Funeral Ceremony and Celebration of the Life of
Angus Campbell McConnell BEM

13th February 1931 – 15th February 2021

Service Conducted by Rev Anne Paton
Minister of East Kilbride Old Parish Church

Welcome

Good afternoon and welcome to you all and welcome to everyone who is joining us on-line. We are here this afternoon to express our sadness that Angus McConnell’s life has ended, but we also come with thanksgiving as we remember the person he was and all that he accomplished during his life. So we come now in faith, for God is with us, the God who has promised that in life of in death he is with us, the God who gives all who truly believe the assurance of his eternal blessing.  

Angus was steeped in the Old Parish church all his life, and was not only a member of the Boy’s Brigade but was also an officer for over 12 years. It is fitting then that our first Hymn is the BB hymn, 

Will your anchor hold

Opening Prayer

Loving God, we come today to express our sorrow that Angus’s life has ended, but also to express our joy that he is now safe with you.  We come to remember the past, but also to anticipate the future. We come to mourn, but we also come to give thanks.
We come to you now with gratitude in our hearts for all that Angus has meant to us, for all he continues to mean to us, and for all he will always mean to you.

We come to acknowledge a life well lived, and so in faith we commit both Angus and ourselves to your eternal care.

Loving God, draw near to us today, speak to us through all that we might share today, so that we, believing in you, might receive the comfort, the peace, and the strength that you long to give us, and so find hope in this life, and the life to come.  

Amen

Reading : Isaiah 40, 28-31 and 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-14

Angus’s Life Story

St Paul wrote: ‘Do not grieve like the rest of mankind who have no hope’.  I think that there are some people in this world, who make it easy for us to grieve differently from those who have no hope. For there are special people in our world who are filled with wit, and sometimes wisdom, but full of character, and full of dedication and service, but also full of fun.  Angus McConnell was one of these people.  Angus was someone who always had a word for you, in fact if it was a formal situation, it wasn’t just a word, it was a wee speech. At the last session meeting we had when we congratulated him in advance of his 90th birthday, the former technophobe swiftly unmuted himself and gave a speech worthy of any Oscar winner. Times spent with Angus were never sad, they were always upbeat.  And always he made you smile. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Angus when he was down.  He had a wee phrase, which was “Oh tae hang,” and he would pick himself up again. This occasion should be no different. The world will be a different place without Angus in it, but today we acknowledge a life well lived and we give thanks for his legacy which lives on. 

Early Years

Angus McConnell was someone who was very proud of being from Old East Kilbride.  He was born to Tom and Mary McConnell on 13th February 1931 in Torrance Square in the village and was brought up in Parkview in St Bryde’s Street with his brothers Tom, Jim and Dougie, and his sister Helen.  He went to the village school, then Rutherglen Academy.  From his birth, East Kilbride Old Parish Church was at the heart of his life, he attended Sunday school and the youth fellowship there, and was also in the BB, becoming a senior leader, a post he held for over 12 years. He became a communicant member in 1949 at the age of 18, and was ordained an elder in 1960, and it is a special memory the Kirk Session have of a virtually distanced presentation to Angus marking 60 years’ service as an elder last summer.

Angus’s working life began at the age of 15 when he started work as an office machine mechanic with WL Haig and company, which later became typewriter distributers limited.  He spent his whole working life with the same company, beginning as an apprentice and eventually retiring in 1992 as Partner/Director, when the company was sold to a larger group. 

YMCA

In 1947, Angus joined East Kilbride YMCA, and became actively involved at ground level and on their work committee, he then became chair of their youth committee and was subsequently appointed to the board of management where he served as a member and as chair, until it ceased in 1998. In addition, he served on the YMCA football committee and in 1950 he was appointed its’ representative on the Scottish Amateur league. It is interesting to note that in 1950, the family moved to the house in Carrick Road, and I remember Mrs McConnell, Angus’s mum telling me that you could never get a bath in their house on a Saturday night because the bath was full of dirty football strips. 

At this time the YMCA were running two youth teams and two adult teams in East Kilbride and Angus acted as secretary with responsibility for all the admin for these teams.  He was also appointed a member of the Scottish Amateur football association youth committee.  In his work for this committee he served as minute secretary, he was vice president for three years and a further four years as president becoming a life member of the league. 

In 1961, he, along with a few others helped to set up the Lanarkshire YMCA Youth league which later joined with the East Kilbride Boys league which became known as the Lanarkshire Youth league catering for young people from the age of 12 to 19. In 2012 the league expanded to join up with Monklands seven a sides and is now called Central Lanarkshire Youth development association.  Angus was president of both the YMCA and the Lanarkshire Youth league.  No wonder his mother’s nickname for him was ‘Mr never in’.
In 1984 for his service to both amateur and youth football he was made a life member of the SAFA.  In 1998 he was invited to join a steering committee of the Scottish football association to try to bring together three national youth bodies to form one association.  This took place and agreement was reached and a new body covering all grassroots football was established and Angus was appointed vice president and three years later became president of the Scottish youth football association with over fifty thousand young people and over ten thousand adults caring for them across the whole of Scotland. On retiring he was awarded life membership of the association. It’s fitting that the new pitch at Kirktonholme is going to be named in honour of him. That’s us just talked about his football achievements.

Community Work

In 1967 he was one of the founding members of the East Kilbride sports council which was the first sports council started in Scotland. He served as committee member, vice chair and chair, and on his retiral he was awarded life membership.  Angus also had life membership of the Scottish association of local sports councils and was made honorary vice president.

In 1986, Angus was appointed a justice of the peace for Lanarkshire serving in courts in Cambuslang and Hamilton.  He was also appointed a member of the justice advisory committee and served for two terms. 

