The Revd Dr Paul Bailie, Presbyterian minister, lecturer and lover of Africa, died unexpectedly on 15 November 2023, just days after turning 54.
He was ordained by the Presbyterian Church of Ireland (PCI) in 1995; and from 2007 he had been chief executive of Mission Africa, one of the oldest interdenominational evangelical missions in the UK. He had recently joined the ICC Executive Committee representing the Presbyterian Church.
PCI Moderator Dr John Kirkpatrick said the church had lost ‘a very wise, gifted and talented Christian leader’. Union Theological College, Belfast, where Dr Bailie was a lecturer and tutor, teaching various aspects of the Old Testament, said in a statement that ‘a profound feeling of loss has spread through the entire Union College community’. Belfast Bible College expressed its ‘profound sadness’ at the passing of ‘our esteemed friend and colleague’. A Service of Thanksgiving for his life was held in Greenwell Street Presbyterian Church, Newtownards on 22 November.
Union Theological College principal W. Gordon Campbell said: ‘Our ministerial students and graduates have lost a wise counsellor and a dependable companion and mentor, whose practice of Christian virtues, example in self-giving and model service for Christ were a blessing and an inspiration to us all. The Paul we knew lived out the advice of Paul the Apostle: “Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Cor. 15.58).’
