Alexander Ewing (25 March 1814 – 22 May 1873) was a Scottish church leader. He was born of an old Highland family in

Aberdeen, Scotland Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), an ...

. In October 1838 he was admitted to

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Chur ...

's orders, and after his return from Italy he took charge of the episcopal congregation at Forres, and was ordained a

presbyter Presbyter () is an honorific title for Christian clergy. The word derives from the Greek ''presbyteros,'' which means elder or senior, although many in the Christian antiquity would understand ''presbyteros'' to refer to the bishop functioning a ...

in the autumn of 1841. In 1847 he was consecrated bishop of the newly united Diocese of Argyll and The Isles, the duties of which position he discharged till his death. In 1851 he received the degree of D.C.L. from the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. Though hampered by poor health, he worked cheerfully, and his personal charm and

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

sympathies gradually won him a prominent position. In theological discussion he was tolerant, and attached little importance to ecclesiastical authority and organization. His own theological position had close affinity with that of Thomas Erskine of Linlathen and

Frederick Denison Maurice John Frederick Denison Maurice (29 August 1805 – 1 April 1872), known as F. D. Maurice, was an English Anglican theologian, a prolific author, and one of the founders of Christian socialism. Since World War II, interest in Maurice has exp ...

; but his opinions were independent. The trend of his teaching is only to be gathered from fragmentary publications—letters to the newspapers, pamphlets, special sermons, essays contributed to the series of ''Present Day Papers'', of which he was the editor, and a volume of sermons entitled ''Revelation considered as Light''. Besides his strictly theological writings, Ewing was the author of the ''Cathedral or Abbey Church of Iona'' (1865), the first part of which contains drawings and descriptive letterpress of the ruins, and the second a history of the early

Celtic church Celtic Christianity ( kw, Kristoneth; cy, Cristnogaeth; gd, Crìosdaidheachd; gv, Credjue Creestee/Creestiaght; ga, Críostaíocht/Críostúlacht; br, Kristeniezh; gl, Cristianismo celta) is a form of Christianity that was common, or held ...

and the mission of St Columba. Ewing's daughter Margaret Nina married

Alexander Crum Alexander Crum (1828 – 23 August 1893) was a Scottish printer and Liberal Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1880 to 1885. Crum was the eldest son of Walter Crum FRS of Thornliebank and his wife Jesse Graham, daughter of Will ...

printer and MP in 1863.

Bibliography

Feamainn Earraghaidhiell: Argyllshire Seaweed
(1872)
Revelation Considered as Light: A Series of Discourses
(1873)
Memoir of Alexander Ewing, D.C.L., by AJ Ross
(1877)

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ewing, Alexander 1814 births 1873 deaths Clergy from Aberdeen Bishops of Argyll and The Isles 19th-century Scottish Episcopalian bishops