The Reverend Matthew McNaught — pastor, teacher, scholar, and religious pilgrim — died on 23 August 2015, aged 77.
Matthew absorbed a love of spirituality and liturgy from his grandmother, and later he preached on “the strangely formative influence of his early childhood where the singing of simple hymns created a lasting effect on [my] life and adult experience.” But he found the dour theology of Scottish Presbyterians rather less appealing. Restlessness led him first to England, to priesthood in the Anglican Church, and then to America, where he found his final professional home in Unitarian Universalist ministry. The Rev. John Manwell remembers him as “always a gracious colleague [with] a reputation both for faithful pastoral ministry and for thoughtful scholarship.”
Love of his native Scotland never left Matthew. Shortly after arriving in America, Matthew found his new city of Pittsburgh to have “a lot in common” with his native Glasgow: “Lots of steel, lots of character, lots of Presbyterians and some perfectly beautiful hills around the city.” Members of the Towson UU Church fondly recall the Scotland tour that Matthew led for them. His Scottish roots were remembered at his memorial service at the Towson church with the traditional “Skye Board Song.”
Mr. McNaught was passionate about adult religious education, and he helped build strong and vibrant programs within the congregations that he served. In the late 1990s, he lectured at John Hopkins University on “The History of Liberal Protestantism,” and on “The Interface of Religion and Psychology.” He also led seminars on “The Quest of the Historical Jesus” and “The Theology of Soren Kierkegaard,” among many others.
Matthew McDonald McNaught was born in Glasgow on 15 November 1937. After military service, during which he joined the Anglican Church, he took a B.A. at Oxford University in 1962 and a Diploma in Theology from Wells Theological College in 1964, receiving ordination the same year. He served two Anglican parishes over the next few years, meanwhile earning an M.A. from Oxford in 1967. Now married to Anna Bennett, whom he had met as an American student in Glasgow, he moved with her to Pennsylvania and served briefly (1969-71?) as rector of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in the Fields in Gibsonia (near Pittsburgh) as well as on the Board of Examining Chaplains of the Pittsburgh diocese, ironically all the while “struggling with his vocation” and eventually renouncing his Anglican orders.
With brief study at Meadville Lombard Theological School, the Rev. Mr. McNaught received ministerial fellowship with the UUA in 1972 and began a year of interim parish service at the Redhill Universalist Church of Clinton, NC. Accepting a call the next year to the Community Church (UU) of New Orleans, he was ordained again, now under UU auspices, and continued as their minister until 1979. Subsequent calls led to ministries at the First Unitarian Church of Austin, Texas (1979-88) and the Towson UU Church, Lutherville, Maryland (1988-98). There he was named Minister Emeritus upon early retirement, after which he pursued interim ministries: the UU Church of Fort Lauderdale (1998-99); King’s Chapel in Boston (1999-2001); the Unitarian Society of Germantown (Philadelphia, 2001-02); the Unitarian Universalists of the Chester River (Chestertown, Maryland, 2002-04); and the UU Congregation of Sterling, Virginia (2005-07).
During his parish ministries Matthew McNaught served the UUA and UUMA in various capacities. He was program director of the Southwest UU Summer Institute in 1979; secretary of the Southwest UUMA chapter in 1981 and its president in 1982-83; member of the UUMA’s Committee on Continuing Education in 1988; and Minister in Residence at the 1993 Star Island Arts Conference. Community service included chaplaincy at the Orleans Parish Prison (1977-78) and the Bastrop Federal Corrections Institution (1983-86); Unit Chair of the League of Women Voters (1977-79); and Chair of the Community Advisory Councils for New Orleans Public Schools in 1979. In Maryland, Matthew served as President of the Maryland CRC and President of the Towson Ministers Association. He worked with Maryland Against Handguns and cofounded the Maryland Interfaith Conference on Affordable Housing.
Matthew outlived a son Douglas, who died of colon cancer. He is survived by his wife, Anna Bennett McNaught, and a son, Mark Bennett McNaught.
A memorial service was conducted by the Rev. Clare Petersberger at the Towson UU Church on 14 September 2015.
Memorial contributions are encouraged to Smile Train, an international children’s charity that offers cleft lip and palate surgery to children in developing countries. This charity has enabled doctors in 85+ developing countries to provide 100%-free surgery in their local communities.
Notes of condolence may be sent to Anna McNaught, 742 East Lake Ave, Baltimore, Maryland 21212; or to Mark McNaught, 15 Residence Jean-Baptiste de la Salle, 35000 Rennes, France.