| | | Final Farewell to James Ritchie August 2016 |
James McLaren Ritchie, M.A., B. D., M. Th.,
born. 14th February 1917 died. 5th August 2016
Rev
James Ritchie, father of Lothian Presbytery, died on 5th August 2016 at
the age of 99. He had suffered a sudden decline in his health in
October 2014 after which he required full-time care. He and Mette, his
wife for the last 65 years, moved into Liberton Brae Royal Blind
nursing home in March 2015 where they have received excellent care and
wonderful sympathetic nurture.
James' health nevertheless
continued to decline; yet his death was sudden, albeit peaceful and in
his sleep, around 10am on the Friday morning.
James was born in
Camberwell, London, on St Valentine’s Day 1917, of John Ritchie
and Daisy McLaren. He was the middle of five children. All three male
children became ministers of religion. Though born in England and
educated at Dulwich College, he became vividly conscious of his
Scottish roots on a holiday in Plockton during his teens. Thereafter he
spent many of his holidays exploring Scotland and his Scottish
antecedents including the well-known 19th century divine, Rev John
Ritchie of Potterow in Edinburgh. Interestingly, given James' future
interests, the site of the church at Potterow now upholds Edinburgh's
place of worship for the city's Muslim community.
Always of a
scholarly disposition, James initially studied geography at Edinburgh
and then became an articled clerk at law in London. He was preparing
for this career when the second world war broke out. Typically, he was
on the island of Mull when the news of the declaration of war came
through; but he immediately travelled home to the south of England to
enlist in the great fight against fascism, a struggle he conceived of
in spiritual as well as political and military terms. He spent much of
the war in the north of Ireland, in Lisburn and Belfast. He was with
the Signal Corps and learned the science of electrical communication
during exercises across the six counties of Ulster. He crossed into
Normandy on D Day + 2 and though not involved in front line fighting
came to know what it was like to be under bombardment. He moved with
the allied forces into Germany where he contracted jaundice and was
flown home to Scotland to recover and convalesce in Killearn, north of
Glasgow. His intellectual skills were being recognised inasmuch
as he was subsequently tasked with lecturing to returning soldiers
prior to post-war re-integration.
No doubt the war was a life
changing experience for theology was now drawing him to his life's
vocation. And the Church of Scotland was the spiritual community
he wished to embrace. Yet he was also drawn to the universal injunction
to evangelism, seeking in the first instance to become a missionary in
China.
He trained in New College, Edinburgh and discovered a
facility for languages through the study of Hebrew and Aramaic. When
the long march of Mao Tse Tung closed China to missionary endeavour,
the prospect of efforts in the Muslim world emerged as a
priority. The Church of Scotland had a hospital in Sheikh Othman,
near Aden which was then a British Protectorate. This hospital needed a
chaplain who could provide spiritual support for the expatriate staff,
pastoral succour to native Arab patients, while exploring the potential
for evangelism to the wider host Muslim community. Knowledge of Arabic
would be essential and James' language skills as well as his humanity
and practical facilities – especially in administrative duties st
which he excelled – seemed a good fit.
In 1950, he
travelled to Aden and began his engagement with Islam and the Arabic
language, perhaps the defining element of his working life. He
developed a respect for the Muslim world and the Arabic civilization.
He always gave his interlocutors respect in seeking to understand their
perspective, the Qur’anic underpinning of their faith, and the
legitimacy of their spirituality. He asserted the advantage of
Christian belief but only if asked. He believed in evangelism through
works and service rather than the more militant and aggressive approach
of other missions which he saw as counterproductive. He became fluent
both in the Arabic language and in the theology, culture and traditions
of the Muslim faith.
He was also aware of other currents. Such
as the solidarity between the Scottish Presbyterian institution and the
Danish Lutheran church, which provided nurses for the mission field,
including in Aden. One of these was Mette Kristensen who became
another "Aden accident" as yet another Danish nurse succumbed to the
charms of another Scottish Presbyterian! Their 65 year love affair
ended with James' expiration last Friday.
James left Arabia with
his family just before the revolution in Aden and the
counterproductive attempt to suppress it by British forces.
However, his knowledge and expertise were appreciated in newly
independent Kenya, where the Christian Council of Kenya was seeking to
develop its mission of dialogue with its Muslim community on the
coastal belt of the Indian Ocean. Between 1964 and 1967, the family
lived in Mombasa and James provided training in Kenya and across
central and West Africa to Christian workers on Islam. He also engaged
in intense and respectful dialogue with Muslim leaders up and down the
east African coastal margin.
After this 17 years of toil in the
mission field, James was ready for pastoral work back home in Scotland.
He was minister in Auchendoir and Kildrummy in Aberdeenshire, McDonald
Road in Edinburgh and Coalsnaughton in Kincardineshire. In each he made
real friends and won the respect of communicant members as well as
those less disposed to Christianity. In between these parishes, he
spent another three years in North Yemen when once more he was chaplain
to a Church of Scotland hospital.
While in Yemen, he had among
the happiest spiritual experiences of his life. He met and worshipped
with Roman Catholic monks from the White Father community. Of French
origin, this order had a particular focus on mission to Islam and the
Occident. James' expertise was of great interest to the brothers and
his openness to ecumenical interaction between Catholic and Protestant
approaches to dialogue and worship allowed the development of deep
friendship and mutual spiritual succour. These were relationships that
will be sustained in the hereafter. He was particularly blessed to have
presided over White Father communion services when all of the priests
were absent. The recognition of his own priesthood by his catholic
friends was of profound significance to him. This spiritual drama was
reciprocated when James was absent from the Protestant community
service. In a small yet significant way, he felt he was resolving four
centuries of disjunction between Christian communities as a means of
ministering to Islam's current anxieties. He was also proud to get
invited to lecture to White Father training programmes in Dublin and
Rome.
The fruits of such experiences can be seen in James' two
published works on: the Church of Scotland mission in Sheikh Othman,
Aden (this developed from his M. Th. thesis which he successfully
defended at Edinburgh University in his 88th year); and translations of
early modern Arabic documents on the history of the Muslim community in
East Africa. A third volume of translations in collaboration with Prof
Sigvard von Sicard of Birmingham University may provide further
evidence of his scholarship.
In late life he sustained an
interest in: Gaelic, enrolling for courses in what he eventually
regarded as his lost native tongue; lallands Scots; and the movement
for Scottish independence. Yet he should be remembered also for his
commentary on Scottish life through the letters pages of The Scotsman,
his wide learning and erudition (he was still able to recite the whole
of Tam O Shanter in his 97th year!), and the flexibility of his mind
(solving complex crossword puzzles late into his 90s). He served a term
of five years as Clerk of Lothian Presbytery in the 1990s when he was
instrumental – and fore-sighted – in introducing IT systems
to assist the smooth running of Presbytery business,
James and
Mette had a missionary swansong with three years at the EMMS Hospital
in Nazareth just before the millennium. They returned to Scotland
anxious at the plight of the Arab community, both Christian and Muslim,
under the Israeli state. Their insights and experience over the last 60
years explain much of the confrontation between the west and Islam that
form the greatest threats to world peace since James succumbed to
jaundice towards the end of the second great war.
He is survived
by: Mette who has attained the age of 96; his four children, Ian with
his wife Alyson, Kirsten with her husband Mark, Michael, Martin with
his wife Kali; and ten grandchildren, Méabh, Ruth,
Róisín, Katy, Hanne, Aoife, Sarah, Morag, Finlay and Naia.
Updated - 24 August 2016
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