Samuel MCCAFFERTY

MCCAFFERTY, SAMUEL (b. Morningside, Wishow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, 19 April 1932; d. Brisbane, Qld, 25 Feb 1975). PCA minister.

Samuel McCafferty emigrated to Australia in 1948 with his parents and three sisters. After the death of his mother, the family returned to Scotland, but Sam remained in Australia, finding employment in the Brisbane Cash and Carry Stores. It was while in this employment that he believed that His Lord was calling him to the work of the ministry.

McCafferty served as a home missionary with the Presbyterian Church of Queensland prior to and during his training years in Brisbane Theological Hall. In these early formative years, he served churches at Mackay in 1955, Holland Park, 1957, Yeppoon, 1958, Townsville Central, 1959-60, Stafford, 1961-63 and Woody Point, 1964. In 1964, McCafferty married Gwendoline Nelson, daughter of a former Director of Christian Education of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland. Upon the completion of his training, he was licensed in the Ashgrove Church on 19 Nov 1964. He accepted an appointment to Mount Isa Frontier Charge and was ordained and inducted into that Charge on 27 Jan 1965. He was there during a time of great industrial unrest and sought to bring his evangelical social concerns for the people of Mount Isa, to bear, not only on the church locally, but in the State Assembly. It was during his time at Mount Isa that he was diagnosed as having a heart condition which forced an early conclusion to his ministry at Mount Isa. He was called to the historic Ann Street Church in the heart of Brisbane on 18 April 1968, where he exercised a faithful ministry until his death.

Sam McCafferty was a Biblical preacher with a fine gift for the pictorial use of language. His prayers were always warm, personal and characterised by deep sincerity. At Ann Street Church, McCafferty played a leading role in the task of ensuring that the Presbyterian Church continued denominationally after the rest of the Church united with the Methodist and Congregational churches. With the present writer, he co-authored a small booklet, Here We Stand, which outlined the case against union and what is more important, what was thought to be the Biblical case for remaining Presbyterian. He was deeply committed to the cause of evangelical Presbyterianism and worked tirelessly in speaking engagements and committee planning to ensure that the work of his beloved Presbyterian Church would continue. His essential commitment was to His Lord and to the infallible inerrant Bible as God's Word.

Sam McCafferty loved people and especially young people. He was a popular speaker at youth functions, open air evangelistic activities, and the like. Yet through it all, he did not commit himself to some 'spiritual', invisible church; his evangelistic churchmanship shone through all he did. His significant contribution to the work of ensuring that the Presbyterian Church continued in Australia after union cannot be denied. Yet his desire was for more than a traditional body to continue: his passion was the gospel, the evangel, which he believed could be communicated through such a church, although he always recognised that the Lord's people in any denomination were carrying out a godly and valid ministry.

Ecumenically, in the non-organisational sense, with a clear love for his Saviour and the saved people, Sam exercised a warm, loving, pastoral ministry to those of any congregation which was privileged to receive the benefit of his ministry.

RON CLARK