Tribute to minister 29/2/12
By Bill Lucas
A moving tribute to the late Rev Alistair Montgomery was paid yesterday (Tuesday) by the Rev Dr Iain D Campbell at the meeting of the Western Isles Pressbytery of the Free Church.
Dr Campbell said that the passing of Mr Montgomery on January 17 had left a void within the Presbytery and had removed a faithful servant of the church. He had been born in Balallan in 1929, but grew up in Stornoway from the age of three. He received his secondary education in the Nicolson Institute, and went on to serve as an engineer in the Merchant Navy, and then as a policeman in Glasgow.
Being persuaded of God's call on his life, he applied for the ministry of the Free Church of Scotland, and studied at the University of Aberdeen and at the Free Church College, Edinburgh. He was ordained and inducted to Scalpay Free Church in 1965, and exercised a winsome and faithful ministry in that remote island congregation for eleven years.
He accepted a call to Back Free Church in 1976, where he was to spend some eighteen years of ministry in one of the denomination's largest and most demanding congregations.
Dr Campbell said: 'Many of those who had been converted under the previous ministry of the Rev Murdo Macaulay in Back found in his successor a diligent pastor and faithful teacher, and under his ministry many came to faith in Christ, and the congregation of Back supplied several men for the ministry of the Free Church.'
He added that Mr Montgomery's time in Back was a time of expansion; as the congregation
grew, so did the need of the congregation to develop their car parking and hall facilities.
The centenary of the church building in 1992 coincided with the opening of a new
hall, and further provisions to meet the needs of an ever-
Following retirement, Mr and Mrs Montgomery resided in Stornoway, where they became regular worshippers in Stornoway Free Church.
Dr Campbell described Mr Montgomery as 'quiet and unassuming in his nature', and he had become in his latter years a tower of strength for those whom he saw taking up the responsibility of ministry for a new generation.
Mr Montgomery was ably supported during his ministry by his wife Chrissie, who is
left to mourn his passing. To her, the Presbytery extended its deepest sympathy.