Mr Alexander MacLean
A great blank was made in the ranks of the eldership of the Church, and in the Dingwall and Beauty congregation especially, when Mr Alexander MacLean, Dingwall, passed away last May. Mr MacLean served as an elder for almost 42 years and by God’s grace carried out his duties consistently and conscientiously during that long time.
He was born in 1948 and brought up in Ardindrean, Lochbroom. The family belonged to our Ullapool congregation, at that time under the ministry of Rev D N MacLeod. It seems that Ally, as he was familiarly known, had some serious thoughts about his soul while he attended Dingwall Academy. The minister of the Dingwall congregation, Rev D A Macfarlane, and his wife, showed much hospitality to him and other Academy pupils who lived in hostels or lodgings and came to the church services. He never forgot the kindness of Mr Macfarlane and always spoke fondly of him. He also felt indebted to those school teachers who gave Bible lessons during the lunch interval and conducted evening worship in the hostel. Although fond of sport, he began to realise there was something more important – the “one thing needful”.
Having finished his secondary education, he began work in a Dingwall bank and then transferred to its Ullapool branch. It appears that, during his time working in Dingwall and Ullapool, he became an earnest seeker of salvation. He was effectually brought to see his need of, and to trust in, Christ as the Saviour of sinners. In 1967, at the age of 19, he was led to make a public profession of faith in Christ in the Ullapool congregation.
In his banking career he moved from Ullapool to Perth in 1974 and settled
3John Howie, The Scots Worthies, Edinburgh and London, 1870, p 254.
in our congregation there (the then combined Perth, Dundee and Stirling extension congregation). He was ordained to the eldership there in June 1977. On becoming the accountant, and thereafter manager, of the Pitlochry branch of his bank he moved to that town with his wife Catherine and their family of one son and a daughter, later increased by the addition of another daughter. His conducting of services in the congregation from time to time was helpful to successive ministers of the congregation. However, a period of trying ill-health interrupted both his daily work and Church duties for some time.
He retired from banking in 2000 and felt inclined to move north but was unsure of what his duty was, although a certain Scripture portion seemed to indicate such a move. The question was resolved for him when his minister, Rev A McPherson, was led to preach on that very text. Being thus directed, Ally moved north to Dingwall and took up retirement work as the maintenance man at Ballifary Care Home in Inverness. At that time, and especially later, as the clerk of the Ballifary Care Home Committee, he gave greatly-valued assistance in the running of the Home.
In late 2000, he was inducted to the eldership of the Dingwall and Beauly congregation and was then appointed Clerk of the Kirk Session and of the Deacons’ Court. He gave much appreciated help by, among many other things, regularly conducting services, when he clearly presented Christ as the only Saviour of perishing sinners. Three other congregations, Halkirk, Dornoch and Aberdeen, of which he was an assessor elder (he was also clerk of the Halkirk Kirk Session and Deacons’ Court), were grateful for his ready and knowledgeable help. He also served on the Church’s Overseas Committee, Jewish and Foreign Mission Committee, Finance Committee and its Welfare of Youth Committee, where he showed keen interest in the spiritual welfare of young people.
Whatever task was assigned to him, he carried it out faithfully, with cheerful willingness and with quiet and steady efficiency. In attending to his duties as an office-bearer he was always punctual, practical and orderly, whether at Synod, Presbytery or congregational level, and acted with foresight, prudence and discretion. It was often evident that he was motivated by love to the cause of Christ.
Along with the late Rev H M Cartwright, he spoke on behalf of the Church before the Scottish Parliament’s petitions committee in 2006, in support of the Synod’s petition that the nation return to observing the Christian Sabbath. In 2017, he had to endure considerable hostile publicity when, as the Church’s religious representative on the Education Committee of Highland Council, he courageously spoke in a committee meeting against the proposed introduction of LGBT material to the education curriculum.
Less than a year before his end he developed serious health problems. While undergoing treatment he displayed much Christian fortitude and resignation to the Divine will. Although on occasions during his terminal illness, he suffered temptations, the Lord gave him relief from His Word, and so in approaching death he could say, as he discovered in earlier life: “For in my straits I am revived by this Thy word alone” (Ps 119:50, metrical). During one of his times in hospital he was much taken up with, and comforted by, the text, “For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom 8:29). He continued to have a keen interest in the cause of Christ, and with regard to his office-bearer responsibilities to the Church he carefully set his “house in order”.
Always a lover of the means of grace he was able, although very weak, to attend a Sabbath morning service almost two weeks before he died, but a few days later his condition suddenly worsened and, on May 4, aged 70, he entered, we believe, the eternal rest reserved in heaven for the godly.
We sympathise with his sorrowing widow and family, including his grandchildren, and pray that they would continue to be comforted in their loss, and that the whole family would be blessed with the “good hope through grace” which he had. “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them” (Rev 14:13). (Rev) N M Ross