The upcoming selection of the Moderator of this year’s General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) is attracting attention for a couple of reasons.

The first is that one of the nominated candidates on the list is the Rev. Ruth Patterson.  Rev. Patterson has received votes before, but in the wake of the gender controversy at Christmas her nomination this year takes on additional significance.  As a quick reminder, two churches in Portadown join together for a Christmas service, but this year the minister of the host church declined to let the pastor of the guest church preach, as is the tradition, because the pastor is a woman.  As I mentioned in my post at the time and as discussed in a current Belfast Telegraph article, this is within the polity of the PCI under the 1989 “liberty of conscience” clause.  The PCI has never had a female Moderator of the General Assembly.

Within this debate it is interesting to note that the Rev. Patterson was the first woman to be ordained as a Presbyterian minister in Ireland, in 1976, following the 1973 change opening the ministry to women.  Rev. Patterson serves as the Director of Restoration Ministries, has been the Moderator of the Belfast Synod, and is the daughter of the late Very Rev. Dr. Tom Patterson, the Moderator of the General Assembly in 1977.  There is another Belfast Telegraph article about Rev. Patterson and the Moderator selection process.

But there is a second point of interest in the current news, a point discussed in the second article and that I have subtly hinted at in my wording above.  The Moderator selection process has changed this year.  In the past, all the presbyteries have met on the same evening and each presbytery voted on their choice for Moderator with the individual receiving the most votes being elected.  Previously this was done without an advance list so each presbytery was free to chose as the Spirit led them.  This year there is a nomination process to create a list which the presbyteries will vote from and the Rev. Patterson is one of the seven names on the list.