The Revd Brian Stewart writes:

CANON Dick McDonald, who died on 30 May, aged 94, exercised a varied and influential ministry as a priest, theological-college prin­cipal, educationist, psychotherapist, and preacher, over 70 years in holy orders, in both Ireland and Uganda.

Born the eldest of five children of the Revd J. R. McDonald (later Arch­deacon of Connor), Dick graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, with a first-class degree in Mental and Moral Science, and a postgraduate Bachelor of Divinity. He completed his Divinity Testamonium, and was or­dained deacon by Bishop Frederick McNeice on 1 May 1941, to serve his title in St Peter’s, Belfast. Among his contemporaries were the Hanson twins, Richard (later Bishop of Clogher) and Anthony (later Pro­fessor of Theology at Hull).

His curacy began just two weeks after the first of two air raids on Belfast, the worst in terms of casual­ties in any British city except for London. Three days after his ordina­tion, the Luftwaffe returned to Bel­fast, and Dick’s ministry was forged in a parish greatly affected by the destruction.

Ordained priest on St Patrick’s Day in 1942, he remained at St Peter’s until 1945, when he went with the Church Missionary Society to Uganda to lecture at Bishop Tucker Memorial College, preparing student clergy for ordination. After a brief course in the Luganda language at the School of Oriental and African Studies, he arrived in Uganda with his wife, Dorothy, and their infant daughter, Fiona. There, he worked, with the visionary bishop John V. Taylor, in developing theological train­ing in an African context, to en­able the Ugandan Church to proceed to independence and self-sufficiency in producing a new generation of indigenous leaders.

After five years, he was appointed the first principal of Bulwalasi Theological College in Mbale, where he and Dorothy had a tremendous influence on students and their wives. Lectures were casually con­ducted in English, the most common language among the 15 or so local dialects spoken by the students. By now, Dick was so fluent in Luganda that he often taught, preached, and conducted services in it — the most widely used of the local languages. He was made a Canon of the diocese of the Upper Nile in 1955.

The family returned to Belfast in 1960, when Dick became Education Officer of the Church of Ireland. Dick’s successor at Buwalasi, whom he had trained for ordination, was Janani Luwum, one of his many former students who became bishops. In 1977, Luwum, by then Archbishop of Uganda, was mur­dered on the orders of Idi Amin, because he had repeatedly criticised Amin’s brutal dictatorship.

In 1964, Dick moved to Stran­millis College, Belfast, to lecture trainee teachers, becoming head of religious studies in 1966. He was largely responsible for writing the RE curriculum later used in state schools in Northern Ireland. By now, Dorothy had become involved in marriage-guidance counselling. Through her work, Dick also became involved, becoming a registered psychotherapist with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, of which he was eventually made a Fellow in recog­nition of his contribution.

He and Dorothy were deeply in­volved in marriage-enrichment courses and couple-counselling. They were founder members of Cruse Bereavement Care in Northern Ire­land, and Dick was a founder mem­ber of the Northern Ireland Mixed Marriage Association in the early 1970s, when he recognised the huge difficulties faced by those in inter-Church marriages, through his and Dorothy’s work as counsellors.

Retirement was not a word that Dick recognised; so, when he left Stranmillis in 1986, he expanded his psychotherapeutic work, counselling many who were in great distress, or suffering from trauma. He had a particular vocation to help clergy from many different denominations who were experiencing difficulties.

A gentle and kindly demeanour hid a very insightful and penetrating mind. He was a wise and deeply spiritual priest, whose devotional life was centred on the daily office, medi­­tation, and the eucharist. He was widely and deeply read in theo­logy, psychotherapy, and English literature. His sermons were beauti­fully and lovingly crafted, erudite, and always worth hearing. Since the early 1960s, he had served as an hon­orary assistant priest at St George’s, Belfast, a parish that, ironically, his father had attempted to have closed in 1951.

Dick continued working as a psychotherapist until November 2010, despite the deaths of his daughter in 2004, and his wife in 2006. He last presided at the eu-charist on St Patrick’s Day 2011 — the 69th anniversary of his priest­hood. He died very serenely and full of faith, having received the sacra­ments, and surrounded by his sons.