REV. WILLIAM STILL

Eventually the Presbytery sanctioned the calling of a minister and a Vacancy Committee was set up. Various men were heard, Mr. Still not being among the number. Just about this time Mr. Still sustained a severe fracture of the ankle and returned to Aberdeen from his assistantship at Springburnhill, Glasgow, to recuperate. A Committee went to see him and he was asked to preach. Thereafter he was elected as our minister, the call being signed by seventy-four members and two adherents out of a congregation of almost six hundred. The induction was on 7th June, 1945.

One of the first tasks which had to be done was the revision of the times for the meeting of the courts, and a monthly session meeting on the first Monday of each month was agreed on 13th June, 1945. On 25th June the time of the evening service was put back from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. an innovation retained until 1963 when the present 7.00 p.m. service was introduced. On 10th October Gordon Ross was appointed organist, taking over from Verden Sykes who had been locum tenens for some eighteen months. The Record of December 1945 (No. 124) pays tribute to Verden Sykes and welcomes Mr. Ross noting that he already had become a tower of strength in prayer. "Give him a friendly word of welcome when you see him, it helps such a lot." Mr. Ross continued as organist until his death in November 1984. He was succeeded by Mr. Andrew Tulloch. The present Church Officer, James Sinton, was appointed on 23rd July, 1950, taking over from George Emslie. Mr. Sinton's mother, Mrs. Marjorie Sinton was church cleaner from 1946 till 31st October 1985. We have an unrivalled tradition of long faithful service by so many members and officebearers.

The Session Minutes show an interesting pattern in these times. In the years 1942-1945 there are many entries relating to disjunction certificates, and then after Mr.Still had been in situ for some three months there starts a spate of new members. Many names familiar today are to be found as admitted in these lists.

But there was a struggle to come. The initial enthusiasm of some, including a number of those who joined in the early years of the ministry, soon waned. In addition the various organisations had either to associate themselves with the fresh evangelical impetus of the church, or be replaced by activities more in keeping with it. It is unnecessary to go into the detail of the execution of the policy, as a result of which not a few officebearers left the church. But the fruit of this emphasis is easily seen.

BEFORE 1945

From the age of seven I suffered a series of set-backs in health which seemed by adolescence to confirm my inability to make anything of my life. I tried to work with my father in the fish trade at fourteen, turned to music at seventeen, to Christian service in The Salvation Army at twenty-three, and in six months was in a state of nervous exhaustion. Four years later, somewhat improved in health, I offered for Salvation Army work again, but was rejected on the grounds of health, and immediately decided that I must try to fulfil my, by then, clear call to divine service, elsewhere than in that branch of the Christian Church.

God was in this, although my immediate reason for joining the Church of Scotland was that there was a Church of Scotland College in Aberdeen, which meant that I could remain at home when I was not very well. Within five weeks of deciding on this course I had taken the English Prelim, which then included the whole of British History. I worked almost night and day, having little educational background because I had left school for good at the age of thirteen, a sick boy. The passing of that examination seemed a miracle to me, and God used it to fire me to new endeavour and thus to strike a major, if not mortal, blow at my crippling sense of inferiority.

I entered the University next year at the commencement of the Second World War, 1939, and although the life of the nation was in a ferment by then, and my first year was rather humiliating academically, especially in Greek studies, by my second year I found my feet and emerged first equal in history out of a class of eighty. My joy was unbounded, but beyond the pleasure at that success there was the confirmation that God was with me helping me, and that if I followed Him I could do what in my fondest dreams I and my best friends thought impossible. Of course in certain studies at the age of twenty-nine I had an advantage over youngsters ten years younger, but this told, especially in essays. I remember Rex Knight, our Psychology Professor, asking in class (a large one) while reviewing examination papers "Is Still here?" "Yes, sir." "How old are you, Still?" "Twenty-nine and a bit, sir." "I thought you were older, your paper shows experience." It was bitter experience, mostly, but God was in that to see me through.

