Former General Secretary, Church of Scotland Guild;
Born: January 25, 1950; Died: May 30, 2013 .
Alison Twaddle, who has died aged 63, served the Church of Scotland in myriad ways all of her adult life.
Initially a manse wife and elder, she later worked for the World Mission before becoming involved in the Church of Scotland Guild which she went on to serve as general secretary for 13 years.
She was also a regular contributor to BBC Radio, delivering Radio 4's Prayer for the Day and Radio Scotland's Thought for the Day, which she had been due to present earlier this month.
Born in Anston, South Yorkshire, she was educated at Broadway Grammar School, Barnsley and went up to St Andrew's University in the late 1960s. Whilst studying French for her MA she met her future husband Laurence Twaddle, who was training for the ministry.
He was briefly assistant minister at St Cuthberts in Edinburgh but the couple spent the following 35 years of his ministry in Dunbar at Belhaven and Spott Churches.
As a minister's wife and mother of their three children, she spent the early years of their childhood as a full-time mum and did not work outside the home.
Later she went into hospital administration, working in a number of Edinburgh hospitals. Always a woman of strong Christian faith, she subsequently moved to posts at the Church of Scotland offices, firstly in the World Mission department where she was Europe secretary to its board and found her translation skills proved useful when she was required to assist with a meeting in Paris at the Scots Kirk.
Then, around 1996, she joined the Guild and was the first person appointed to the role of information officer, a job created as part of the constitutional changes that saw the organisation evolve from the all-female Woman's Guild to the Church of Scotland Guild with a membership also open to men.
She saw her work with the Guild, one of the country's largest voluntary organisations, as another opportunity to serve both God and her fellow women and men. After 18 months as information officer she was appointed general secretary, in August 1998.
Insightful and caring, she was known as an excellent advisor and mentor who could often identify the nub of a problem before others. She also played a key role in raising the profile of issues of concern to the Guild, particularly people trafficking, domestic violence and prostitution, bringing them to the attention of the General Assembly and the Scottish Parliament.
In 2006 when Rev Alan McDonald was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, he asked her to be one of his two chaplains, a role she fulfilled with characteristic modesty and good humour. "She was a huge help and support for the whole year," he said, citing in particular her assistance on a visit to the Church of North India, which took Darjeeling, Delhi and Calcutta, which she found so inspiring.
Well known across Scotland as she travelled the country addressing Guild branches and rallies, she also became a familiar voice on the radio, gaining many fans through her regular broadcasts on the BBC.
In October 2010 Radio 4's Sunday Worship came from Belhaven Parish Church, a service she led and which her husband preached.
Mrs Waddle, who was also a Justice of the Peace for a number of years and a church representative on the multi-denominational Action of Churches Together in Scotland, stepped down from the general secretary's post just over two years ago.
She continued to be involved in the Guild in her local area, sat on the World Mission Council, of which she had been a member many years earlier, and was actively engaged in its work right up until the end. "She was a remarkable person," said Rev McDonald, "very strong, very calm and she had a great sense of humour, a person who was full of fun and laughter but who had a very serious side as well.
" She was very sharp intellectually but she never showed off that. Everything in her life, her work, her leisure time, everything came out of her faith."
She is survived by her husband Laurence, daughters Mary and Sarah and son John.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article