In a few hours is when the Presbyterian Church in Ireland General Assembly would have convened. However, due to the covid-19 virus it, like a good number of other General Assemblies, has been cancelled for this year. In the case of the PCI this will break a streak of 180 years of consecutive GA’s.

However, to represent the church throughout the coming year a Moderator is needed, and having nominated a Moderator-designate back on the first Tuesday in February the nominee will be installed for this coming year. Since the nominee needs to be formally elected that will be done by the Standing Commission of the General Assembly as part of the Opening Night formalities.

The Moderator-designate is the Rev. David Bruce, nominated by a significant margin back in February with the support of 14 out of 19 presbyteries. The other three candidates split the remaining five presbytery votes.

Mr Bruce currently serves as the Secretary to the Presbyterian Church in Ireland’s Council for Mission in Ireland. That is one of multiple mission-related posts he has held as well as some time spent in parish ministry in Ballymena and Dublin. Besides the Mission in Ireland work, he has served Scripture Union, both in Northern Ireland and in the former Soviet republics.

He started off heading for the business world with a BSSc in Business Administration and Accounting from Queen’s University, Belfast in 1979. But coming to a personal saving faith during that time in college changed his plans and he then went to the University of Aberdeen for a Bachelor of Divinity. Following a year at Union Theological College he was licensed to parish work and the next year, 1984, was ordained to serve as Secretary to Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (now Christian Unions Ireland).

Leading up to his installation the PCI published a wide-ranging interview with Mr Bruce that included his thoughts on Presbyterianism in Ireland, particularly from his perspective from the Council on Mission in Ireland. Among his comments about the future he said:

“We reimagine, reconfigure what a Presbyterian presence looks like in the city, and that’s the route we are taking.” says David. He goes on, his eyes shining as he contemplates the future. “It may mean that Presbyterian presence no longer resembles what we have understood Presbyterianism to be in the past, you know, a congregation, a manse, a GB, a BB, a church hall, all of those things.”

David Bruce and his wife Zoe have four adult children and one grandchild. Going forward he will be tweeting on the Moderator account (@pcimoderator) but you can follow him on his personal account as well (@irishbruce). In addition, there is a little bit of traffic on the hashtag #pciga20.

The Opening Night service with the installation will begin at 7:00 PM Belfast time. There will be four individuals – the incoming Moderator, the outgoing Moderator, the Clerk and the Deputy Clerk – plus the technical crew in person in the Assembly Hall. Others will join by video. It is being livestreamed.

We wish Rev David Bruce the best on his moderatorial year and our prayers are with him in these most unusual times.