Obituary - Rev Dr Moyna McGlynn, minister

Born: January 12, 1950.

Died: August 5, 2016.

THE REVEREND Dr Moyna McGlynn, who has died of cancer aged 66, was the first

minister of the new Govan and Linthouse Parish Church after it took over from the historic Govan Old Parish Church. She was a highly-popular, much-travelled, multi-lingual and multi-cultured churchwoman who devoted the last eight years of her life to her congregation on the southern banks of the Clyde, including immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers. She also spoke out regularly against sectarianism in Glasgow, religious or indeed every kind.

Apart from her native Ireland and her adopted Glasgow, her favourite places in the world were Istanbul, Turkey, and Andalucia, Spain, because, as her family told the Herald yesterday, "that was where the three great faith traditions of Christianity, Judaism and Islam were intertwined and had lived peaceably together, often for centuries."

Rev McGlynn spoke French, German, Spanish and Italian and could read and translate from Greek, Hebrew and Arabic. Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow Southside, was one of the first to pay tribute, saying "Moyna was a real force for good in Govan. It's so sad. She will be sorely missed."

The Irish-born daughter of an RAF World War Two veteran, the Rev. McGlynn went to school in several countries where her father was based after the war, including England, Northern Ireland, Libya and Malaysia before she graduated from Glasgow University. She felt herself a Glaswegian ever after although her new Scottish accent remained soft and gentle.

A bit of a rocker when she was young, she married, in 1975, D B (Brian) McGlynn, singer/songwriter with rock band Woza, whom she had met in Dundee. Even after she devoted her life to the ministry, she and Brian rocked on - and worshipped - for the rest of her life, remaining friends with his old Woza bandmate Ricky Ross, later of Deacon Blue, and other musicians.

From her twenties, she was also a gifted puppeteer, hand-making more than 100 of them herself, manipulating them and writing plays for them performed in pubs, clubs, festivals and kirks including her own.

Over the last three years of her life, she had fulfilled her long-standing dream of running the highly-successful Govan Puppet Festival with funding from Glasgow City Council and the Lottery and with local primary schoolchildren involved in every aspect of production. Their performances included The Man Who Planted Trees, which the Edinburgh-based Puppet State Theatre has exported to hundreds of venues around the world over the last 10 years.

Some of Rev McGlynn's puppet shows had classical themes, some political (her Maggie Thatcher puppet was more like an empire biscuit), some folkloric (e.g The Selkie) but often religious. She personally created a puppet of Jesus for a scene when he tells a paralysed man, according to the New Testament book of John: "Arise, take up thy bed and walk"

Mary Elizabeth Shaw was born on January 12, 1950, in the town of Collooney, County Sligo, Ireland, most famous for a September 1798 battle in which French forces helped Irish rebels defeat British troops. She soon got called Moyna by her mother Mary Frances O'Boy, a local English teacher. Her father Ernest Benjamin Shaw was in the RAF but after tough training at Achnacarry near Fort William became an RAF "Servicing Commando," men whose main task was to maintain aircraft and airfields but who landed and fought alongside other commandos.

He took part in the landing in North Africa, Sicily and mainland Italy and gave ground support to RAF planes during the key 1944 battles for Monte Cassino.

In the post-war years, he was posted to Libya, to the Royal Malaysian Air Force, RAF Ballykelly in Northern Ireland and our own RAF Kinloss, where he became a technical investigator into non-combat RAF accidents, particularly involving Avro Shackleton maritime patrol aircraft in or off Scotland.

As a result of her father's travels, while her mother taught English in such places as Libya and Malaysia, the young Miss Shaw went to no less than seven schools: four in England as well as primary School in Tobruk, Libya, Bourne (secondary) School in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Limavady Grammar School in Northern Ireland. But her life changed when she came to Glasgow University and graduated with honours in Theology and Religious Studies, specialising in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. Later, during her ministry, she would go on to get a PhD and become an honorary lecturer at the Department of Theology and Religious Studies.

After marrying Brian McGlynn, the couple became active on Glasgow's evangelical youth scene, centred in the Adelaide Place Baptist Church on Bath Street. "Moyna and her husband Brian were an engaging couple, stimulating to be with and interested in a wide range of cultural, artistic, musical and theological issues," said Rev Dr Peter McEnhill of Kilmacolm Old Kirk, a friend who will preside over her funeral today (Saturday) at Govan Old Parish Church.

"Later Moyna would embark on a spiritual and theological journey that took her into the Church of Scotland and its ministry." She was inducted into Eastwood Parish Church in Pollokshaws in 1999.

In 2008, it was decided to close down the Govan Old Parish Church as a regular congregational venue and the Rev McGlynn was called in as minister of the new Govan and Linthouse Parish Church. "It wasn’t easy as the decision to close the Govan Old Parish Church building as a place of worship was very controversial and there were many hurt feelings all round," Rev McEnhill said. "But Moyna worked tirelessly to secure a new future for the building as a pilgrimage and cultural centre for the famous medieval Viking stones of Govan. Her untimely death has deprived the church of one of its most talented and inspirational ministers of this generation.

"Possessed of a powerful intellect and inquiring mind, Moyna nevertheless exhibited a warm humanity and pastoral sensitivity that won her a place in the hearts and minds of every congregation she served. A fine preacher and skilled liturgist, she was passionate about her work and the people she led and achieved great things in difficult circumstances."

Rev McGlynn died in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, in her own parish and close to her church. "She received the most kind and loving care from all the staff there," her family told The Herald."

She is survived by her husband Brian, their sons Aidan and Ciaran, daughter Frankie (Frances) and four grandchildren.

PHIL DAVISON