Rev. Robert Macdonald

Rev. Robert Macdonald was born in Glasgow, Scotland. A Spiritualist at an early age, he served in the Scottish Spiritualist Churches from age 17. Later on he immigrated to the United States and was ordained as a Spiritualist Minister in 1927. He served as Pastor of the Progressive Spiritualist Church of Niagara Falls for 11 years. 

In 1934 Rev. Robert became the Pastor of Plymouth Spiritualist Church after Rev. Raymond Burns stepped down. Rev. Robert's time at Plymouth was marked with noted stability and also with an excellent team of platform workers who would go on to become Church leaders in their own right such as Bertha Krech, Laura Ellsworth, and Eleanor Gutzmer. 

In 1941 Rev. Robert was voted to be a trustee of the National Spiritualist Association of Churches, and was elected as Vice-President in 1944. As Rev. Robert assumed more responsibilities within the NSAC Plymouth's pastoral team began to assume more roles within the Church, by 1945 most services were being lead by Bertha Krech. 

By 1947 Rev. Robert had officially left as Pastor of Plymouth to devote more time to his role with the National Association; his role as Pastor was temporarily filled by Rev. Justin Titus returning as a guest Pastor to Plymouth from 1947 to about 1949. After Rev. Titus stepped down this lead to a period of time were Plymouth Church was largely run by a Pastoral team and a series of temporary and guest Pastors. This period of instability included the loss of the original Church and would last until about 1955 when Plymouth found their new home on Flint St. 

In 1955 Rev. Robert became the fifth President of the National Spiritualist Association of Churches. He served lecturer traveling from coast to coast in the United States, as well as Canada, visiting churches and spreading the message of Spiritualism. 

Rev. Robert was noted to have been very devoted to the philosophical and scientific aspects of Spiritualism. He promoted Spiritualism as a natural and reasonable religion, and took a very firm stance against metaphysical teachings that he felt were not part of the Spiritualist religion. He stated, "Astrology, Numerology, Mind Science, etc. all have their place in modern society and modern thinking, but they have no place in the religion of Modern Spiritualism." 

Rev. Robert also served as President of the Lily Dale Assembly, and for many years served as editor and manager for The Summit magazine published by the NSAC. He passed away on March 10, 1973 after a long life of dedication to serving others.