I spent three years in Divinity following my modified Arts course, and as health returned, plunged into active student life. I became Director of Publications for the Students' Representative Council, composed and conducted music for a students' theatre show, helped to begin Morning Song, the short student service at King's College, which continued for more than thirty years. I played the organ. Music loomed large then, and with the help of other student musicians such as Eileen Watt and Kitty Benson, filled some of the largest churches in town for music recitals. Thus my name came to the fore in this sphere before I left Aberdeen to take up an assistantship at Springburnhill Parish Church in Glasgow under the Rev. William Fitch. Climbing tenement stairs in Springburn was different from the glamour of University life and from popularity with masses of Aberdeen's Kirk and musical folk, and since my faith was not yet very biblically founded, although real enough, I became a little cynical about my calling and doubtless grieved William Fitch by some of the things I said from his pulpit.

Then came the "argument" with a train which leaped too quickly into motion at Troon railway station. I had gone to that town to speak to Tom Fitch's Woman's Guild. The result was a badly broken ankle, although my life was saved. I lay in the Western Infirmary, Glasgow, from the last day of November 1944 until February 1945, thence home to Aberdeen on crutches. While in the Western Infirmary, Glasgow, an informal approach was made to me on behalf of Gilcomston South Church to enquire if I would be interested in becoming their minister. The answer was a polite but firm, No: my teacher, the Master of Christ's College, Professor G.D. Henderson, had advised against ministering in one's home town. It was while hirpling about Aberdeen, first on two crutches, then on one, and on two sticks, then on one, that my maternal Aunt Bella, recently widowed, came to the West Church of St. Andrew with me one evening for the 7 o'clock service. It was an informal service and the minister chatted with people in the aisles afterwards. He saw me and asked what I was going to do. I said, "Erskine Blackburn of Holburn Central Church (who was Interim Moderator in the Vacancy) has asked if I will accept a call to Gilcomston South. What do you think?" He said, "I wouldn't. My assistant (a contemporary of mine) says 'not even Saint Paul could do anything with that place." The opinion of the assistant in question was not worthless, because Gilcomston South had been informally linked with West St. Andrew during the absence of the Gilcomston minister, the Rev. W. Lindsay Stewart, on war service with the R.A.F. The West St. Andrew's assistant had some pastoral oversight of the Gilcomston congregation and paid much appreciated visits to its aged and sick members. Later that evening while waiting at the 'bus stop, my aunt asked me "What was the minister saying?" I told her. "And what do you think of that?", she asked. Then almost casually and with, as I recall it, a far-away tone in my voice and no sense of the dramatic, and certainly no sense of destiny, I replied, "Maybe less than Paul will do." I now know that these words sealed my call. On Erskine Blackburn's next visit to my home, he found me quite assured that I should accept the call. How many times since I have mentally pinched myself and said, "Man, you were mad!" I could not say, but I know that it never occurred to me thereafter to question my madness.

How Gilcomston South kept alive in hard times is a long tale, which has often been told me by its older members, especially Walker Leith, long-time Treasurer of the congregation, how the few fought bravely to guard the congregation life. In the light of subsequent events I have no doubt that God was in all their doughty struggles with the Presbytery to keep the remnants of a congregation together when all seemed lost. Walker Leith had heard of my filling Aberdeen Kirks for music recitals, and also knew that I had a Salvation Army background, and, spurred by his friend, David Henderson, who knew me personally and who had opened his gardens for a fete which cleared £400 of debt in Gilcomston, he set negotiations in motion, being convinced that I was the man. This was after twenty-seven applicants and a leet of four preachers had been rejected because the call to minister at Gilcomston at that time was an all-or-nothing bid. It is as clear as day now, and perhaps was to those involved in it, then that God was certainly at work.

And this has been the continual note of the Ministry since. It is the knowledge that God was in the call that has given authority to the preaching of the Word of God in such a way as to call men to Christ and to His service. This is also the note in the Record which most strikes me as I re-read it. How sure I was that God had sent me! I am frankly amazed at the boldness of what I wrote then, and as I recall it there was the same note in the pulpit. Small wonder that so many have found within the walls of Gilcomston South the certitudes they sought and needed for lives of purposive service for Christ. We have always insisted, and do still, that whether it is a matter of vocation or fellowship (the two things life is about) God means his children to be sure what his will is for them.

