Before Mr Currie moved to Rothesay, he was a minister of Oakshaw Trinity, which in-volved the union of St John's (of which he became minister in 1980), Paisley High Church, Orr Square and School Wynd Congregational Church.

Now, 35 years after he was first ordained as a minister in the Church of Scotland, Mr Currie will be hanging up his dog collar after this Sunday morning's service.

When we ask about the challenges he has encountered in those five years, he says: "It would be fair to say that the church - not necessarily me - has encountered its fair share of challenges, and I'm full of admiration for the congregation. It's a marvellous church, it really is.

"The generosity of the community is also something which we're so grateful for.

"Seeing such close relationships between people, and how the community can rally around one another in difficult times, is remarkable."
Coming from Paisley to a small community like Bute, there must have been some kind of a shock to the system, but Mr Currie insists it wasn't a negative one.

"It was a culture shock, but in the best possible way," he says. "People who've lived here all their lives sometimes don't recognise just how fortunate they are to stay on Bute.

"We came here with the knowledge that we had a job to do that would last for five years – and that we would be well equipped to tackle the task at hand. However, it really was difficult to leave Paisley, because we'd been there for 25 years."

Jennifer takes up the story: "At Paisley, we were heavily involved in outreach with the church, where we helped to establish the Wynd Centre, which offered counselling services to the community.

"We had made such great friends there, and had built our lives in Paisley."

Mr Currie continues: "We thought that leaving there would be the most difficult thing we'd have to do, and never imagined that leaving Bute would be just as difficult after only five years, but it is!"

Born in Glasgow and schooled at Bellahouston Academy after a spell living in Edinburgh, Mr Currie was a broadcasting engineer with the BBC for eight years and married Jennifer in 1970.

"It's an enormous wealth of work that is required," he says of his ministry role, "and how anyone can manage it alone is beyond me.
"Jennifer has provided me with support like no other, and for that I'm grateful."

Though they're looking forward to their move to Largs, it's clearly a wrench for the Curries to leave the community they've felt so welcome in for the last five years. So why couldn't they just decide to stay?
"The unfortunate thing about my occupation," he says, making it clear that he feels a life in the ministry is much more than just a job, "is that once you finish at a church, you have to leave to make room for your successor.

"Of course there's no law in the Church of Scotland that says you have to leave the community, but it's deemed the correct thing to do. Just imagine the previous minister sitting in the front pew holding up placards for his successor!"