St. Andrew's Episcopal Church
Ayer, Massachusetts

Faith, Community, and Love

Parish History

The Rev. Alan Bruce MacKillop

The following article about the Rev. Alan B. MacKillop appeared in the Nashoba Valley Chronicle on Friday, July 7, 2006:

The Reverend Alan B. MacKillop has been retired for over five years but has actually been working quite a bit of that time in Episcopal churches in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. His experience of 40-plus years is obviously needed to help parishes through transitional times. When St. Andrew's Episcopal Church found itself without a priest last summer, the congregation turned to him. "Father Alan" was not a stranger to the congregation, having been interim [rector] in 2002 and part of 2003, before the Reverend Scott Baker was elected rector.

St. Andrew's congregation has had a long and close history with Groton School, having been established in 1889 by the Reverend William G. Thayer, who was sent by the Reverend Doctor Endicott Peabody, headmaster of Groton School, to serve the town of Ayer. On Christmas Day in 1892, Reverend Mr. Thayer held the first services in the present building. Now the congregation has the pleasure of sharing Michael Smith as organist and choirmaster of both the school and the church.

Outreach is high on Father Alan's agenda, continuing St. Andrew's vision in having begun the local Loaves & Fishes Food Bank as well as assisting Habitat for Humanity, Young Life, the South American Missionary Society and other important works of evangelism and mercy.

Father Alan is especially interested in the ministry of healing prayer, which is also not new to this church. He and his wife, Erica, spoke about this ministry at two of the Wednesday evening programs during Lent, and they are eager to encourage lay people to follow their own calling in this work.

The MacKillops presently live in Manchester, N.H., but have served churches in Manhattan, New York State, and southern California. Father Alan was born in Cambridge, grew up in Medford and graduated from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, and General Seminary in New York City. At present, he is priest-in-residence at St. Andrew's, which should mean he is going to stay a while.