Fraser: Not a Private Matter, A Human Story of Grace And Suffering

Why did God allow a talented young man, at the beginning of his Christian ministry, to be struck down by disease? In this story from the early days of kidney transplant surgery, Fraser Tallach gives a frank and moving account of his long battle with kidney failure, while his brother John gives the background to the story and recounts Fraser’s later days. The pain Fraser was called on to endure was mental and spiritual as well as physical, but in it all he found, like the Apostle Paul, that God’s grace was sufficient for him, and that God’s strength was made perfect in his weakness (2 Cor. 12:9). Anyone can be called to suffer. God alone can give the grace we need to carry us through. ‘The grace of God, though given in a way which is intimately personal, is not a private matter’ (John Tallach).

About the Author

Samuel Fraser Tallach was born in Kames, Argyll, in May 1938, son of Rev James & Elizabeth Tallach. His father was the local minister of the Free Presbyterian Church, later to be minister at Stornoway, Lewis. He was educated at Dingwall Academy and Edinburgh University (MA, 1961), and ordained to the Free Presbyterian ministry in 1964, serving for two years at Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Returning to Scotland in 1967, when high blood pressure forced him to take a break, he was diagnosed with severe kidney disease, which led to a transplant – from a donation by his brother Cameron – in September 1969. In 1971 he became the first Free Presbyterian minister at Broadford, Skye, from where he moved in 1980 to Kinlochbervie and Scourie, Sutherland. He was elected in 1987 as Moderator of Synod.

He seceded from the Free Presbyterian Church in 1989 over the Lord Mackay of Clashfern affair, aligning himself with the breakaway Associated Presbyterian Churches. He moved to his final charge – Wick, Thurso and Strathy in Caithness – in 1995, and passed away in November 1998. John Macleod’s obituary in The Herald newspaper described him as ‘a grand preacher . . . an accomplished singer . . . an honourable and godly man’.

Fraser Tallach’s story is told in Fraser: Not a Private Matter, partly in his own words, but with contributions from his brother John and nephew David.