Reid was born in Hawick, Scotland and educated at Galashiels Academy in the Scottish Borders.
[1] He attended the University of Edinburgh where he studied French and German literature, graduating with an MA in 1963.
[2] Reid was ordained to the priesthood in 1968 and began his ministry with a curacy at St Salvador's Edinburgh,[3] after which he was a tutor at Salisbury Theological College.
In 1972, he was named Rector of St Michael and All Saints, Edinburgh and served in that position until he was appointed Provost of Inverness Cathedral in 1984.
[2] Reid was named Archdeacon of Italy and Malta in 2000 and served in that capacity until 2004, when he was appointed Rector of Saint Clement's Church, Philadelphia in the United States in 2004.