Reformer
As a commissioner from St. Andrews Pont was present at a meeting of the first general assembly of the reformers at Edinburgh on 20 December 1560, and he was one of twenty within the bounds of St. Andrews declared by the assembly to be qualified for ministry and teaching. He was chosen one of a committee to revise the Book of Discipline, printed in 1561. At a meeting of the general assembly in July 1562 Pont was appointed to minister the word and sacraments at Dunblane, and in December of the same year he was appointed minister of Dunkeld. He was also the same year nominated, along with Alexander Gordon, as bishop of Galloway; but the election was not proceeded with.
On 26 June 1563 Pont was appointed commissioner of the northern coastal areas Moray, Inverness, and Banff. After visiting, he confessed his inability, on account of his ignorance of Gaelic, to carry out his duties; but on the understanding that he was not to be in charge of Gaelic-speaking churches, he accepted a renewal. To the general assembly in 1564, and printed in 1565, Pont contributed six metrical psalms; and at a meeting of the general assembly in December 1566 his translation of the Helvetic Confession was ordered to be printed.
On 13 January 1567 he was presented to the parsonage and vicarage of Birnie, Banffshire. By the assembly which met in December 1567 he was commissioned to execute sentence of excommunication against Adam Bothwell, bishop of Orkney, for performing the marriage ceremony between the Earl of Bothwell and Mary Queen of Scots; by that in July 1568 he was appointed one of a committee to revise the Treatise of Excommunication originally penned by John Knox; and by that in 1569 he was named one of a committee to proceed against the Earl of Huntly for his adherence to popery.
By the 1569 assembly a petition was presented to the regent James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray and council that Pont might be appointed where his labours might be more fruitful than in Moray; and in July 1570 he also asked the assembly to be relieveed of his commission, but was requested to continue until the next assembly. At the assembly of July 1570 he acted as moderator. On 27 June 1571 he was appointed provost of Trinity College, near Edinburgh. He attended the convention which met at Leith in January 1571–2, and by this convention he was permitted to accept the office of lord of session, given to him by the regent John Erskine, 1st Earl of Mar on account of his legal knowledge of the laws.
Pont was, along with John Wynram, commissioned by Knox to communicate his last wishes to the general assembly which met at Perth in 1572. In 1573 he received a pension out of the thirds of the diocese of Moray. At the assembly which met in August of this year he was delated for non-residence in Moray;’ and at the assembly held in March 1574 he demitted his office in favour of George Douglas. The same year he was translated to the second charge of St. Cuthbert's, Edinburgh; and in 1578 to the first charge of the same parish.
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