One Man’s Journey

Deacon Duncan Macpherson

I would love to tell you about some dramatic moment of conversion, like the one Paul had on the way to Damascus; to be able to tell you about how empty and godless my life was until I was suddenly overwhelmed by the blinding certainty that God loved me and that Christ died for me. I know many people who can give just such an account of their journey to faith. My story is not so much of one dramatic turning to God but of a stop-go-zigzag-bends journey with several mini-conversions or reawakenings of faith at various intervals in my life.

 Born in 1940 to parents who were good and loving people with a kind of Christian Faith, but who didn’t seem to need to have much to do with any Church. Nevertheless I was baptised in the Church of England as a baby and later sent to Sunday school. At about eight or nine I joined the cubs and went to the monthly Church Parade at the local church to which the pack was attached. The vicar was a very impressive pastor and preacher. When I heard him preaching about God’s love I knew that he was talking about something real and important.

I took my faith with me to boarding school in 1951. There I was confirmed in the Church of England and decide that I had ‘a call’ to the ministry. On a visit to a village in Brittany in 1959 I first experienced Catholic worship. Friendship with the very dynamic parish priest laid the foundations for a journey towards full communion with the Catholic Church. Later, my time at University ended in 1963 with my taking that step in the company of several other students--including one who soon afterwards became my wife.

After five years as a teacher of Religious Education, I became a Theology lecturer at a College of Education. Academic teaching and family life combined to fill my day. With whatever time was left I channelled much of my Christian zeal into radical politics. I became progressively disenchanted with aspects of the institutional Church and-- although I never abandoned the practice of the Faith-- I can see in retrospect that it occupied less of a place in my life, and the company of articulate atheist friends contributed to a host of intellectual doubts.

A sabbatical trip alone to India in 1976, followed by several visits to Jerusalem in the 1980s led to a reawakening of faith and the extraordinary grace of an almost palpable sense of God. I then began again to experience a sense of vocation to ministry and a rediscovery of the richness of Catholicism. My own life experience had provided me with the ability to feel with others in their journeying and uncertainty. In 1992 I was ordained as a permanent deacon and found the opportunity to give voice to the faith that I received at my baptism and to the love that has filled all my days.