Moderator, by James O'Fee

The chief public spokesman of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland is the Moderator of its General Assembly. The General Assembly meets in June and elects its Moderator or Chairman, who is an ordained Minister. The Moderator serves for one year only. He (or she) normally must employ an Assistant to undertake his work at his home church. See here.

The Moderator-designate for the incoming year has been chosen as the Reverend John Finlay of Harryville, Ballymena, Co Antrim. See this local newspaper report.

I've mentioned David McKee previously. David is a remarkable gentleman in his 80s whom I see sometimes in the sauna at the local swimming pool and leisure centre. Only recently did he cease cycling the five miles from Donaghadee to come to the leisure centre.

An ordained Presbyterian Minister with a Swiss wife, David served for many years in the town of Twann in the canton of Berne (see here). David speaks German with a Swiss accent but he conducted his preaching and pastoral work in High German (the literary language). Thus he was able to address conferences in Germany and be understood.

Before that, David tells me, he served as a missionary in Gujarat, India (an area where the Irish Presbyterian Church has a long history of mission work). David learned Hindi and even became head of Hindi teaching at the school for foreign missionaries.

David was able to tell me more about John Finlay's family. He knew John's father was was an ordained minister himself who served ten years as a missionary in Argentina. Returning home, he failed to complete his theological training and so was unable to become a full Minister. He served as an Assistant instead. Having served ten years in the mission fields, he felt that he had learned enough and his work in Ireland was greatly blessed.

David was able to explain to me the mysteries of the election process. The Presbyterian Church in Ireland is divided into 22 Presbytries which contain several churches - Bangor, for example, falls into the Ards Presbytery. Each Presbytery meets early in the year to choose its candidate as Moderator of the General Assembly. The Presbyteries then submit their nominations to the secretariat which counts the nominations and makes the information.

Formally it is the General Assembly - the highest governing body of the church - which has the power to elect its Moderator when it meets for a week in June. And it is constitutionally possi8ble for fresh nominations to be made at the General assembly itself.

By tradition, however, all the candidates withdraw apart from the nominee with the greatest number of nominations - John Finlay in this case. He becomes the 'Moderator-designate' and goes forward to become elected at the General Assembly unopposed.

See this official press release with more personal details of John Finlay and of the nominations made by each Presbytery.