Obituary: Rev Colin Anderson, minister

Former chaplain to Glasgow University who lived his mission to serve the poor

Rev Colin Anderson, minister.

Born: 10 May, 1937, in Kilmacolm.

Died: 29 May, 2011, in Glasgow, aged 74.

The death of Colin Anderson marks the loss of one of the Kirk's most distinguished ministers.

Colin McEwen Anderson was born in Kilmacolm, where his father was a chief inspector of schools. There were Glasgow and church connections. His mother's family included AR MacEwen, minister of the Park Church and then Professor of Church History in Glasgow University. From Glasgow Academy Colin went on to read classics at Christ's College, Cambridge, and then to national service as a lieutenant in Cyprus, in the education branch of the 2nd Parachute Regiment. Going into human resources management he felt increasingly that the workers needed support more than the employers.

In 1963 he entered New College, Edinburgh, to train for the ministry. He was highly regarded by his fellow students, taking honours in Church History with Alec Cheyne and spending a memorable semester in the Tuebingen Stift. He married Helen, whom he had first met in Leeds, just after graduating, and they spent their first married year in Union Theological Seminary, New York.

After a brief period at Paisley Abbey he became in 1968 the minister of the Old Kirk in Pilton, Edinburgh. The much talked of "option for the poor" was, for Colin, a strenuous vocation which he pursued with tenacity for much of his life.

They loved him in Pilton, and they called at all hours of the day and night. Moving to the west he served from 1975 as an industrial chaplain on lower Clydeside, developing an amazing ability to befriend shopfloor and top management alike. In 1984 he added St Margaret's Greenock to his pastoral care.

From Greenock Colin was drawn in 1989 to the Chaplaincy of Glasgow University - with some reluctance (he had earlier turned down an offer from Wellington Church on the ground that his mission was essentially to the underprivileged.)

In the university he was a wonderful pastoral asset to staff and students alike. Drawing on his years of experience as a Strathclyde Regional Councillor he could be a thorn in the flesh of senior management when he detected injustice. His candour brought controversy mixed with admiration. Unfailingly courteous, he was able to be both gentle and direct.

Anderson moved in 1994 to Inverness St Stephens and Old High Church - an unexpected move which produced much fulfilment. He served the church extensively at presbytery and assembly level, notably on the Church and Nation Committee.

A very active retirement included chaplaincy to the Fire Brigade, and locums in Scotland and Jerusalem. He maintained a deep commitment to the Iona Community, to socialist politics and to numerous charitable causes. But he was emphatically not an ecclesiastical politician - valued above all as a true and loyal friend.In serious illness he persisted as before, enjoying a reunion in Tuebingen last summer and even visiting the recent General Assembly. In all these taxing spheres of ministry he was hugely supported by Helen, who survives him along with their sons David and Peter and their families.