Beloved minister at St. Andrew’s remembered as someone who ‘dreamed big and did big things’
WATERLOO REGION — Rev. Dr. Grant MacDonald was a charismatic leader who cared deeply for the thousands who chose St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Kitchener as their place of worship.
MacDonald, who started with the church in 1965 and retired as senior minister in 1999, died on Saturday at age 79. While at St. Andrew’s, MacDonald took over a Sunday service television broadcast on CKCO and oversaw a membership of more than 3,000 — the largest Presbyterian congregation in Canada at the time.
“Grant dreamed big and did big things,” said Rev. William Johnston, who worked at St. Andrew’s with MacDonald on two separate occasions.
“I have to tell you, I was a little bit in awe (of him),” he said, adding that MacDonald brought some of the most noted theologians in North America to the church for conferences.
“He was the last of a dying breed of clergy who were spirit-driven,” said Douglas Haas, the 81-year-old organist and director of music at St. Andrew’s.
Haas and MacDonald began their long friendship as students attending Kitchener Collegiate Institute. MacDonald then left the city to study, earning a degree in divinity from Knox College while Haas moved to Europe.
The two would come together again years later at St. Andrew’s where Haas worked with MacDonald for his tenure as minister.
“We were a finely tuned team,” Haas said of their working relationship. “We sort of instinctively knew what each other was thinking and so it was very easy to follow along with whatever he would decide to do.”
Haas remembers MacDonald as “tremendously funny.”
“He was the type of clergy man that you could go out and have a few drinks with and a good time,” he said.
MacDonald also had a gift with language, loved a good debate, was generous and humble, and was always busy with community work, said Haas.
He worked with a number of community organizations, served on a number of boards, and for a time was trustee to the Waterloo County Board of Education.
He was also a dedicated family man. MacDonald is survived by his wife Halcyon — a former high school English teacher — his three children and five grandchildren.
“It was really easy to be awestruck by him as a child,” said Jeff MacDonald, one of the couple’s children.
“There was a presence about him people gravitated to and it was palpable.”
Even though Grant was very busy with his work, sometimes having to write three separate sermons for all of his Sunday services, he always made time for his family.
“He gave us a charmed life and we’re nothing but grateful,” said Jeff.
In his later years, Grant loved to cook and take on projects including working with engines and computers, and researching his Scottish ancestry.
He also loved spending time with his adoring grandchildren.
“For everything I couldn’t, or my siblings couldn’t get away with, the grandchildren could,” said Jeff, with a laugh.
But what Jeff remembers best about his father, is the comfort and support he provided so many going through difficult times.
“It is not lost on us as a family that the words we need the most right now are his,” he said.