Alan Cairns (clergyman)

Alan Cairns, 2005

Alan G. Cairns (August 12, 1940 – November 5, 2020) was a Northern Irish pastor, author, and radio Bible teacher.

A native of Belfast, Northern Ireland, he joined the nascent Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster as a teenager. After being called to its ministry, he became a close associate of Ulster preacher-politician Ian Paisley.[1] Cairns served as pastor of Free Presbyterian churches in Dunmurry and then Ballymoney. In 1973 he began a radio ministry, "Let the Bible Speak," which in 2020 was heard on stations in the UK, the Irish Republic, North America, India, Africa, Nepal, Iran and Afghanistan.[2][3]

In 1980, Cairns accepted a call to pastor Faith Free Presbyterian Church, Greenville, South Carolina, the first church in the United States to associate itself with the Ulster denomination.[4] In Greenville, Cairns founded Geneva Reformed Seminary, which today serves as the seminary for the Free Presbyterian Church of North America.[5]

Cairns adapted and published many of his sermon series as books and wrote a Dictionary of Theological Terms from a Reformed perspective. In 2007, Cairns became pastor emeritus, and in 2009, he retired to Ballymoney, where he died of COVID-19 in November 2020, at age 80.[6]

  1. ^ "Tributes after death of Free Presbyterian minister Dr Alan Cairns, long-time clerical associate of Ian Paisley". Belfast News Letter. 6 November 2020. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  2. ^ Let the Bible Speak website
  3. ^ Noel Hughes, "Let the Bible Speak: How it all began," LTBS Quarterly, January 2013, 4-5; Alan Cairns (interview), "The Founder's Vision," LTBS Quarterly, January 2013, 20-22.
  4. ^ Ishmael Tate, "Cairns answered long-distance call willingly," Greenville News (April 5, 2006), City People, 4.
  5. ^ "History of GRS". Geneva Reformed Seminary. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  6. ^ Hewitt, Ralph (7 November 2020). "Tributes by church as former minister Alan Cairns dies of coronavirus". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 9 January 2021.