Obituary by F. Lyall

William Still, who died at the age of 86 on 30 July, was minister of Gilcomston South Church of Scotland, Aberdeen, for fifty two years until his retiral in May this year.

The son of a Salvation Army fish-merchant, William Still entered the ministry of the Church of Scotland after training at the University of Aberdeen where, during the early years of the War, he found time to act a musical director of the annual Students Show, and to organise and take part in musical recitals in the town.

After a year as Assistant to William Fitch at Springburnhill, Glasgow, he accepted a call to Gilcomston South, and was inducted to the charge on 7 June 1945. Gilcomston was then in such a financial and spiritual state that the Presbytery had attempted to close it, and one minister of the time had suggested that not even St Paul could do anything with it. In later years Mr Still recalled musing that 'maybe less than Paul will do.'

Mid-week bible study and a meeting for prayer on Saturday evening were soon introduced, and have continued without break since. In the earliest months of his ministry William Still was fiercely evangelistic, Billy Graham coming as one of a team of four for meetings in 1946. In 1947, however, he began an expository ministry and also the writing of daily bible notes in the Congregational Record. The systematic coverage of the whole bible, verse by verse and chapter by chapter was an innovation in the Church of Scotland of the time. Many have since fruitfully followed the pattern.

Gilcomston South developed in various ways, but, in the early years, not without pain. His friendship with the Rev James and George Philip, and staunch office-bearers such as William Leslie, John Smith and John Hardie, sustained him through awkward times. Convinced that the core of the kirk should be worship, prayer and the preaching of the Word, William Still sought the simplification of church structures. He passionately believed that the congregation should worship as a family, and deplored the way in which smaller groups in churches often became mere social clubs. Many traditional activities therefore ceased in Gilcomston- the Women's Guild, Boys Brigade, Youth Fellowship, even the Sunday School for those over seven. Such a concentration on the basics of church life was attractive to many. These fell into two groups: those long-term members of Gilcomston who saw to its affairs, and others who, in Aberdeen for a period, often in higher education and latterly in the oil industry, attended for several years before moving on to responsibilities throughout Scotland and, indeed, the world. Large numbers of latter group kept and keep in touch with Gilcomston. The former group learned to work as a family rather than as part of an organisation. Mr Still was not a man for the tedium of meetings and agenda, and he knew it, keeping formality to a minimum. Thus, although it was at the time misunderstood by some, it was a blessing that he several times declined nomination as Moderator of the Presbytery of Aberdeen.

For him the essential matter was that many were converted. Many ministers owe their calling, or their re-invigoration to the Still ministry. In the 1970s, he began a meeting of like-minded ministers in order to discuss common problems and share expertise. This has developed into the informal Crieff Fellowship, which meets three times a year and is attended by men and women from many denominations in the U.K. and beyond. Chaired until recently by Mr Still, Rutherford House in Edinburgh, an evangelical think-tank now ably wardened by David Searle, stems partly from the need, perceived in the Crieff Fellowship, to provide a resource by way of library, discussion groups, publications and conferences through which evangelical views can be properly articulated in Scotland. Of course this has been viewed with alarm by some in the Kirk, who fear an organised 'evangelical party' but their fears are misplaced. William Still was loyal to the Kirk, opposed schism, strove to maintain unity and surely cannot reasonably be faulted for standing firmly on the Kirk's basic beliefs.

Until aging began to over-take him in the last ten years or so, Mr Still was in demand as a speaker throughout the U.K. Many of his conference addresses, sermons and the bible-reading notes and Minister's Letters in the Record have been re-worked into publications. Recordings of his sermons are available in several tape-libraries in the U.K. and U.S.

But this recital of facts and events omits the most important element of his ministry. Living a life of prayer, close to Christ, Mr Still was a sympathetic friend, listener, and guide to many. His correspondence was immense. He rarely failed to recall even small encounters with this individual and that, and his concern for each, without being directory in his advice, resulted in his helpful friendship being sought even during his last period of weakness.

When William Still's ministry began in the closing months of the War, there were few evangelical ministers and fewer prayer meetings in the Church of Scotland. That the picture is now very different is in large measure the result of a life rich in spirituality, and in devotion to his Lord.