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

Aberdeen, Scotland Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeenshire, but is now separate from the council area of Aberdeenshire. Aberd ...

. 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 denominations, such as the Cathol ...

'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 Christian antiquity understood ''presbyteros'' to refer to the bishop functioning as overseer ...

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 The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

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

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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), commonly known as F. D. Maurice, was an English Anglican priest and theologian. He was a prolific author and one of the founders of Christian socialism. Since the Second World War ...

; 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 is a form of Christianity that was common, or held to be common, across the Celtic-speaking world during the Early Middle Ages. The term Celtic Church is deprecated by many historians as it implies a unified and identifiab ...

and the mission of

St Columba Columba () or Colmcille (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is today Scotland at the start of the Hiberno-Scottish mission. He founded the important abbey ...

. Ewing's daughter Margaret Nina married Alexander Crum 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