It is the First Tuesday in February and right on schedule, a bit before 9 PM local time, Alan in Belfast and then William Crawley have broken the news that the Presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland have selected the Rev. Roy Patton as the Moderator Designate for the 2012 General Assembly. Mr. Patton was selected from a group of five nominees. He was the clear favorite of the 19 presbyteries receiving almost half of the endorsements with eight. (Not even close to needing the new same-day voting process in the event of a tie.)

Rev Patton is the pastor of Ballygilbert Presbyterian Church where he has been serving for 17 years. Before that he served at St. Enoch’s, Belfast, and Downshire Road, Newry. He has considerable service to the PCI participating on several boards and working as the convener of some of them.  Currently, he serves as the Convener of the Board of Mission in Ireland. He is a graduate of Trinity College and received his theological training at New College, Edinburgh, and Union Theological College, Belfast. (For those not familiar with the PCI, the completion at Union is a requirement of the denomination.) The church web site tells us that his wife Daphne is a teacher and that they “very much work together as a team.”

(source: Presbyterian Church in Ireland )

So in light of that, our congratulations to Rev. Patton and our prayers for him and Mrs. Patton as they get ready for the General Assembly and for his Moderatorial year. Blessings on you.

The news is just breaking but additional coverage and quotes can be found at Alan in Belfast and the BBC news. We are expecting a formal press release to be posted by the PCI, but their pre-vote page has a brief biography of Rev. Patton and the other four candidates.