College and Moderator of the General Assembly 1885. Another who he came under the influence of was George Munro Grant , future principal of Queen's University, and Moderator of the General Assembly 1889. On August 16, 1871, he was Moderator of Synod and in 1873, at age thirty five, Alex was made Clerk of the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of the Lower Provinces, the youngest man in Canada to hold such a position. In June 1875, Alex joined the moderators and clerks of the four uniting synods in Montreal for the formation of the Presbyterian Church in Canada . (The picture of the General Assembly , copy in our Sunday School Hall, shows Alex seated on the Moderators right). While some ministers, he noted, would be content to remain in comfortable parishes, it was not his way and he was secretly longing for a change, "to carry the cross to foreign parts." On October 25, 1876, he informed the Session of St. James he had applied for an opening with Greyfriars Church in Trinidad, due to the death of its current pastor. Due in part to his education at New College, and his connections with church officials, he was accepted for this foreign mission post. (His resignation at St. James, Dartmouth took place on Christmas day. Records show a steady decline in members at St. James in the ten years following his leaving) Arriving St. Thomas in the , the family was clearly stimulated. The Sunday service at 8:00 a.m. was followed by a "love feast" where mere labourers placed $400. in the collection plates. By early January the family was on to Trinidad, which boasted 100,000 souls from all corners of the earth. Accommodations were more than adequate, and the climate hqf but tolerable. But the moral atmosphere of Port of Spain depressed the family, and by 1884, he tendered his resignation. He agreed to stay on until a replacement could be found. Their hope came with the news that their son Robert placed first among 1,000 candidates for London Matriculation Examination. With a full scholarship in England for Robert, Alex scraped together sufficient funds to enter James in college in England as well. Alex obtained temporary posting to churches in England and the family set sail on May 23, 1885, for the Firth of Forth. While in England , he preached for two months in Birkenhead in the Winter of 1885-86 and later preached in London in the Summer of 1886. He returned to Canada , leaving on September 14 and was to stop in St. John's, Nfld. to preach at the Presbyterian Church in that city. He is reported (on Nov 4, 1886) to have arrived in Halifax "by the last English steamer". On November 24, 1886, the congregation of church, Pictou united in a unanimous call to Alex Falconer . Their son Robert took up a leaching post. In 1892, Rev. A. Falconer M.A ., B.D ., on the recommendation of the Dalhousie College Board, was appointed chair of New Testament exegetics (interpretation of the Bible) at . He was Moderator of the Maritime Synod in 1896. He received his degree 76