Princeton Seminary Names
Iain Torrance as Its Sixth President

Church of Scotland moderator takes office July 1

By Barbara Chaapel, Princeton Theological Seminary
and Jerry L. Van Marter

PRINCETON, NJ—The Board of Trustees of Princeton Theological Seminary today named The Right Rev. Iain R. Torrance, moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and dean of the faculty of arts and divinity at the University of Aberdeen, as its sixth president.

Torrance succeeds the Rev. Thomas G. Gillespie, who is retiring.

Torrance, who also teaches patristics and Christian ethics at Christ's College in Aberdeen, is editor of the Scottish Journal of Theology. In 2001, he was appointed chaplain-in-ordinary to Queen Elizabeth II when she visits Scotland.

He has served as president of the Aberdeen Association of University Teachers and was convener of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland’s Committee on Chaplains to the Forces (1998- 2002). He is a member of the international dialogue between the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Orthodox Church.

His term as moderator of the Church of Scotland concludes in May of this year.

Born in Aberdeen in 1949, Torrance was educated at Edinburgh Academy and Monkton Combe School in Bath. He received the Master of Arts degree from the University of Edinburgh, the Bachelor of Divinity degree from St. Andrews University, and the Doctor of Philosophy degree from Oriel College, Oxford University.

He served as a parish pastor before embarking on his teaching career in 1985 at Queen's Theological College in Birmingham, England. He has been at the University of Aberdeen since 2001.

Torrance will assume the presidency at Princeton, founded in 1812, on July 1.

He is married to Morag Ann (née MacHugh), who is manager of the information technology unit at the University of Aberdeen. They have a son, Hew, and a daughter, Robyn, both university students.