Thomas Baldwin celebrates the long life and ministry of an Aberdeenshire man.

John Murdoch (left)

John Murdoch

MID Deeside Church, Torphins, held a party on Sunday August 20 celebrating the 100th birthday of John Murdoch.

At the Aberdeenshire church’s morning Praise in the Park service (an annual outdoor Service with Granite City Brass Band) John was presented with a Long Service Award and a personal letter from the Moderator of the General Assembly, the Rt Rev Dr Derek Browning, congratulating him on reaching 100.

John, who had reached the milestone the day before, has been active in the church since joining the Sunday School of Trinity Parish Church, Uddingston, aged six. A lay preacher, last year he led a service in church at short notice after the minister lost his voice; and he still regularly conducts services in the two local nursing homes, and plays the organ and piano at evening services.

Other than during World War 2, when he served in signals and air defence units and reached the rank of Major, John spent his working life with Post Office Telephones in various places throughout England and Scotland.

Wherever his job took him, John joined a local church. In England this was at times Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational. In 1940 he had been selected for elder training at Park Church, Uddingston, but the war intervened, so it was not until 1957 that he was appointed an elder in St Paul’s Presbyterian Church in Harrogate. He later became Session Clerk there. Margaret, his wife, whom he knew from school days and married after hostilities ceased in 1945, was also an elder in St Paul’s – in one of the earliest groups of women appointed as elders in the Presbyterian Church.

Around 1960 he was ‘roped in’ to taking evening services by a hard pressed congregational minister, and he continued with regular preaching and organ playing engagements right through his “working” life.

In 1980 John and Margaret moved back to Scotland, where he became choirmaster and organist at Coupar Angus Abbey Church. When the minister took ill John found himself ag ain regularly i n the pulpit both in Coupar A ngus a nd surrounding churches.

In 1994 they moved to Torphins to be nearer their two sons, Jim and Bill. The then Torphins minister, the Rev Peter Taylor, invited John to come up and preach on a number of occasions; and he soon found himself in steady demand to preach and play organ during vacancies, holidays and other crises - not just in Torphins but also in the surrounding villages of Lumphanan, Kincardine O’Neil, Alford, Tarland and Echt among others.

Sadly, Margaret passed away in 1997 but John continued steadfastly and also became a “well-kent face” visiting in hospitals and conducting funerals.

When between 2010 and 2012 Mid Deeside Parish had an extended vacancy John’s expertise and willingness to help out was very much appreciated and used. There was some anxiety in the congregation that the new minister might think that their much loved but by then 94 - year-old lay preacher should be put out to pasture, and then great pleasure that the Rev Alec Wark chose to ask John to support him in his mission and continues to do so.

Mr Wark wrote in the June 2017 church newsletter: “The first time I heard John conducting prayer I noticed immediately the careful structuring, use of words and sensitive awareness of issues – everything that public prayer should be. John is a gifted leade r, a willing s ervan t and a lovely man”.

In 2015 John suffered the tragic death of his younger son Bill, but has continued resolutely in his church work. Although he has been slowly reducing the amount of work he does, any thought that he might retire entirely is quickly disabused: “I started preaching because I was asked to. I continued preaching because it seemed to be helping people. I am prepared to go on as long as people want me to. Let others decide that.”