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Iain Mackenzie

Obituary of Rev Iain Mackenzie, Church of Scotland minister; born May 30, 1938; died April 8, 2007.

Iain Mackenzie, who was a Church of Scotland minister in four parishes across the country, died on Easter Sunday, aged 68.

In the upheaval following the Clydebank blitz in 1941, Iain's family moved to Mull. He won a scholarship to Keil School in Dumbarton and then trained as a civil engineer. Following national service in Germany, he married Anna Rennie and then took up his vocation as a minister, studying Arts and Divinity at Aberdeen, where he overlapped with his father, Andrew, also on his way to ordination.

His first parish was Blochairn in Glasgow. In 1973, following Iain's call to St Martin's Church, the Mackenzies moved to Port Glasgow, their home for the next 17 years. Iain's response was further to refine his approach as a minister, with a growing emphasis on simplicity and directness in communication, and a deeper valuing of the human interchange as the core of his pastoral work.

Anna died early in 1989 - a tragically early loss for Iain, and for children Bill and Helen, at this time in their twenties.

Grace Campbell was a member of the congregation who had become a close and supportive family friend. The bond blossomed into love and the couple were married before Iain's next move, to Langholm in the Borders. There, Iain and Grace helped provide respite holidays for people affected by the Chernobyl disaster.

After a brief but happy ministry at Portmahomack the decision was taken to retire to Sandbank, Dunoon.

Full story at The Herald.