Tribute

Clement Graham dedicated his whole adult life to the service of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ and, in particular, to one branch of that church – the Free Church of Scotland. As minister at Tain, professor and latterly Principal of the Free Church College, Clerk to the General Assembly and secretary of the International Missions Board  he served the Church faithfully and effectively for half a century and continued to serve in his retirement until well past his 60^th year in the ministry.

If asked where Clement Graham was from, anyone who knew him would have said unhesitatingly “The Glen”, for at every opportunity conversation would eventually focus on “The Glen” – Glen Urquhart, on the shores of Loch Ness. Some years ago at a church induction following a typical speech from Clement punctuated as always with Glen stories, a close friend was asked to speak.  With some exasperation he announced “Clement! You’re always on about The Glen. There are other glens, you know!” The speech was immediately interrupted. “That’s precisely what they are – ‘Other glens’. There is ‘The Glen’ and there are ‘Other Glens’.”

Why this exceptional love for The Glen? Many will be surprised to hear that Clement was born, not in The Glen but within a close and loving family in the tenements of the east end of Glasgow on the 3^rd of July 1919. At the age of three, along with his sister Peggy and two brothers, Willie and Joe, he lost both his mother and father, experiencing what few of us can even imagine. (Perhaps this early experience gave him his characteristic sympathy for the deprived and the underdog. He had decidedly left wing views.) But in an act of providential blessing the four youngsters were fostered, all together, in Glen Urquhart, first by the MacDonalds and then by Mrs Sinclair.  Little wonder his love for The Glen was extraordinary and his affection and respect for the place, its people, and the strength and security of family marked him for the rest of his life. However, even these idyllic years were marred by the tragic drowning of his sister Peggy in the Glen.

Clement attended school in Drumnadrochit from where he won a bursary to study at Edinburgh University graduating MA in 1940, having studied the characteristically wide range of subjects of the old Scottish MA, from Maths and English to Latin, Philosophy, British History and Elementary Hebrew. The latter subject indicated that he was already responding to the call of God to enter the ministry of the word. He went directly to the Free Church College and from there into the ministry, being ordained and inducted to the congregation of Tain and Edderton in 1943. Many men enter the ministry after fruitful service in other professions and employments, and their ministries can be enriched by that, but Clement always had a soft spot for those who, like himself, dedicated their whole lives to the ministry. Undoubtedly he was one of those who would have won glittering prizes in whatever other field he chose. He sometimes said that if he had not been a minister, he would have liked to be a lawyer. And there is no doubt that he could have reached the upper echelons of that profession. Instead, as we shall see, his precise legal mind was later put to the service of the Church in the capacity of Assembly Clerk.

However, although gifted with a legal mind, he was no legalist in any sense of the word. He was minister of the Tain and Edderton Free Church congregation for 30 years from 1943 to 1973 and his ministry is still remembered with warm affection in that area. His preaching was always relevant and up to date. Indeed the congregation were always broadening their vocabulary from his sermons, but in spite of that, they found them straightforward and warmly evangelical. Throughout his ministry he was known for sometimes preaching from unusual texts. Some of his hearers remember a sermon preached on a text they never heard any other minister taking:  Psalm 72:20 “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended”. He was largely responsible for establishing the congregation of Tain on a firm footing and building it up in the Post-War years. In those days he was quite sporty and, although he suffered in his early years from asthma, there was nothing he liked better than a game of football at the Sunday School outing!

In 1944 he married Margaret Cameron whom he had met while preaching as a student in Nairn. In those days visiting preachers were always accommodated in local homes over the weekend and he fell in love with the daughter of the house. She became truly a fellow worker with him in all his varied ministry. In Tain the hospitality of the manse was legendary. And it was there, in such an atmosphere of Christian service, their children, Cora, John and Anne, grew up.

During Clement’s ministry in Tain, in 1969, he was honoured by the Church in being elected Moderator of the General Assembly which was visited that year by HM the Queen and HRH the Duke of Edinburgh. In 1993, the year the Free Church was celebrating the 150^th year of its founding at the Disruption of 1843, he became one of a small and singularly honoured group when he was elected Moderator for the second time. In that year also he edited and contributed to a commemorative volume entitled “Crown Him Lord of All”.

In 1964 he was appointed Junior Clerk of Assembly and became Senior Clerk in 1978, serving until 1993. In that capacity he chaired a committee responsible for the revision in 1995 of the Free Church’s “Blue Book” (The Practice of the Free Church of Scotland), the manual of procedure for church courts from Kirk Session to General Assembly.

As Clerk of Assembly, he was highly efficient in the conduct of the business, and many a Moderator must have been glad of the prompting which Clement gave. He could deflate even highly charged situations with his characteristic humour. On one occasion when a member who was known for outrageous speeches on outrageous subjects so roused other members that the Moderator was asked if anything could be done to ban him. The Moderator was somewhat at a loss, and looked to Clement for advice.  Clement reflected for a moment, and then stated: “There’s nothing in Standing Orders to stop a man making a fool of himself.”

