‘The Rev Maxwell Craig: Chaplain to the Queen in Scotland’

St Columba’s Chuch has in the last few days learned of the sudden and unexpected death of the Rev Maxwell Craig, who was my immediate predecessor in 1991 as minister of the congregation, and who was only the second incumbent of this congregation.  Maxwell was very kind to me when I was in the process of coming to St Columba’s Church.  He spent a good amount of time speaking to me about the parish and about the congregation, as well as sharing his thoughts regarding the congregatiopn’s needs and requirement.  I was very grateful to him for that.  

I therefore post two obituaries tonight.  The first is from the Herald newspaper of today, and the second is from the Times.  We pray for Janet, Maxwell’s wife, and for the family.

Maxwell Craig, who has died aged 77, was convener of the Church of Scotland’s Church and Nation Committee in the 1980s, one of the most vociferous critics of Margaret Thatcher’s policies and an advocate of the church confronting the government.

Yet, partly because of his background, his family connections and a manner which some called diplomacy and others guile, he was at home in the Kirk’s establishment.

Craig was born in Halifax and educated first in Bradford then Harrow and Oriel College, Oxford. He did his national service as a second lieutenant with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, and seemed likely to carve out a career as a civil servant. He became an assistant principal in the Ministry of Labour, and then, in 1961, began to train for the ministry of the Church of Scotland at New College in Edinburgh.

He was a member of the Speculative Society, which brings together for discussion and debate influential members of Edinburgh society and students who expect to join them.

Craig graduated as a Bachelor of Divinity with distinction and spent a year at Princeton, where he took a master’s degree in theology. He then returned to Scotland, joined the Iona Community, and spent a probationary year with Rev Jack Orr in the Edinburgh parish of Oxgangs.

In 1966, Craig was called to be minister of Grahamston parish in Falkirk, one of the first areas of ecumenical experiment among the denominations, a theme which was always to be important to him.

His influence beyond his parish began to be noticed when he was invited to be a member of a special committee asked to explore how the right ministers for the future should be chosen and what skills and training they would require.

In January 1973, after the Glasgow congregation of Wellington had experienced a long vacancy following the retirement of Stuart McWilliam, Craig became minister of the imposing church on the city’s University Avenue. Its membership, however, had declined and the sort of “preaching station” which it once was no longer played a part in the Church of Scotland’s life. And, to be fair, Craig was not a charismatic preacher in the mould of his predecessors. But he did encourage the congregation to work and unite later with its neighbour, Woodlands.

He pioneered contacts with and a ministry to the ethnic communities in the parish area, and he established an involvement with university students. It was the sort of ministry which Wellington needed to equip it for a different era. In 1986, he was appointed a Chaplain to the Queen in Scotland.

In 1989, Craig moved to the recently built St Columba’s Church in the growing Bridge of Don area of Aberdeen, where, owing to ill health, the first ministry had lasted only two years.

There was considerable disappointment that Craig stayed less than two years, resigning to become general secretary of Action of Churches Together in Scotland, which had replaced the former Scottish Churches Council. Based at Scottish Churches House in Dunblane, this new body was intended to encourage churches to meet and work together rather than attempt to be a united voice for the them.

When the Dunblane Primary School massacre occurred, Craig became involved in speaking to the press, television and radio, as the parish ministers in and around the town coped with the bereaved.

Craig retired in 1999 and, for a short time, was locum in St Andrews’ Scots Church in Jerusalem. He became chairman of the Scottish Churches Housing Association, and greatly enjoyed singing with his local Stirling Choir, of which he was chairman. He is survived by his wife, Janet, three sons and a daughter.

Born December 25, 1931;

Died September 26, 2009.

And now from the Times:

Maxwell Craig was undoubtedly an influential figure in the Church of Scotland in the last quarter of the 20th century. But, perhaps as might be expected of someone who was a civil servant before he entered the ministry, he was at his most influential when operating behind the formal church structures. His least significant contribution to the church was when he had his highest profile, as Convener of the General Assembly’s Church and Nation Committee from 1984-88, when he saw his role as confronting the Thatcher Government.

Maxwell Davidson Craig was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and educated first in Bradford and then at Harrow. He was at Oriel College, Oxford, from 1950 to 1954 and then spent his National Service as a Second Lieutenant in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. For four years he was an assistant principal in the Ministry of Labour, and in 1961 he went to New College, Edinburgh, to train for the ministry. He graduated BD with distinction in systematic theology. He became a member of the exclusive university Speculative Society, which has often been described as a meeting place for the influential in the capital. However, after a year of further study at Princeton, Craig spent his probationary assistantship not in one of the city’s affluent or prestigious parishes but in St John’s, Oxgangs, with its minister Jack Orr.

In 1966 Craig became minister of Grahamston Parish in Falkirk where the Church of Scotland was experimenting with new relationships between existing congregations. While there, Craig was appointed to a General Assembly committee set up to try to find out what forms of training and recruitment were required for a future which — it was already becoming clear — would involve numerical decline. It was the beginning of his influence behind the scenes.

In 1974 Craig moved to Wellington Church in Glasgow. From the late 19th century till the 1960s Wellington had been Glasgow’s preaching station, whose ministers took two months’ leave in the summer and the pulpit was filled by distinguished preachers, some from Scotland but mostly from the United States. But by the time Craig went to Wellington, there were no longer big queues outside the church for the evening service, and the congregation had united with another, Woodlands, closer to the city centre. Craig was no profound or popular preacher. But he did encourage the congregation to become involved with the university on its doorstep, though his dream of selling the Wellington building to the university and moving the congregation farther west never became a reality.

In 1989 Craig moved to St Columba’s, Bridge of Don, a new congregation in a growing area of Aberdeen, whose first minister had to resign after only two years and died shortly afterwards. There was considerable disappointment, therefore, when less than two years after he went there, Craig left Bridge of Don to take up the post of general secretary of Action of Churches Together in Scotland, a new ecumenical instrument for Scotland, intended to enable the churches to meet and work together. It replaced the former Scottish Churches Council which was seen to attempt to speak for the churches. When he retired in 1999 he became, for a short time the temporary minister of St Andrew’s Scots Church in Jerusalem.

Craig was appointed a Chaplain to the Queen in Scotland in 1986. In 2000 he became chairman of the Scottish Churches Housing Association.

He is survived by his wife, Margaret, three sons and a daughter.

The Rev Maxwell Craig, Chaplain to the Queen in Scotland, was born on December 25, 1931. He died on September 26, 2009, aged 77

Soli Deo Gloria