Greetings — This post will be in two parts.  Part I will be posted before the vote and then I will add Part II after the vote.  Therefore, if you get this by e-mail or you check your feed reader early you may need to check back if you are interested in the result.

Also, a hat tip to my favorite source of insight into the PCI, Alan in Belfast, for making the connection about one of the candidates.  I’d been keeping up on the vote, but had overlooked the back story.

Part I
In a few hours the presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland will be voting on the designate for the Moderator of this year’s General Assembly.

Up until a few years ago the process was that the presbyteries met simultaneously and each came up with their own choice with no pre-defined list.  Now there is a list, this year with three nominees, and the presbyteries all on the same evening select their choice from that list.

This year the nominees are:
Rev. Norman Hamilton, O.B.E.: Minister at Ballysillan since 1988, ordained in 1983 and serves on the Church and Society Committee

Rev. Derek McKelvey: Minister at Fisherwick since 1994, ordained in 1971 and has been the convener of the Students’ Bursary Fund and the co-convener of the Strategy for Mission Committee

Rev. Stafford Carson: Minister at First Portadown since 2005, ordained in 1983 and has been the convener of the Review of Theological Education Committee and the Committee re Deacons.  He currently convenes the Resourcing Christians for Ministry Committee and was an administrator at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia.

Back story #1 (which I have been following and will do an update on in the near future): The collapse of the Presbyterian Mutual Society.  I expect questions about this to come up at the press conference tomorrow morning.  The current and past Moderators have been injecting themselves into this situation more and more.

Back story #2 (H/T Alan):  I had not made the connection that the Rev. Carson was one of the ministers involved in the Christmas service controversy in Portadown beginning back in 2007.  Briefly, Rev. Carson’s church and neighboring Armagh Road Church have a tradition of doing joint Christmas services with the visiting pastor preaching.  However, in 2007 when the service was to be at First Portadown Rev. Carson would not permit the female pastor of Armagh Road to preach, citing the privilege given to a pastor to approve who may preach at their church, a provision granted in the PC Ireland for those pastors that have scripturally-based objections of conscience to ordaining women.  No compromise could be reached between the churches in 2008 so the service was not held again.  If Rev. Carson is elected this evening, as Alan is predicting, expect some questions on women as clergy tomorrow at the press conference.  There could also be some interesting situations throughout the Moderatorial year.

Part II  And the Moderator designate is…

Well, it looks like Alan in Belfast both broke the story with the results, as well as correctly predicting the outcome in his earlier post.

The 21 presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland this evening selected the Rev. Stafford Carson, pastor of First Portadown, as the moderator designate for the 2009 General Assembly.  Mr. Stafford was selected by ten presbyteries while Mr. Hamilton was selected by six and Mr. McKelvey by five.

I’ll update tomorrow after press releases and stories as well as the traditional news conference.