Alasdair Walker dies

The Revd Alasdair Walker died peacefully at his home in York on 30 June. Mr Walker, perhaps best known as moderator of General Assembly in 1983-84, had a distinguished career in the United Reformed Church, most of which was spent serving in Yorkshire Synod.

Alasdair was ordained in 1958, serving first in Blackhill in County Durham before moving to St Columba’s in York in 1965. He served as synod clerk between 1972 and 1975, immediately followed by a twelve year stint as synod moderator, 1975-1987. It was during his time as a synod moderator that he was elected moderator of the General Assembly becoming a respected and much-loved leader of the denomination. In 1987 he returned to local ministry in the Lincoln Team Ministry & St Andrew’s with Newland, a pastorate he served until his retirement ten years later in 1997.

Fellow former moderator of General Assembly, the Revd Graham Cook, simply says of him: “He was a good man, a good minister – and a great servant of the Church who lived by the Gospel he preached.”

Alasdair was helped and supported throughout his ministry by his wife Judy, who predeceased him.