Yesterday was the first Tuesday in February, the day that all the presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) meet to elect their General Assembly Moderator for the year. There were a few unique aspects to this year’s election, but at the end of the day the 19 presbyteries elected the Rev. Dr. Michael Barry as the Moderator Designate for the 2014 General Assembly.

Rev. Barry has served for the last 28 years as pastor of Sandys Street Presbyterian Church in Newry (in the southeast corner of Northern Ireland, for those of us who had to look it up). He comes from a family of mariners (according to the PCI press release) but his first career was as a teacher, training at Stranmillis College and then working as a math instructor at Larne Technical College, now part of Northern Regional College. During that time he continued his education and in 1979 began studying for the ministry at Union Theological College, Belfast. Upon ordination in 1982 he served as an assistant minister at First Larne and three years later moved to Newry where he has been ever since. He completed a D.Min. from Covenant Theological Seminary, St. Louis, in 1997.

In addition to his parish ministry, he actively works with schools in the Newry area, particularly the Rathore School for children with special needs. He and his wife Esther have two daughters who both are teachers in England.

Following his election he said in a statement (reprinted here from the Belfast News Letter):

“I am very surprised but pleased that the Presbyterian Church has put
its confidence in me and seen fit to give me the honour of serving as
moderator.

“I look forward to encouraging the Church and its
people in their ministry as I have the opportunity to travel around
Ireland and visit congregations and meet people engaged in ministry and
mission.”

For some answers to questions from the Wednesday morning news conference you can check out Alan in Belfast (@alaninbelfast) and his audio of the news conference on Audioboo.

There were a number of interesting points to this year’s election that deserve mention.

First, there were five candidates on the ballot nominated in the first round. Following the first ballot last night there was a three way tie with Rev. Barry, the Rev. Liz Hughes and the Rev. Ian McNie each receiving five votes. In early responses from people familiar with the history of the church no one could remember a three-way tie before.

In a change in procedure used in this year’s tie for the first time the second ballot was taken the same night as opposed to it being taken one month later, like the initial tie in 2010. The second round was again very tight with Rev. Barry receiving seven votes and the other two candidates each receiving six votes.

Another unusual point this year was that none of the five candidates had been nominated in the first round in previous years – it was a group of all first-timers on the ballot.

Finally, the appearance of the Rev. Liz Hughes on the ballot marked only the second time that a woman has been nominated and with the very close first and second votes it is the closest that a female minister has come to being elected Moderator.

So with that, we congratulate the Rev. Michael Barry on his election, wish him well for the time until he is installed on 2 June, and offer our prayers for his time moderating the Assembly as well as for his moderatorial year.