The indefatigable Rev. Dr. John Johnston died on January 10, seven weeks after suffering major injuries in a vehicle accident. He was 80. About 1,000 people attended his memorial service a week later at McNab, Hamilton, Ont.
At that service, his son, Rev. Dr. Andrew Johnston, minister at St. Andrew's, Ottawa, said, “Ministry was [my father's] life, and a great strength of his ministry was his personal faith communicated personally.
“As a Christian, his first priority was Christian community. This is where he began. But from the church he went out to serve God in God's world.
“He was the old stock Canadian who embraced the newest of Canadians, the citizen of North America who took up the causes of Palestinian and Sudanese, the traditional Presbyterian who understood that the Church of Christ was much larger and for many years served as president of Hamilton Council of Churches.”
John Johnston founded churches in Prince George, B.C., Ottawa and Nigeria. He was a driving force behind the Presbyterian Archives and the National Presbyterian Museum, both of which he served tirelessly, even taking calls for the museum from his bed in his last week. While a minister at McNab, Hamilton for three decades he also served on various community boards and committees.
Donations in remembrance of Johnston can be made to the Leprosy Mission and the National Presbyterian Museum.