He was also involved with the twinning of East Kilbride with Ballerup and was a founder member of the committee which was set up to further promote and foster links between the two town. He also served as chair.  When he died there was an article in their local paper in Ballerup with contributions not just from people he had come to know, but also from the mayor, such was the high esteem people held him in.

Angus was also a long-standing member of East Kilbride probus Club. 

Queen’s Baton

In 2014, Angus was very proud to be a Queen’s baton relay runner for the Commonwealth Games, and yes, even in his mid-eighties, he did run, along the Old Coach Road. In 2016, Angus was awarded a British Empire medal for his services to sport. His nieces organised a celebratory meal at the Stewartfield farm, where Angus gave one of his legendary speeches.

Parish Church

We’ve talked about him becoming lifelong members of things, but one of the most important lifelong membership Angus had was in his association with East Kilbride Old Parish church.  Although Angus had all the commitments we’ve talked about, he rarely missed a kirk session meeting. He was the voice of wisdom on the kirk session, he didn’t always have a lot to say, but when he did, people listened.

He was a diligent district elder, and he loved being on door duty welcoming people, for he knew everyone. When I arrived on a Sunday morning, I would find my cassock over a chair warming in front of the fire, and a welcome of “Anything special today ma’m?”  I’m sure many of us have our memories of Angus at the soup lunches, where he made it his business to get a bowl of every kind of soup that was on the go. I can also picture him with his clipboard ticking people off as they left for the church holiday. Angus served as presbytery elder since 1997 and contributed to many committees there.  Part of his presbytery experience was the tea beforehand in the Moorings Hotel, where Angus always had fish and chips. 

Angus also attended many General Assemblies, sometimes he would stay in a boarding house in Edinburgh for the week, but latterly he travelled from East Kilbride by train every day. He would always say, that will be my last General Assembly, but when he came back he would say,’ I’ve maybe got another General Assembly in me’. Last night I paid tribute to him at the presbytery meeting and many people took time to get in touch afterwards and just say how much they had appreciated Angus and all he did. 

Family

Aside from all of these things, Angus took time to enjoy himself. The family had a caravan for many years at Ocean Edge Caravan park in Heysham, and Angus loved to go there with family and friends. He was a frequent visitor to Ballerup, but his other favourite place was Mull, where his mother had come from and where he still had family. More recently he ventured to the Canaries, and when he broke his arm while on holiday there, many of us wondered how he would recover, but Angus being Angus astonished us all, and many medics. He was planning return trips there, although I’m told Jack and David had told him to get more up to date shorts. His were out the Ark.  

To his family, however, he was just uncle Angus, although he wasn’t just an uncle Angus, he was a great-uncle Angus and a great-great-uncle Angus. His nieces, Elaine and Anne who he called the girls, would sort things for him, and he loved the food parcels they would bring. He would go to Elaine’s on Christmas day, and take home enough food to last him for days, but on boxing day he would go to Anne’s and she would do the same.
  
In many ways, I feel we could be here all day, talking about Angus, but I think it’s clear that in reflecting back over Angus’s life, there is truly so much to give thanks to God for. We are directed by the Bible now, not to grieve as those who have no hope. Of course, we grieve. It would be nonsense to pretend otherwise. We do not have to pretend that we will not miss Angus.  We will, especially his family.  Yet, we have a certain confidence, based upon the promises of God, that we are not closing a book, we are simply ending a chapter.  

Prayer

Gracious God, we entrust Angus McConnell into your everlasting care, and as we do so, we thank you again for all he has meant to us, for the person he has been, for the service he has offered and for the contribution he has made to our lives.  

We thank you for everything he has meant to his family, his church family, to all the people he served with on his many committees. We thank you for everything he has meant to his friends, to everyone joining with us today, and we thank you for all he continues to mean to you as well as to us. We thank you for Angus’s faith, his commitment to our church and his commitment to the community. We thank you for all we owe to Angus for the way he enriched our lives, and for the memories we will always have as a lasting tribute and enduring legacy.

Gracious God, we come in hope and confidence, trusting in your promise, and assured of your gracious purpose, and in that faith we entrust both Angus and ourselves into your gracious keeping, now and for all eternity, 

Amen.  

Committal
It says in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians that:
Things beyond our seeing,
things beyond our hearing,
things beyond our imagining,
have all been prepared by God for those who love him.

We have entrusted our brother Angus Campbell McConnell into the hands of God, and we now commit his body to be cremated, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, having our whole trust and confidence in the mercy of our Heavenly Father and in the victory of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord who died, was buried and rose again for us and is Alive and reigns for ever and ever.  
Amen

Jesus said “I am the resurrection and the life, whoever has faith in me shall live, even though he dies.

Closing Prayer

Loving God, you have promised that those who mourn shall be comforted. So we pray now for each one gathered here today, and everyone joining with us virtually, bringing before you the sorrow felt at this time.

We pray especially for Angus’s family, in their shock and grief, in their pain and loneliness, the turmoil of emotions which death inevitably brings to those left behind.

We pray for those who counted Angus as a friend, those whose lives in different ways were touched by his presence. We bring before you a sense of emptiness, separation and sorrow. 
 
Give us your support as we struggle to come to terms with our loss. Give strength to face the days that lie ahead.  Give courage when the future seems dark, give hope when life seems without a purpose.

Help us to know that your love for Angus and for us continues beyond death, that you are with us at this moment and always, and may that knowledge bring comfort and hope today and in the days to come.

Amen

Closing Hymn

To God be the glory

Benediction

And may the peace of God which is beyond all understanding guard our hearts and our thoughts in Christ Jesus.
And the blessing of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be with us all now and forever more.