Historical information

Eulogy by John McArthur
t seems trite to say that it is a privilege to be able to speak about Alex’s work in the Church, but having known Alex for over 50 years and our various activities having been inextricably intertwined it is indeed an honour as well as a privelge.

I first met Alex in the late 1950s when we were members of the PFA State Council – they were halcyon days for the young people in the church with very strong youth groups in most congregations. Alex was the state Treasurer. John Anderson was the President with Maureen Hancock, the secretary, Maureen, who with many others from that Council are here today. Alex was also very active in his local church at Canterbury in all aspects of its life and witness as we have heard from his children, Barrie and Jo, earlier in this service


Alex who had trained as an accountant, applied for and been appointed to a position with the PCV and upon the retirement of his mentor, S. K. Williams, was appointed the Financial Secretary of the Church. When I was appointed as a member of the Trusts Corporation, I was very glad to see that Alec was the secretary – most members were nearly twice my age and it waas comforting to be with an old friend of somewhat similar age. The meetings were reasonably formal as one would expect from a gathering of some of the very senior business men in our State. Alex’s records were immaculate – not only did his agendas have the business arising from the previous meeting but there on the side were a list of matters that in Alex’s opinion had not been satisfactorily finalised over the past year. But one matter has stuck in my memory - only the correspondence that required action was considered, many other letters were left to be formally minuted. This time there was a letter from the Government advising that a building on the south side of Collins Street originally owned by the Free Presbyterian Church in the 1800s was to be placed on the Historic Register and this was our first intimation of the matter. One trustee, a knight of the realm, whose chin was always down on his chest, ( I wondered whether he was asleep or something) raised his head and said “If one just stood still in Collins Street for five minutes they would slap a historic citation on you” and back down went his head. I was not sure what would happen next when I looked at Alex and slowly, that recognisable smile appeared on his face – not really a smile , more like a grin as Barrie and Jo said earlier, one that would appear time and time again over the years at meetings which were meant to be quite formal.

Alex had an encyclopaedic memory – for example, ask him about bequest funds, say, the W. S. Godfrey Perpetual Bequest, his answer would be, “Ah yes, donated by the man who founded the Grocery business in Carlton, the capital now would be about 53, 250 dollars, been no call on it for 2 ½ years”. If a new project was thought appropriate and needed funding, he would be able to find a fund or a bequest that, with a little tweaking, could be used to seed the programme.

His financial presentations at meetings contained all the information one could want – he would choose his words carefully, and one would sometimes think – get on with it Alex - but his purpose was to make it quite clear what funds were available and what was their correct use. He took this financial acumen into other committees of the church, the Stipend Committee dealing with Ministers’ salaries, the Beneficiary Committee, the superannuation fund for both ministers and lay workers. There are many in the church who have had cause to be grateful for his financial input which added to their well being.

But his work was not all with financial matters – as the Financial Secretary for the State, Alex was ex-offficio a member of the Presbytery of Maroondah where he was not the Treasurer and although as an ex officio member he was not expected to take that much part in the Presbytery’s activities – but Alex did, he took part in the strategy and pastoral care committees which showed his depth of concern for others in his church life.

But I believe it was around this time that Alex produced some of his greatest work for the church – Church Union, not all Presbyterians wanted to be part of the Uniting Church – so a Statutory Commision was established on a national level, to divide the assets of the Church between those desiring to form part of the Uniting Church and those wanting to remain Presbyterian.

Each State produced detailed records and submissions for the Commission – and Victoria was always the first to have its documents to the Commission – although Alex had made it quite clear that he would be with the Uniting Church, his work was meticulous, impartial and assisted greatly the work of the Commission relating to Victoria. And this in addition to his normal day to day work which continued over a period of some four or five years.

The inauguration of the Uniting Church did present Alex, and indeed the rest of us, with some challenges. There were the financial records of three churches to be merged, properties to be considered, new community programmes required, new administrative structures to be put in place.

Alex took these all in his stride – although after the initial planning, his role was to concentrate on financial matters only, the other activities had to be financed. As the chairperson of the Finance Division and the Resources Commission for a large portion of the early years of the Uniting Church, I was more than pleased to have Alex again by my side, reports were prepared, queries answered, it was just like old times.

The Rev. Allan Stuart, now retired and living closer to his family in NSW was one on those young people from the Canterbury congregation – emailed me recently “Alex has been a faithful servant of the Church, at all levels from the National Assembly to the local congregation. But times are changing, and Alex had rightly passed the torch onto others”

Allan was right but I also think that words of that great Scottish poet, Robert Louis Stevenson, sum up Alex’s life:

“A man is a success when he has lived well, laughed often and loved much. One who has gained the respect of intelligent men and the love of children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who leaves the world better than he found it, whether by work, relationships, one who looked for the best in others and gave the best he had.”

To me, that is our friend who we remember today - Alexander Robert Gillespie.

Physical description

BW photo of Alex Gillespie dressed in shirt sleaves and tie, upper body.

Inscriptions & markings

C&N 11/2/1987, p. 33