At the Funeral of the Reverend roy manson
Maundy thursday 2009
an appreciation by murdoch mackenzie
Roy and Noreen, Andrew, Lindsay, Peter, John and their families are very special to all of us here this morning, not least to Anne and myself. When we arrived in India in 1966, with a six month old baby, Roy and Noreen took us under their wing and have been like parents to us ever since. So this is a sad day but a glad day with many wonderful memories of the villages around Kancheepuram, of St Andrew’s Church in Egmore, of Roy baptising our second child Catriona in the Kirk, of the Madras Association of the Deaf, of the Friend in Need Society, of The British Ex-Services and Commonwealth League, (for all of which Roy worked extremely hard – even travelling all over India for the BCEL) of Handel Manuel and the Choir, of Johnnie Samuel – Session Clerk par excellence, of mission bungalows in Kodaikanal (when taking these over from Roy I asked him if we could trust Mr Henry who looked after the houses for us and Roy in his wisdom simply said: “You have to trust someone.” In fact Mr Henry was a lovely person and many years later, on a visit to India, we visited him in Kodai when he was 100 years old and his grand-daughter was running a computer college in Kodai!), of Pillar Rocks and Bear Shola and above all of Roy who was a big man, with a big heart and a big smile, and big hands, and a big chuckle and eyes which twinkled with fun and, perhaps most important of all, with compassion.
Joe Goodridge writes of Roy’s wisdom, pastoral care and fine Biblical teaching and the fact that he could take a cat-nap in the time that it took Noreen to make and pour out a cup of coffee. Roy Newell writes of Roy lassoing a con-man with his cassock girdle as he chased him across the Kirk compound! Many others among the poor and destitute of Kancheepuram and Madras could have written of how Roy sat down beside them and shared, really shared, in their joys and sorrows.
Eileen, Roy and I, and others here this morning, were ordained in the Church of God in St George’s Cathedral Madras, as Presbyters of the Church of South India. Being in this ecumenical, united Church meant a great deal to Roy. In 1959 he led St Andrew’s Kirk into the Church of South India, a modest congregation with a huge dilapidated building. When he and Noreen left eight years later the congregation had grown fourfold, the 166 foot spire had been completely restored, and, unlike any other minister before or since, Roy actually climbed up the final stretch of unprotected ladder to touch the onion dome at the very top. (He was very proud of this and often talked about it. It was certainly not something that any but the most intrepid would want to do.)
But as Roy wrote in 1997 on the occasion of St Andrew’s 175th Anniversary: “What I want you always to remember is that – however much we love this old building, it is not the building which makes you a Church, but you, the people of God who worship, pray and serve God, in obedience to his word, there. It is you, who as a fellowship, and in your homes and your communities, and at your work, seek to obey Christ’s command to love one another – that’s what truly marks you out as Jesus’ disciples. ‘This is my commandment to you,’ said Jesus, ‘that you love one another.’ (John 15) ‘I pray that they may all be one; as you Father are in me and I in you, so also may they be in us that the world may believe that you sent me.” (John 17)
Appropriately enough, these words, like the words of our Gospel reading this morning, were first spoken by Jesus in the Upper Room on Maundy Thursday. And so on this Maundy Thursday, we say to Noreen and the family, not to let your hearts be troubled. There are many rooms in our Father’s house and beyond Good Friday there is Easter morning. And so, to the Lord of the years, we bring our thanks today, for Roy, for his faithfulness, for his inspiration, for his love of Jesus and of us, and we pray that his soul may rest in peace.
Amen
** The Gospel Reading was John 14:1-7 and 27
The hymns were ‘Lord for the years…’
‘Spirit of God come dwell within me…’
' Now go in peace…’
Murdoch MacKenzie
Maundy Thursday 2009
Joe Goodridge writes of Roy’s wisdom, pastoral care and fine Biblical teaching and the fact that he could take a cat-nap in the time that it took Noreen to make and pour out a cup of coffee. Roy Newell writes of Roy lassoing a con-man with his cassock girdle as he chased him across the Kirk compound! Many others among the poor and destitute of Kancheepuram and Madras could have written of how Roy sat down beside them and shared, really shared, in their joys and sorrows.
Eileen, Roy and I, and others here this morning, were ordained in the Church of God in St George’s Cathedral Madras, as Presbyters of the Church of South India. Being in this ecumenical, united Church meant a great deal to Roy. In 1959 he led St Andrew’s Kirk into the Church of South India, a modest congregation with a huge dilapidated building. When he and Noreen left eight years later the congregation had grown fourfold, the 166 foot spire had been completely restored, and, unlike any other minister before or since, Roy actually climbed up the final stretch of unprotected ladder to touch the onion dome at the very top. (He was very proud of this and often talked about it. It was certainly not something that any but the most intrepid would want to do.)
But as Roy wrote in 1997 on the occasion of St Andrew’s 175th Anniversary: “What I want you always to remember is that – however much we love this old building, it is not the building which makes you a Church, but you, the people of God who worship, pray and serve God, in obedience to his word, there. It is you, who as a fellowship, and in your homes and your communities, and at your work, seek to obey Christ’s command to love one another – that’s what truly marks you out as Jesus’ disciples. ‘This is my commandment to you,’ said Jesus, ‘that you love one another.’ (John 15) ‘I pray that they may all be one; as you Father are in me and I in you, so also may they be in us that the world may believe that you sent me.” (John 17)
Appropriately enough, these words, like the words of our Gospel reading this morning, were first spoken by Jesus in the Upper Room on Maundy Thursday. And so on this Maundy Thursday, we say to Noreen and the family, not to let your hearts be troubled. There are many rooms in our Father’s house and beyond Good Friday there is Easter morning. And so, to the Lord of the years, we bring our thanks today, for Roy, for his faithfulness, for his inspiration, for his love of Jesus and of us, and we pray that his soul may rest in peace.
Amen
** The Gospel Reading was John 14:1-7 and 27
The hymns were ‘Lord for the years…’
‘Spirit of God come dwell within me…’
' Now go in peace…’
Murdoch MacKenzie
Maundy Thursday 2009