A Life of Ministry
posted on March 1, 2008 in News | 
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Johnston at the National Presbyterian Museum
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.
al clarkson said,
The picture of John was taken by his sister Mary on November 11, 2007, on his last visit to the Museum. He was present with three young people from Alberton Presbyterian Church (http://albertonchurch.ca), who were in his Communicants Class, and an adult leader. He is posing with items that had just arrived from Ottawa, where he celebrated his 80th birthday the weekend previous, and the items had been in the Erskine Church that had merged with Westminister.
On Sunday September 27, 2009, the Alberton Church, where John had served as Minister from 1999 until his death, will be renaming their Church hall, Johnston Hall.
Another fitting tribute!
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