Tribute to Anne Hepburn: National President of the Woman's Guild from 1981 to 1984

Friday October 21 2016

Never Just an Asterisk!

Lorna Paterson pays tribute to Anne Hepburn, who died in July.

(An abridged version of this tribute appeared in the October issue of Life and Work)

To explain the title we need to go to the wonderful memoir of her life: Memories of Malawi and Scotland which Anne Hepburn, nee Burton, who died on 29 July, wrote in 2011. She had been a missionary in her own right for several years, but on marrying the Rev Hamish Hepburn in 1954, her name completely disappeared from mission records, while her husband’s name was “adorned with an asterisk” to indicate that he was married. For one of Anne’s feminist leanings that was almost a step too far! Along with her deep Christian faith, feminism became almost a hallmark of her long, energetic life and inspired much of her working for the causes of justice, peace, ecumenism, practical kindness and stimulating thought.

Born in Dailly in Ayrshire, Anne came into a family which placed a high value on education and allowed her to go to the University of Glasgow where she graduated with an M.A. degree, followed by a year’s teacher training at Jordanhill. Her first post was in the village school in nearby Barr, but soon, influenced by the ministry of the Rev Stuart Louden, she sensed a call to overseas service with the church and entered St. Colm’s College to train as a missionary. She was posted to The Girls’ School, Blantyre in what is now Malawi, thus beginning a lifelong love of that country. One of the others also posted to Mulanje in Malawi was Hamish Hepburn who was known to the Malawians as “Zanga Phee” (the quiet one) – which, although he was a strong character and held the post of Senior Clerk in the Blantyre Synod, offered a sharp contrast to the feisty lady that Anne had become! Theirs, however, was the perfect partnership for 49 busy and fulfilling years enhanced by their three children, Catherine who, sadly predeceased her mother in 2015, Margaret and Kenneth.

Writing of their involvement in Malawi, Dr. Jack Thomson of New College said “In the period following the Emergency in 1959 both Anne and Hamish became involved in visiting Malawian activists detained in prisons in Malawi and Zimbabwe. Anne spoke very good Chichewa and was able, 50 years after she left Malawi, not only to greet but also to chat with Malawian visitors in their mother tongue, to their surprise and delight.

In the period leading to the end of one-party government in Malawi and the transition to multiparty democracy in the 1990s, Anne was one of the key figures in setting up the Scotland – Malawi Network in order to provide regular information on the rapidly changing situation through its quarterly Newsletter: the Malawi Update. For nearly 10 years she was Convener of the Network. Later, though she never held any office in today’s Scotland-Malawi Partnership (SMP), Anne was closely involved in laying the foundations for its emergence. Someone once described the group of those who had lived and worked in Malawi and retained a deep and committed interest in the country as ‘the Malawi Mafia’. As a joke it was once said: ‘If we are the Malawi Mafia, then Anne Hepburn is the Godmother.’ She liked that title so much that on several occasions she used it when speaking to people about the Scotland – Malawi connection.

Anne was a woman of very wide concerns and actions, including feminist theology, international and ecumenical issues, Scottish politics and literature. But behind most of her concerns lay the ideals and values she had developed during her time in Malawi half a century ago.”

When they returned to Scotland in 1965, Hamish was called to St. Mary’s Parish Church Kirkcudbright where Anne’s involvement with what was then the Woman’s Guild (W.G.) began. From being President of her local Branch, Anne rose to become the National President from 1981 – 84. By then she had been ordained an elder, had served on an International Affairs Sub-Committee of the then Committee on Church and Nation, the Inter-Church Relations Committee, the Assembly Council and, beyond the Church, had been involved in 1975 in the UN’s International Women’s Year with its three-fold aim of Equality, Development and Peace. Anne served on the Scottish Committee set up by the UK’s Women’s National Commission to plan and organise the Year’s activities across Scotland. Those wide involvements informed Anne’s approach to her new role as National President of the WG along with participation in the UN’s Decade for Women which ran from 1975 – 85. As National President, Anne was part of the Church of Scotland’s delegation to the Sixth Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Vancouver in 1983.

However, Anne had hit the national church headlines the year before that when, at the WG’s Annual Meeting in the Assembly Hall, on the Theme for the year “Room to Grow”, she used a prayer which had been written by the Rev. Brian Wren for Christian Aid. This began “God, our Mother, You gave birth to all life and love us to the uttermost...” The ensuing “stushie” reverberated around the Church and the WG for several years thereafter and included the production by a small study group, led by the Rev. Dr. Alan Lewis, the Secretary of the Panel on Doctrine, of a substantial report to the General Assembly. This was published in 1984 by the St. Andrew Press entitled The Motherhood of God.

Another issue in which Anne involved the Guild during her national term of office was that of South Africa and apartheid. A Guild Project encouraging the boycott of S. African oranges to help bring about peaceful change was very positively supported by members and welcomed by many Christian women in S. Africa.

Although her involvement in the WG diminished as space had to be found for her other church and wider commitments, Anne, as a former national office-bearer, continued to attend national Guild events to the end of her life and indeed was one of those present in May at the annual get together for former national office-bearers, contributing animatedly to the discussion, as always. Before the UN’s 4^th World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995, the attitudes evident in the “stushie” of 1982 had changed and, to her great pleasure, she was consulted on issues which would arise at the Conference to which the Guild sent two delegates.

At the end of her Memoir, Anne wrote: “I have too much to give thanks for, for there to be space to be a grumpy old woman”, above a delightful cartoon by Jacky Fleming entitled “Never Give Up!” In all her enterprises, Anne never did give up, even to her final days in the Hospice when she was organising her funeral and especially the music which meant so much to her. While acknowledging that, as Dr. Lesley Orr said at her Thanksgiving service, she could be “opinionated, stubborn, not always easy or patient”, the Guild is grateful that she didn’t give up her many causes and interests which helped to widen its horizons, give it a fresh approach and improve the participation of women in the life of Church and community and today it gives thanks for a long life, well lived to the glory of God.

Lorna Paterson, Guild General Secretary 1985 - 98