History of Sports Chaplaincy Scotland

To meet the team of Sports Chaplaincy Scotland, click here.

When Mark Fleming was appointed as chaplain to Partick Thistle FC in 1998, he had no idea that this would eventually lead to the forming of Sports Chaplaincy Scotland.  At that time five other Scottish football clubs were known to have chaplains.

John Boyers had appointed one of those chaplains, David Barrie, at Stirling Albion FC and he made regular trips up North to encourage his Scottish counterparts.  He suggested that Mark offered to source and train chaplains for other clubs.  Sports Chaplaincy Scotland effectively started in 2004, when Mark appointed chaplains at Kilmarnock FC and St Mirren FC respectively.

For nine years from 2008 Mark was invited by the Scottish FA to deliver a seminar on the basics and benefits of chaplaincy within football at the UEFA A Licence coaching course.  Consequently, most male football clubs in the top six tiers of Scottish football and most of the top three tier women’s football clubs have invited Mark to appoint a chaplain for them.  In 2014 Mark became full-time in his role as national director of Sports Chaplaincy Scotland in order to continue to lead the way forward.   

Mark has written a book, Confessions of a Football Chaplain, “the hilarious yet heartwarming story” of how chaplaincy developed in Scottish football.

As a result of the work of chaplains in football, Sports Chaplaincy Scotland also serves other sports too, such as shinty, rugby, basketball and athletics.   Such has been the growth of Sports Chaplaincy Scotland, they now have an assistant national director, Stuart Coleman.