Why Going to a Thanksgiving Service is an Essential Gesture of Gratitude

Yesterday I braved the snow and ice to honour a good man whose name will always be associated with the Kirk of St Nicholas in Aberdeen

Rev James Charles Stewart's entire working life was spent in fulfilling a deep commitment to the parish ministry of the Church of Scotland. He died on Hogmanay at the age of 90, full of years and decades of faithful ministry which continued for years beyond his retirement.

I met Jim in 1984 and though very different in personality, church tradition and life story, we became friends in that way that doesn't need frequent meeting and talking to sustain. The times our paths crossed there was nearly always time for a blether about anything from politics to ministry matters to whatever we were reading. For those on this page who will have known Jim, I wanted to mention several reasons I made my way to the 'Mither Kirk' yesterday.

I wanted to honour a good man, whose service to the City was one of the joys of his ministry. The high point was the year when Mikael Gorbachev was given the freedom of the City of Aberdeen, and Jim shared the Civic carriage with him as they processed the length of Union Street.

I wanted to give thanks for Jim, a thoughtful, traditional, and theologically precise preacher, loved of his congregation, respected by the City Councillors, and held in esteem throughout the Church of Scotland. For half a century he was a member of the Aberdeenshire Theological Club and every few years delivered a paper on various hidden corners of Scottish Church history. As current President of the ATC, I wanted to be there in memory of Jim the scholar and repository of the ecclesial traditions of the Kirk.

I was glad to hear again the back-story of Jim Stewart. Precise and meticulous and deeply informed in liturgical theology and practice, he was made for a ministry requiring the public face of the Kirk in city and nation. He brought thoughtful dignity to civic occasions and pastoral encounters alike. And yet. His first full charge was in Drumchapel, one of the most challenging of the Glasgow housing estates. He loved and never undersold the resilience and humanity of the folk in his Glasgow parish. In conversation his humanity and compassion came through in the words and responses of an essentially shy and reserved man, who loved both his vocation, and the people who were on the receiving end of both his gifts and his time.

True to his love of Scottish Reformed liturgy, Jim chose a Hymn, a Psalm and a Scottish paraphrase for the Thanksgiving Service. There was no photo on the Order of Service, the simplicity even sparseness of the design, the hallmark of a man who resisted drawing attention to himself; instead the plain single line cross, front and centre. As it was in the final hymn chosen by Jim, and printed below.

One last thought. As the life and faith of the Church in Scotland goes through rapid and disorienting change, Jim represented the high point of post-war transformation of the role and calling of parish ministry. He was a man of his time, and was puzzled and sad to see the relentless and accelerating decline of Christian cultural influence in Scotland. What remains though, from the ministry of Jim Stewart, is the lingering influence of a life dedicated to God, to his parish and city, in which gift and discipline, prayer and scholarship, brought the joy of service and the friendship of many.

Coming out the West Door, an elderly lady was struggling with her walking stick on the slippy cobblestones. I took her arm, and escorted her down to the taxi rank in Little Belmont Street. I learned she was one of the Elders of St Nicholas, and she had her own thoughts of the Rev James C Stewart. Mostly they coincided with mine! Rest in peace and rise in glory, good and faithful servant.

1 The Saviour died, but rose again
triumphant from the grave;
and pleads our cause at God's right hand,
omnipotent to save.

2 Who then can e'er divide us more
from Jesus and his love,
or break the sacred chain that binds
the earth to heaven above?

3 Let troubles rise, and terrors frown,
and days of darkness fall;
through him all dangers we'll defy,
and more than conquer all.

4 Nor death nor life, nor earth nor hell,
nor time's destroying sway,
can e'er efface us from his heart,
or make his love decay.

5 Each future period that will bless,
as it has blessed the past;
he loved us from the first of time,
he loves us to the last.

Comments

[David Smith]

Beautiful Jim, thank you. My wife Joyce was deeply involved in the Third World Centre in St Mary's so I remember the church well. Your moving tribute expresses precisely the feelings I had on the death of Lawrence Whitley, minister of Glasgow Cathedral, whose preaching and public prayer blessed both me and my dying beloved wife to a degree that I simply cannot describe. He also represented the very best of the Church of Scotland and his tragic death,so soon after retirement, was a terrible loss. Men like these give a new meaning to belief in a holy, catholic church.