I was trying to decide if there was enough here to spend the time writing this post, but I decided that I should close the loop on the Moderator election and do a status update on the Presbyterian Mutual Society.

As I already posted, last Tuesday night the Rev. Stafford Carson of First Portadown was selected by the presbyteries as the Moderator Designate for the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.  What is unusual is that this year both the position and the candidate come with a bit of baggage and, as would be expected, both came up at yesterday’s news conference.

The Rev. Carson brings with him some history from his church and his theological view point against the ordination of women.  At the press conference he said:

There’s a minority within the Presbyterian Church who have not been
persuaded about the rectitude of the ordination of women and I am among
that minority. We have had really a
truce on the issue for all my ministry in the Church.

The
Church ordains women and those of us who have a conscience about that,
we don’t frustrate or stand in the way of the Church in doing that.
(From The Independent)

He also said that while he would not have a women preach at his church as a matter of conscience he would listen to women clergy at other churches.

In a matter of more current importance he also addressed the collapse of the Presbyterian Mutual Society.  At the press conference Rev. Carson said that his own church has around £1,000,000 invested in the society.  He emphasized that the church should not stay clear of the crisis, as it initially appeared, but needs to “recover its position with the people” and have a concern for those, primarily the elderly, who lost their life savings in the collapse.  The Belfast Telegraph article also quotes the Moderator Designate as saying he would be willing to go with current Moderator Dr. Donald Patton to a meeting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown to appeal for government help.

Since my last update on the Mutual Society crisis not much progress has been made on the issue, but there have been a flood of calls for help and relief asking the British Government for help.  From within the PC Ireland this includes a letter from the current Moderator asking for government assistance and a letter from 23 former Moderators echoing the request.  While they acknowledge that there is no legal obligation for the government to get involved they invoke the moral obligation.  The Very Reverend John Dunlop is quoted as saying:

Whenever Gordon Brown became prime minister he said he would be guided by the ethics and morals of his father. Now Gordon Brown was raised in a Presbyterian manse, his father was a Presbyterian minister. So Gordon Brown understands what moral and ethical obligations are. It may be that there is no technical legal obligation to help the mutual society but we believe that there is a moral obligation to
help the mutual society.

But the cries for help are coming from several directions:  In an open letter to the church the Moderator encourages signing an on-line petition and circulation of  the printed version asking Gordon Brown for help for all Mutual Societies.  [Side note that this was pretty interesting.  At the Prime Minister’s official web site, Number10, you can create online e-petitions for people to sign.  Don’t know of anything like this at whitehouse.gov yet.]

And it is not just the church asking for help:  Both the Belfast City Council and the top political leaders in Norther Ireland, the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister, are asking Brown to step in.  The argument is that the government should back the Mutual Societies the same as they do banks.  We will see if they decide to, but this issue has a while to run yet and will certainly be a major one for the Rev. Carson.