Preface to "Six variations on one Motif"

Intro to Address by D.S.S. to Presbytery 5 March 1975 (age 79).

This 8.5 x 4.5 inch bit of paper surfaced after I’d blogged “6 Variations on One Motif” but I’m pretty confident that D.D.S. read out these notes as a preface:

Thanks! It was Dundee Presbytery which in 1922 Licensed me. So doubly thanks.

In assistantship and five ministries I have served in each of the six types of Kirk's which made up the pre-union Kirk of Scotland. But lest any should think me only an animated specimen of ecclesiastical archeology let me tell him that I’ve been on the forefront and that I helped when the site of the Scots Memorial at Jerusalem was chosen and that in one of my Parishes I saw TWO Church Extension Churches erected. [Whitecraig St Clement’s: dedicated I March 1953 and St. Ninian’s (Pinkie Braes) dedicated 15 May 1956]

My assistants, one of them the first woman assistant appointed with the Church’s blessing, are all over Scotland including the Presbytery of Dundee and also in Africa, America and Australia and two of my sons have given good service to the Kirk in Canada. [Singapore, Zambia, Jamaica, Pakistan, Karachi... and a son-in-law in Scotland].

In my old age among my own folk I have been much encouraged by response given in locums not only in the Kirk of Scotland but also in the Congregational Church, and as I have gone on supply have loved seeing the bright eyes of worshippers who have obviously come to Kirk seeking a blessing. I explained when I came that I couldn’t attend Presbytery when it was held in such a stuffy atmosphere. A Fraternal took me under its wing and kept me in touch.

It is a grateful man who speaks to you: grateful for joys of strenuous years in Kirk, Kirk Communities and Colleges, pleasant solace at home, and unnumbered friendships. Grateful to God and man!