Description
Scottish church movers and shakers of the 20th century
NANSIE BLACKIE (ED.)
176pp
An answer to a premature obituary of the Churches in Scotland
Perspectives on the issues that we all face through the eyes of great movers and shakers of past and present.
Through a series of short, personal pieces by some of today’s most valued commentators, we learn about the men and women who were the great movers and shakers of the twentieth century. We admire the profusion of gifts, clarity of vision, depth of commitment and springs of endless inspiration that characterised them.
The book contains the following pieces by the following authors:
- J.H. Oldham by Andrew Morton
- John and Donald Baillie by George Newlands
- Archie Craig by Ian Mackenzie
- George Fielden MacLeod by Ross Flockhart
- Robert Mackie by Nansie Blackie
- Isobel Forrester by Julie R. Baxter
- Lesslie Newbigin by Duncan Forrester
- Ronnie Gregor Smith by Davis McCaughey and Harry Wardlaw
- Maidie Hart by Anne Hepburn
- Margaret and Ian Fraser by Catherine Hepburn
- James Campbell Blackie by Bill Shaw
- Mary Levison by Robin Barbour
- Geoff Shaw by John Harvey
EXTRACT
Introduction
I have given this compendium the title \"A Time for Trumpets\" both to acknowledge and to celebrate our church visionaries of the twentieth century.
In a Scottish broadsheet at the turn of the twenty-first century I chanced on a rare serious remark on church matters – normally the preserve of controversy or scandal. It claimed that the reformed tradition was and had been for decades ill served in terms of vision and leadership. I strongly disagreed. Looking back I began to hear voices, see faces and it was suddenly clear how little we listened and how soon we forget.
Even in one life, lived not at all at the centre of things, I have known church people with such a profusion of gifts, clarity of vision, depth of commitment, springs of inspiration, that it seemed as if the journalist must have been living in another country. I discovered that very many agreed with my reaction. What about, people said, John Baillie or Archie Craig or Ronnie Gregor Smith or George McLeod or ... The list lengthened.
From this grew the idea to bring together under one cover a variety of reflections by a range of writers about some of these \"movers and shakers\" of the last century. I've avoided the term church \"leader\" as inappropriate within the reformed tradition. This itself is, of course, a source of some confusion to our secular press, which tends to transfer its obsession with a celebrity culture to church affairs, looking for bishops at least, but preferably cardinals.
Concern that as many of the writers as possible should have personal experience of those of whom they write, combined with the urgency of age, led me to abandon notions of even-handedness over theology, gender and denomination as principles of selection. In the end, the only principle is serendipity – in terms of my own experience. My motive behind the whole project is less piety towards our recent predecessors than profound conviction that their legacy to us is by no means merely of historical value but is highly relevant to the present and future of the church in the twenty-first century. Many of their ideas were not even tried, others were too briefly applied. Some – perhaps many – have resurfaced in recent reports accepted by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. It is informative, for example, to compare the war-time Baillie Report, the post-war \"Church Extension\" movement, the thinking behind team ministries, the Gorbals Group, \"Tell Scotland\" and the range of Aberdeen 1957 Kirk Week, with the content of the 2001 \"Church without Walls\" report. I cannot agree with the reactions of some of my own contemporaries – \"What's new? We were initiating these things fifty years ago\". True, but there is such a thing as \"a time that is come\" – \"kairos\"? At the very least, better knowledge of the tradition can but re-inforce its strengths.
The writers between these covers know or knew their subjects to a greater or less degree – as did I. In one case, in Charlotte Bronte's words, \"Reader, I married him\". So I made my choice – which could have included many more. I was heartened when the diverse and distinguished writers responded so readily. Their approaches to their subjects are similarly diverse and personal and I did not regard it as my editorial function to tamper with this diversity.
© Nansie Blackie
Nansie Blackie is a published writer who has been deeply involved for many years in the Churches in Scotland. She has strong ecumenical interests, and she lives in Edinburgh.