Rev Bill Henney,
born 13 February 1931, died 28 October 2009
Bill Henney was a very familiar figure at every General Assembly of the Church of Scotland from the late 1970s to the 1990s, stepping up from his seat beside the ex-Moderators to lead the unaccompanied singing in his strong voice, and keeping the Assembly together with wide, flamboyant gestures. He had loved acting, was an extremely strong personality and clearly enjoyed his moments of attention at the start of every session of the Assembly.
Bill Henney was born in Alloa, went to school there and then on to St Andrew’s University where he took a degree in arts and then studied for the ministry at St Mary’s College. Away from his studies he took part in university dramatic performances and was a committed member of St Salvator’s Chapel Choir under the direction of the renowned musician and composer, Cedric Thorpe Davie. He took part as an “extra” in Tyrone Guthrie’s famous production of The Three Estates in 1948.
After a year’s assistantship in St Andrews Church in Dundee, Henney was called to the parish of Rattray in Perthshire. After eight years he moved to the Renfrewshire town of Johnstone, where East and West congregations had just united under the name of St Paul’s. Henney’s forceful, dynamic personality was to ensure that a strong, effective union emerged. He put his experience of ministering to a united congregation (often a very difficult task) to good use as Convener of the committee of the Presbytery of Paisley which encouraged congregations, wherever possible, to unite. He also founded the St Paul’s Dramatic Club which is still going strong, and he encouraged to tackle serious, difficult drama rather than the light comedy which was usually the staple diet of church dramatic clubs.
In 1974 he moved to the Church of Scotland offices in Edinburgh as Assistant Secretary in the Department of Education, with special responsibility for education for the ministry. Not long afterwards his wife Margaret died. He later married another Margaret. Bill Henney was too much of a parish minister to stay in the Kirk’s bureaucracy for long and his name was soon being mentioned in connection with vacancies in several large congregations in the west of Scotland. However he was to return to St Andrews in 1978 as minister of Hope Park Church, where he made a very considerable impact.
In the 1980s, the story broke that the student attached to Hope Park for practical training for the ministry, James Nelson, had served a prison sentence for the murder of his mother. Bill Henney had, of course, known of this and was unswerving in his conviction that the Christian understanding of forgiveness overcame any reservations which the Church had. He was given great support by Very Revd Hugh Douglas, who became an associate minister at Hope Park when he retired from St Mary’s Dundee, and by Revd Professor James Whyte, who was a member of Hope Park congregation and was to speak powerfully in Nelson’s favour when the decision to permit him to train for the ministry was challenged in the General Assembly.
Jim Whyte was himself to work with Bill Henney at Hope Park after Hugh Douglas’ death, in a partnership which the two men found both stimulating and challenging. The University of St Andrews gave Henney an honorary doctorate of divinity in 1993. He retired in 1996, continuing to live in the town.
Henney’s second wife, Margaret, predeceased him and he is survived by a son from his first marriage, four daughters from his second and two grandsons.