The Revd Dr Bob Burn writes:
THE Revd Alastair Robin McGlashan, who died on 29 June, aged 79,
was born in Plymouth to a naval family. After Shrewsbury School, he
read Greats at Christ Church, Oxford, with some distinction.
His maternal grandmother and John Inchley's summer camps in the
Quantocks were his chief Christian influences as a boy. In his
third year at Oxford, he joined the Christian Union, and, after
National Service, forgoing the rank of officer, trained for the
ministry at St John's College and Ridley Hall, Cambridge, gaining a
first in theology.
During his final year, he spent some time at the Ecumenical
Institute at Bossey, where he met the Principal of the Tamilnad
Theological College in South India, and formed a link. After
curacies in St Helens and Ormskirk, and a year's training with CMS,
he was appointed to the Tamil-medium theological college at
Tirumaraiyur, near Tirunelveli.
At first he studied the formal language of Tamil, and then spent
some time living in a village, learning everyday Tamil. He taught
New Testament in the college, wrote four Tamil books on the New
Testament, and a Greek grammar, and helped to revise the Tamil New
Testament published in 1975.
By 1969, however, Robin had come to see that the theological
education being offered did not take proper account of the Hindu
context in which the Christian church in Tamil Nadu is set; nor did
he know how it might; so he spent two years living close to the
Saivite temple in Tirunelveli town. He became familiar with temple
rituals and with classical texts sung at festivals. During the
first of those years, he studied in Tamil for the degree of Vidwan
for those who become qualified teachers of Tamil. In 1972, he
rejoined the college, which had moved to Madurai, and had merged
with Lutherans.
After a broken engagement in 1970, Robin sought help from the
counselling centre of the Christian Medical College at Vellore.
This led to an interest in psychology, and, in 1974, he decided to
leave India and spend a year in clinical pastoral education in
Chicago.
In 1975, he resigned from CMS, and, in 1977, he married Margaret
Parr, a doctor working in Guy's Hospital, and became chaplain of
West Park Psychiatric Hospital in Epsom. In 1984, he became a
professional member of the Society of Analytical Psychology, and
for 13 years worked in private practice as a Jungian analyst.
During this time, he was also Clinical Director of the Morden
Pastoral Counselling Centre.
His fellow chaplains greatly valued his insights, and his
assurance that their vocation was to enable others "truly to be
heard". His publications in religious and psychological journals
reflect an awareness of personal growth in religion, from literal
to symbolic perceptions - a growth that he had experienced as a
committed Protestant Christian.
After retirement, Robin made a series of visits to both St
Petersburg and Krakow, to assist with the development of courses in
analytical psychology and psychotherapy. But he also made four long
visits back to his Theological Seminary in South India, to teach
pastoral counselling and re-establish contacts with Hindus.
After the diagnosis of cancer in 2002, he concentrated on
translating the Periya Puranam, the Tamil Saivite classic
from the medieval period, stories from which had moved him in the
1960s because of the great love of Siva of which they spoke. The
Tamil Saivites in London, in danger of losing their cultural
heritage, supported him. The publication of The History of the
Holy Servants of the Lord Siva (Trafford, 2006) won accolades
from Saivite congresses.
In his Christian immersion in Tamil literature and religion,
Robin belongs to a tradition that includes Beschi (1700s) with G.
U. Pope and Bishop Caldwell (1800s); but, in the depth of his
understanding of the bhakti (devotional) tradition in
Saivism, he stands alongside the Jesuit Robert de Nobili, who was
in Madurai (late 1500s), and founded a church more deeply sensitive
to the Hindu context than any since.
Robin is survived by his wife, Margaret, and daughter, Vivienne.
The funeral took place in Motspur Park, the parish church where he
had served, unpaid, for more than 20 years. The occasion was one of
affection and admiration. Many Hindus helped to fill the
church.