HELENSBURGH Parish Church’s minister has announced that he will be moving on from the role in the new year.

Rev David T Young, who is also minister at Rhu and Shandon Parish Church and is currently a chaplain in the Royal Navy, took to social media to reveal that he has accepted an offer of a full time position with the RAF, and he will leave his current post in February 2022.

Sharing a post on the church’s Facebook page, the minister said there was “no easy way” to make the announcement.

He said: “For the last few months, I have been engaged in deep prayer and, after many discussions with colleagues in the Church of Scotland and in the armed forces, I have discerned that God’s timing for me is now.

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"Every ministry I’ve had the privilege of engaging in has been about preparing me for this next chapter.

“I know that my news will not come as a surprise to many of you, and that to others it may be a bit of a shock.

"Please know that this is not easy for me. It is very much a bittersweet time – preparing to leave people and a place I have come to love is difficult and extremely emotional.

“That said, one thing I have learned, from a very early age, is that when God calls, we cannot escape it.”

Mr Young said he had sensed a calling towards military chaplaincy from very early in his career and that that feeling had never diminished - "indeed, it has been affirmed time after time since I was commissioned into the Royal Navy some two years ago".

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He will officially leave his post on February 28, but allowing for accrued holidays, his final service will be on Sunday, January 30.

"Change is never easy in whatever form it comes," he added, "but we are never called to stand still on this amazing journey with Christ, and we must all go forward in faith trusting that God is bigger than any of us and has plans beyond our imagining.

"As I prepare for my seventh and final Christmas with you my fervent prayer is that we might all know the blessings and peace of the child born in the manger.

"As I hold each of you in my prayers in the days, weeks and months ahead I ask please that you keep me in yours."

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