Matthew Ross

Matthew Ross is a minister of the Church of Scotland. In April 2014 he became General Secretary of Action of Churches Together in Scotland.

Background

He was born in Dundee, Scotland, in 1967. He is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh (LLB and BD) and also graduated with a Master of Theology degree from the University of Glasgow in 2003. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Both he and his wife Kristina are ministers of the Church of Scotland.

Ministry

Between 1996 and 1998 he served as a probationer for the ministry at Duddingston Kirk in Edinburgh. In 1998 he was ordained a minister by the Church of Scotland's Presbytery of St Andrews. The Rev Matthew Ross served as minister at Ceres and Springfield Parish Church, Fife, between 1998 and 2003. He was also a member of the Church of Scotland's Board of Practice and Procedure (1999-2003); he was appointed acting Depute Clerk to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 2002-3.

In 2003 he moved to Brussels to work as Executive Secretary of the Church and Society Commission of the Conference of European Churches; additionally, in 2009, he served as Moderator of the Church of Scotland's Presbytery of Europe. He then returned to parish ministry in Scotland, serving at the Parishes of Cockpen and Carrington linked with Lasswade and Rosewell in Midlothian (2009-2014). From 2009 he has been a member of the Church of Scotland's Church and Society Council and Committee on Ecumenical Relations.

In 2014 he was appointed to succeed Stephen Smyth as General Secretary of Action of Churches Together in Scotland (ACTS).