Centuries ago, legions of Scots boarded ships bound for America, bringing with them their Presbyterian faith and strong work ethic.
Now, their descendants are returning to the Church of Scotland - the Mother Kirk.
In recent years, a number of American ministers have moved across the Atlantic, driven by a desire to embrace their historical roots and adopt a more community-based approach to religious faith.
It is a perspective I am somewhat familiar with - my mother, Julia, has been the Church of Scotland minister in Peterhead, on the windswept Buchan coast, for the last five years.
“I moved to Scotland two weeks before lockdown,” Sarah Smith, who is the minister at Forthview Parish Church in Rosyth, tells me. It was March 2020 - and the streets of Edinburgh were filled with rugby fans as Scotland battled France at Murrayfield.
We all know what happened next, so let us rewind.
Rev Smith, from Georgia, spent time as an assistant minister in Northern Ireland while studying at Columbia Seminary in Atlanta.
“The minister I was working with asked what I was going to do next, and suggested I check out the Church of Scotland’s programme for people ordained in different denominations,” she tells me.
After an intensive assessment weekend, which saw prospective candidates probed and questioned about all matters of things, from Christian theology to Scottish life and culture, Rev Smith was assigned to a church in Edinburgh for a year-long familiarisation period.
It is not an easy gig. The scrutiny of being a foreigner in a foreign land, let alone one entrusted with the care of souls, is daunting at first.
Yet, Rev Smith is far from alone.
Three years before the churches closed during the dark days of the pandemic, Chicagoan Teri Peterson also made the trip across the Atlantic.
Her relationship with Scotland began nearly twenty years before, during a summer spent living and working at Iona Abbey in the Inner Hebrides.
While stints at two churches in the Chicago suburbs were fruitful, Rev Peterson continued to crave the connection she found with the remote island community.
“A lot of friends I made during that time became Church of Scotland ministers. I wanted to get back to Scotland for some time,” Rev Peterson, who serves at St John's Church in Gourock, says.
A key selling point for both women is the close-knit structure of the Kirk’s parish system.
“I really strongly believe in the parish system,” Rev Peterson remarks. “Having an innate, DNA level connection to our community that we are situated in really matters to me. I really believe that community is the only way the world survives, if we don’t get better at being community, then we are kinda doomed.”
Similarly, Rev Smith tells me: “At my church in Georgia, the minister was seen as quite high up in the community. Here, it’s not about my status in the community, it’s about the church’s connection with the community.
“We have a Tuesday cafe called Soup and Natter and when schools are on holiday, we started doing lunches one day a week. It's about looking at the needs of the community, and about how we can support the community given it is not an affluent area.”
Rev Peterson says that day-to-day life in her Inverclyde parish is less corporate than ministry in the States.
She tells me: “I used to spend a lot more of my time in the church office, now I spend a lot of my day doing things in the community. I helped to start the local farmers market, I go to community council meetings, and I visit the schools.
“You can often find me chatting to parishioners in the pub drinking coffee” - she laughs - “and gin”.
“I’m not going to shove religion down your throat,” Rev Smith says. “Instead, let's have a conversation. We’ll start with the weather, because every conversation in Scotland starts with the weather, and go from there.”
Both women say Scotland has become their home.
Rev Smith, who is applying for her UK citizenship next month, says she now gets a bit of culture shock when she returns to the States.
“When I speak to family and friends, they say we miss you, but Scotland is your home now.
“It is a bit jarring when I go back to America. It is nice to see family and friends but I enjoy going back to the slower pace of life when the trip is over.”
Rev Peterson has had dual citizenship since 2024, a prize well earned after multiple rounds of visas and fees and tests.
She tells me about her wee corner of the West of Scotland, which she says is the best place she has ever lived.
“We are very friendly and open-minded, even though people say Inverclyde is insular.
“This is my home now. It is the best place I have lived.”
Indeed, there is a gentler, more genial spirit at work in the Scottish church, Rev Smith notes.
“In the Church of Scotland, we can still come together even if we have different views on theology. It is not the same in the US,” she says.
“We work together with churches down the street. It is a big tent and there is that ability to come together.”
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Given his views on women in positions of authority (cue the trumpet blast), I won’t attempt to reach out to John Knox for comment.
Yet, it is clear to me that for these American ministers, a return to their spiritual roots is bearing good fruit, both in their lives and in the lives of the parishes they serve.
In a time of division and strife, perhaps we can all take heart in the fact that people of good character and cheer continue to invest in creating a kinder, more just Scotland — regardless of where they were born.
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