Bill Anderson. Priest and producer of religious broadcasting. An appreciation
REV William Anderson, who has died aged 86, was a Roman Catholic priest always known affectionately as Father Bill. He was a brilliant wordsmith with an understated style and a gift for a telling theme.
When I was in the first year in my first parish in Ibrox, Glasgow, I was asked to conduct worship for BBC Radio Scotland and Bill Anderson was assigned to be the producer. He came to the church two or three Sundays before the broadcast to get a sense of the place and the people, and to explain what would happen at the broadcast. He had the congregation eating out of his hands.
Some time afterwards I was asked for the first time to contribute a week’s Thought for the Day for Radio 4. I sent scripts to Father Bill and he made wise, thoughtful suggestions. He said he wanted me to read through the scripts just to get me accustomed to speaking them out loud. When I finished I asked if I could have a glass of water before we recorded. “No,” said Bill, “we’ll go for a cup off coffee. They’re all recorded and in the can.”
Bill Anderson was educated at George Watson’s in Cambridge, and took an arts degree at the University of Cambridge before studying theology and philosophy at the Gregorian University. He joined the staff of Blairs Seminary in the Diocese of Aberdeen where he taught philosophy, theology and classics.
In 1969 he joined the staff of the Religious Broadcasting Department of the BBC and remained for eight years before becoming the spiritual director at the Scots College in Rome from 1966 to 1977. Those who knew the Scots College in those years saw the tremendous impact he made on those training for the priesthood.
Returning to Blairs in 1986, he became the Roman Catholic chaplain of Aberdeen University and thereafter administrator of the cathedral and later a canon. In 2000 he moved to the parish priesthood in Mannofield and then Blairs parishes.
He taught and wrote widely and was the author of Words and the Word, about the use of literature in preaching.
JOHNSTON MCKAY
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