Obituary – Frank Gibson, minister

died 19 December 2017

Frank Gibson, who has died aged 89, was a minister who led the Church of Scotland’s social work arm with skill and good judgement.

His appointment at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland to the post of Assistant Secretary to the Committee on Social Service in 1972 was no surprise.

There was pressure at the time on all Assembly committees to be aware of the pressure on a declining number of parish ministers.

But in appointing him anyway, the Committee recognised that when fundamental questions were being asked about how appropriate it was that voluntary bodies such as the Church –and particularly the Church – should be involved in the field of social work, Frank Gibson had the combination of political skills and personal experience required.

The Committee was responsible for 84 homes, covering the widest of age ranges for a whole variety of needs. There were 44 eventide homes with a focus on the increasing number suffering from dementia and 40 for children and young people.

Frank Gibson, with qualification in law and accountancy as well as theology was the right person to lead their work.

In addition to servicing the committee which had almost 900 employees, he had to take steps to tackle a serious annual deficit on the committee’s operations.

He was also committed to the policy which then was being questioned, of requiring Christian commitment from those employed in all fields of the Church’s social service.

The assumption, too readily made, was that this denied to the to the Church some of the most able and committed in the field of social work.

There were other qualities which contributed to Frank Gibson’s appointment: his dominant personality and determined vision were considered ideal for social work leadership.

The General Assembly’s committee structure, which envisaged ultimate decision making resting with a body as large and unpredictable as the Assembly, made running the Kirk’s social work in many ways practically impossible. The social work operation often required quick decisions affecting management, staffing and constant involvement with local authorities.

This made Frank Gibson’s appointment a crucial one in the field of the management of an organisation with so much property and such a large workforce.

He also had one other inestimable quality in the eyes of the employing Committee of Social Service. Its membership and leadership had been targeted as one in which the growing conservative element in the Kirk might successfully attempt to have its own area of theological conservatism reflected in the Kirk’s central structure as well as in the views of the committee’s conveners. Frank Gibson belonged firmly in that theological stable.

Leaving school in 1945 he qualified as a chartered accountant and then did two years of national service with the RAF before taking a law degree at the University of Glasgow.

Ten years working as an accountant from 1952 to 1961 was interrupted by a short spell in the mission field.

Licensed as a probationer minister in 1961, Frank Gibson was ordained and inducted to the newly linked parish of Kildalton and Kilmany on Islay and then moved to Fernhill and Cathkin parish in Rutherglen.

After four years he left to join the Social Responsibility Department. Making his farewell speech to the Presbytery of Glasgow with his customary assurance, he told the presbytery that its members would always have a friend at the administrative headquarters of Church in 121 George Street.

The then Moderator, Rev Stanley Mair responded by wishing him well at what the Presbytery would continue to regard as “the hind-quarters of the Church”.

When he retired, by then as the Director of Social Work, such was his affection for Islay, and his former congregation’s affection for him, that he returned to his first parish on Islay for five years before retirement.

When Frank Gibson was appointed as Director of Social Work he said that he hoped he would be the last minister to occupy the post, such was necessity of professional experience in the social work field.

He built on his own experience by taking a course in and obtaining a diploma in social work.

None of his five successor was a minister including the present office-holder, Viv Dickinson.

Johnston McKay