistan, said he was “honoured and humbled” to have been chosen to be the Church of Scotland’s figurehead in Falkirk and district for the next 12 months.
His installation tonight will also make history, as it is among the first to be live streamed on video conferencing platform, Zoom due to the
current closure of churches.
The 52-year-old minister has served Abbotsgrange Parish Church in Grangemouth since 2008 and he and his wife Samina and their two sons, Shahan, 24, and Zeeshan, 22, are now British citizens.
READ MORE: Scots could be asked to book places and wear masks when churches re-open
In a separate service, Rev William Wilson, of Burnside Blairbeth Church, was installed as the new Moderator of the Presbytery of Glasgow.
Mr Gohar said: “It is a great opportunity and I am feeling very honoured and humbled.”
The minister grew up in Peshawar and was ordinated into the Church of Pakistan in 1995.
He first came to Scotland to study at the University of Edinburgh for a year in 1998-99 and returned again to work as full-time Kirk minister in 2008.
Mr Gohar suffered heartache in 2013 when his 79-year-old mother, nephew, niece, two uncles and other friends and relatives were among 122 people killed in a terrorist attack at their Christian church in Peshawar.
Speaking shortly after the atrocity, he said what the terrorists did was wrong but he forgave them and prayed that they would learn that it was not right to kill innocent people.
Mr Gohar said he was taking up the role of Presbytery Moderator at an interesting time for the church amid the Covid-19 pandemic, which has led to the temporary closure of buildings.
READ MORE: First Minister shows support for Herald memorial campaign
He said: “Almost all churches in Falkirk Presbytery are providing online worship for their congregations and the three churches in Grangemouth have provided a united service for the last 12 weeks.
“We are all doing daily reflections and Bible studies and reaching out to people who did not go to church before or had stopped going.
“The online engagement has been good and shows that people are very invested in what we are providing during these uncertain times.
“Once lockdown has eased, we will be a different church but we know that different denominations of churches around the world are in the same position – we are all in it together.”
Mr Gohar is succeeding Rev Dr Mary Henderson who is also retiring as the minister of Lauriston with Redding and Westquarter Churches.
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel