Meet Our Rector

Our Rector is the Rev. Clive Clapson, B.A., M.Div. Born in Portsmouth, England, in 1955, he grew up and was educated in Canada. A graduate of Leeds University (1976) and Trinity College Toronto (1979), Father Clive was ordained Deacon in 1979 and Priest in 1980. He ministered in Canada, the USA, and England before arriving in Scotland with his wife Katie and their two children in 1990. Father Clive was Rector of St. Ninian’s in Invergordon (1990-2000) and St. Mary’s Carden Place in Aberdeen (2000-5). He was appointed to St. Salvador’s in June 2005. Our Rector is a long-standing member of the Society of the Holy Cross (SSC - a fraternity of mission-minded catholic clergy in Anglican orders) and is a life member of the Guild of All Souls (seeking to support ministry to the dying and encourage prayer for the departed). Father Clive’s wide Church interests include Eastern Orthodox history, liturgy, theology and spirituality, as well as developments in Anglican history, theology, liturgy, art and architecture in the Victorian period. He also enjoys Church and other music of all kinds. Father Clive’s leisure interests include the Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, military history, cooking, writing, and travel (chiefly to Canada and Greece).

What is Father Clive’s favourite Bible passage? “There are so many”, he says. “But Genesis 2: 18-25 takes some beating because it is so fundamental. Sin cuts us off from God and from each other. God the Father creates, God the Son rescues and God the Spirit re-creates us to overcome that sin-caused wound of human loneliness and disconnectedness. It is because it is not good that human beings should be alone that God came to earth, remains in our lives, and continues to connect us to Himself and to each other through the Church and Sacraments. He intends that we should have a completely unself-conscious relationship with Him that is reflected in all our other relationships.”

How is the new Rector enjoying St. Salvador’s? “It’s a small and interesting bunch of diverse people who love to seek God in a special sort of way in one of the most beautiful and unique church buildings anywhere in Scotland,” Father Clive says. “What’s not to enjoy?”

What can we look forward to at St. Salvador’s under Father Clive’s care, guidance and leadership? “Blood, toil, tears and sweat”, he says. “We shall continue to offer and receive the Sacrament of Christ’s Blood with all the very best that we can muster liturgically. We’re going to toil hard to improve our outreach to our members, neighbourhood and city. There will be tears because without vulnerability we cannot show Christ’s care, concern and love, and, if we ARE Christ to others, then we can expect to be hurt as He was and is. And there will be lots of sweat, not just from working hard, but because we are stepping out in faith, with no safety net, relying only on the One who is among us and who calls us to walk with Him on the churning waves.”

Father Clive Clapson