Obituary: Reverend Steven Mackie, 82

THE Reverend Steven Mackie, a respected theologian, ecumenist and former executive at the World Council of Churches, has died at the age of 82.

Born in Edinburgh in December 1927, Steven was the son of Robert Mackie, a leading Scottish figure in the ecumenical movement and the World Council of Churches. He had his early education in London and moved to Geneva when his father became secretary of the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF).

When the headquarters of the WSCF were moved temporarily to Canada because of the war, the Mackie family made a hazardous journey across occupied south France, helped by young Steven's deceptively good fluency in French, and then via Spain and Portugal to Canada.

Steven finished his schooling at the Upper Canada College in Toronto.

After the war, he enrolled at Edinburgh University to study philosophy, followed by a year at the Sorbonne in Paris, before returning to Edinburgh to study divinity at New College.

In 1953, he married Annebeth Gunning, from Holland, whom he had met as a student. Encouraged by Lesslie Newbigin, the Church of Scotland missionary who was a bishop in the Church of South India (CSI), Steven applied for a post as chaplain to a Christian college in Madurai and was ordained to the ministry of the CSI.

Steven would later return to Geneva to a post with the World Council of Churches, where he worked for ten years. Later, he became the executive secretary of the Department of Studies in Mission and Evangelism of the World Council and travelled widely.

Steven was offered a post at St Andrews University to teach practical theology at Mary's College, a post he held for 21 years until he retired to Edinburgh in 1995. He taught theology in a fully practical sense, relating it to social issues of the day. He was a gifted lecturer who made a deep impression on his students.

He took a leading role in Scottish Churches Action for Racial Justice in the 1990s, and was an active member of the Church and Nation Committee of the Church of Scotland, once addressing the General Assembly on the subject of the World Council's grants to radical liberation movements.

Steven's friends described him as a "truly international man" but also "a humble and unassuming person, and a family man with a quiet humour which sometimes broke out in a vociferous laugh".

He was also described as "representing something deep within the Scottish tradition but sometimes forgotten - an interest in international affairs, an active concern over issues of peace and justice, and a willingness to join with others to act over these concerns".

Many will join his wife Annebeth and their three sons and grandchildren in remembering him.