THE REV GEORGE COWIE

The Rev George Cowie, clerk to the Presbytery of Glasgow and a Chaplain -in-Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen, died in December aged 58.

A son of the manse, Mr Cowie was born in Dundee and raised in the Hyndland and Jordanhill areas of Glasgow, He was educated at the University of Glasgow and trained as a civil engineer, working with Tayside Regional Council before entering the ministry.

He was licensed by the Presbytery of Glasgow in 1990 and ordained and inducted to the charge of Auchtertool linked with Kirkcaldy: Linktown in Fife in 1991.

In 1999, he moved to Aberdeen, the city of his father’s birth, to be the minister of Holburn Central Church. The congregation united with Ruthrieston South Church in 2006 and became South Holburn Church. While in Aberdeen, he was a supporter of the Oil and Gas Chaplaincy, particularly during the illness of then chaplain the Rev Andrew Jolly, who died in 2010.

He moved back to Glasgow to take the role of Presbytery Clerk in 2017, the same year he was appointed a Queen’s Chaplain.

Among his other roles, he was also the convener of the Church’s Legal Questions Committee and served as acting Depute Clerk to the General Assembly in 2014-15.

Among the tributes after his death was announced, the Very Rev Professor David Fergusson, Dean of the Chapel Royal, described him as a “distinguished servant of the Kirk”.

The Very Rev Dr Derek Browning, Moderator of the General Assembly in 2017, said: “George was the noblest of colleagues, the finest of friends, the aficionado of good malt whisky and amongst the safest pair of hands the General Assembly has known in the handling of many challenging issues.”

Mr Cowie is survived by his wife Marian, a fellow minister, son Graeme, daughter Kay and grandson Logan.

THE VERY REV DR JOHN MCINDOE

The Very Rev Dr John McIndoe, Moderator of the General Assembly in 1996, died on January 15, aged 88.

Dr McIndoe was born in Sunderland in 1934 to Scottish parents, moving back to Scotland when he was 10. He was educated at Greenock Academy and the University of Glasgow, where he graduated Master of Arts and Bachelor of Divinity. He also took postgraduate studies at Hartford Seminary in the United States.

In an interview for Life and Work prior to his installation as Moderator, he said he was drawn to the ministry from an early age, partly due to the influence of the minister who took his Bible class when he was a teenager, partly due to fellow students at university, and partly to seeing Billy Graham at the Kelvin Hall in 1955.

He was ordained in 1960 by the Presbytery of Paisley, serving as Assistant Minister at Paisley Abbey from 1960- 1963. Thereafter he was minister at Park Church, Dundee (1963-1972) and St Nicholas Parish Church, Lanark (1972-1988), before moving south to St Columba’s Church, London, linked with St Andrew’s Newcastle, where he remained until retirement in 2000.

As convener of the Church and Nation Committee from 1980 until 1984, he led the church’s engagement with issues including nuclear disarmament, Apartheid and trade union reform. He later told Life and Work that the job was ‘as challenging as the daily news’ but that ‘the world expects the Church to give an intelligent point of view on the issues that trouble society’.

He was also Vice-Convener of the Business Committee of the General Assembly from 1988 until 1990.

Throughout his ministry he took a major interest in pastoral work, including a spell as chaplain to a psychiatric hospital and working with the Samaritans. He said: “I believe the willingness to accept a personal and collective burden on behalf of society’s less able members is some kind of test of a responsible – not to say Christian – attitude.”

Dr McIndoe was also an advocate for greater participation of lay people, women and younger people in the church, telling Life and Work that ‘such a change of attitude would do much to free the untapped spirituality in every congregation’. In his retirement notes to St Columba’s, he wrote ‘the true succession of the church lies not in its ministers but in its congregation’.

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