In 1973 the Church had recognised his academic gifts by appointing him to the Chair of Apologetics and Practical Theology in the Free Church College, Edinburgh, in which post he served for 15 years until 1988. For the final ten years of his professorship he served as Principal of the College. I never had the privilege of benefiting from his teaching, as I left the College the year he became Professor. However, it is probably true to say that some of his students struggled with his Apologetics class, not sharing his love of philosophy, but all would agree that his Pastoral Theology class was wonderful, reflecting his pastoral experience in Tain and his love of the people. In spite of his apparent stern exterior, his students found him a ready and confidential listener to their various problems. Of course they also remember his witty aphorisms and memorable pieces of advice to budding ministers, like, “Never wear your slippers when answering the door!” and “At a funeral, never put your hat on the coffin!”

In addition to these other responsibilities Clement Graham had a great love for the international mission work of the Church and served as secretary to the Foreign Missions Board (now known as the International Missions Board) of the Free Church  from 1960 until 1979. Prior to that he was a member of the Committee as it was then known from 1958, and subsequently he was a member of the Board from 1979 until 1988, serving as chairman for the last year, so that he served the international missions of the Church for a full 30 years. During that time he made several visits abroad to support the missionaries in Peru, South Africa and India. In addition he was a keen supporter of Christian Witness to Israel, serving as Chairman of their Board, and of ecumenical work, serving on the governing bodies of the British Evangelical Council (now Affinity), the Reformed Ecumenical Synod and the International Conference of Reformed Churches.

In all this varied service, his wife Margaret was his unofficial PA. They appeared inseparable. Her death in 1989 was a huge blow, but he rallied to become in his old age a veritable patriarch of a large family of children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Of course, we cannot think of Clement without recalling his traditional tastes in food and drink. His love of strong tea was legendary. “Remember,” he advised a hostess, “Water is the enemy!” Well up in his eighties, a lady remarked, “If you drink you tea like that, you’ll die young!” She received a look only such as he could give!

Clement was one who never embraced the challenges and opportunities offered by cosmopolitan cuisine. His last international trip representing the church found him, well into his 80’s, on a flight to Korea. Settling down to the long flight he was asked. “For dinner tonight sir, will it be Continental or Korean?” “What’s the Continental” he asked. “Pasta” came the reply, which would have caused the whole plane to shudder in the air. When he regained his composure, he replied, “Give me Korean, but don’t tell me what it is!”

After retiring from more public office in the Church, he still served as an elder in Buccleuch and Greyfriars, and his counsel was always thought-provoking and helpful, particularly during the difficult years the Free Church experienced in the 1990s.

He was widely read and had a fund of stories of the characters and doings (mainly humorous) of a past age, particularly in the Highlands. He was a great conversationalist and raconteur, and on informal occasions could have his listeners in helpless laughter as he related amusing stories of people he had known. One of his favourite stories recounted part of the sermon of a minister of a bygone age. “Friends,” this minister said, “I have had a thought. It is a great thought. It is a noble thought. It is my own thought. I never heard it from anyone else. I never read it in a book.” He paused for effect. “Friends, it’s gone!” 

His own preaching was of a different kind. On one occasion he was the guest preacher at the opening of the new Hall in Smithton one dark winter evening. In the middle of his sermon, the lights went out. Without missing a beat Clement carried on preaching for another 15 minutes, unable to see notes or Bible.

Clement remained fit well into old age. He was great friends with the late Alistair Macdonald and they would swim every week. As time went by the pair of them considered a joint petition to the council to complain that someone kept lengthening the pool! On one occasion Alasdair made it to the finish before him after the allotted number of lengths. “It just goes to show you Alasdair, that if proof were needed, in the evolutionary scheme of things you are closer to the fish than myself.”

Prior to his major surgery in 2002 for colon cancer, while in considerable distress and immediately prior to his emergency surgery, the anaesthetist asked him, when he was very weak, “Mr Graham, how far can you walk?” His reply suggested some confusion... “I’m not really too sure”. She continued “Let me put it this way - Can you walk across the kitchen floor without a stick?” “Och!” he said, “I cycle five miles a day!” When in Lewis he would cycle around 5 miles daily with grandson Donald. (Please remember Donald in prayer. He was very close to his grandfather.)

Clement loved his family, his grandchildren and great grandchildren. He baptised his first great grand-daughter, Morven, and one of the last public duties he performed was to officiate this summer at his granddaughter Kate’s wedding (when he also danced with the bride).

In his final years Clement fought a dignified battle with cancer, but remained fit to very near the end, and maintained a bright and confident Christian faith and witness though all these troubles. Well might he have said  with the Apostle Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness” (2 Tim.4:7,8). He died on the 27^th November. On being told of his death, his great grand-daughter, Morven, asked, “Does that mean he’ll see God?” Yes, that means he sees God.

To his family we extend our sympathy, to Cora and Hamish, John and Carol, and Anne and Alan, and to all his grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Alex J MacDonald