PCI General Assembly

Meet the Moderator

Rev Ivan Patterson

As was announced immediately following his election at the beginning of February the next Moderator of the Presbyterian Church will be Rev. Ivan Patterson, minister of Newcastle Presbyterian Church.

Mr. Patterson was nominated by 12 out of the 19 Presbyteries and will take up office on the 6th June in succession to Dr. Norman Hamilton who continues as Moderator until that time.

Rev. Roy Patton, minister of the Ballygilbert congregation received 3 nominations, Rev. Joseph Andrews of Ballee, Ballymena 2 votes, and Rev. Roy Mackay, Second Comber and Rev. Rob Craig, Kilfennan, Londonderry tied on 1 vote each.

Commenting on his election Mr. Patterson who has been minister of Newcastle for the last 20 years said, "I am absolutely overwhelmed to be elected as Moderator. I am very happy to serve the Church and to represent its members but am somewhat daunted by the thought of the year ahead."

Voting for each candidate was as follows:

Rev. Ivan Patterson (Newcastle) 12 Presbytery votes: Armagh, North Belfast, East Belfast, South Belfast, Carrickfergus, Coleraine/Limavady, Dromore, Dublin/Munster, Iveagh, Omagh, Route, Templepatrick

Rev. Roy Patton (Ballygilbert) 3 Presbytery votes: Ards, Monaghan, Newry

Rev. Joseph Andrews (Ballee, Ballymena) 2 Presbytery votes: Ballymena, Tyrone

Rev. Roy Mackay (Second Comber) 1 Presbytery vote: Down

Rev. Rob Craig (Kilfennan, Londonderry) 1 Presbytery vote: Derry/Donegal

Rev. Ivan Pattersondescribes his ministry as "conservatively biblical with a strong evangelical outlook. I get great satisfaction from helping people and would love them to become more knowledgeable about the God of the Bible and the implication of that for their lives.

"We cannot expect people to come and find us so we have to be open to be found. That means being active in our communities, making our Christian voice heard and having confidence in Christ to share our faith through being involved in what is going on outside the walls of our Church as well as inside."

To emphasise this his congregation of some 350 families has just completed a development programme creating a new reception area and other facilities that make their church, which faces directly on to Newcastle Main Street, an open and welcoming building for everyone, everyday.

Born on 15th January 1949, Mr. Patterson was brought up in the Co. Antrim village of Buckna where he attended the local Presbyterian Church. After schooling at Rocavan Primary School, Ballymena Intermediate School and Ballymena Technical College he worked as a television repair engineer before continuing his studies to gain admission to Queen's University. After graduating in semitic studies he completed his training for the Presbyterian ministry at Union Theological College gaining a Masters in Theology in 1979 and also studied for a short time at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Mr. Patterson was ordained in 1980 and served for two years as assistant in First Bangor Presbyterian Church before becoming minister of the Bushvale congregation near Ballymoney in 1982. In 1991 he was called to Newcastle Presbyterian Church.

Throughout his ministry Mr. Patterson has taken particular interest in youth work and overseas mission. He served as convener of the Presbyterian Church's Youth Board between 1989 and 1993 and was the first chairman of Youth Link, a body set up by the Presbyterian, Methodist, Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic Churches to provide support and training for youth leaders and community relation experiences for young people.

He has also travelled to Kenya, Nepal and India to see church work there and has a particular interest in Romania, establishing a twinning arrangement between his church in Newcastle and a congregation of the Hungarian Reformed Church in Hodos, Romania.

Mr. Patterson who is currently Clerk of the Iveagh Presbytery, is married to Maureen and has one married son and two grandsons.

The Word is Life

"I am absolutely overwhelmed to be elected as Moderator. I am very happy to serve the Church and to represent its members but am somewhat daunted by the thought of the year ahead." With those words Rev. Ivan Patterson greeted the news last February that he has been nominated as Moderator Designate of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. With only a few days until he takes the Chair at the General Assembly Noreen Erskine spoke to him about his life, his ministry and being Moderator.

The new Moderator of the Presbyterian Church knows what it's like to sign on the dole.

On the morning of his wedding in Ballymena in 1972, at the age of 23, Rev. Ivan Patterson signed on at his local job centre. Recalling that time, he said, "I can still visualise going in and seeing the counter there, and people queuing to sign up for their unemployment benefits."

His worries about beginning married life with no job proved short-lived. Three weeks later, after his return from honeymoon, he obtained a summer job on a building site. Later that year he resumed his studies to gain admission to Queen's University in Belfast.

Mr. Patterson, now 62, was brought up near the Co. Antrim village of Buckna, not far from Broughshane.

With his parents - his father was a van driver, his mother worked in a bakery - he worshipped at Buckna Presbyterian Church. There he went to Sunday School, sang in the choir, joined the Boys' Brigade and later became a Sunday School teacher.

The youngest of three children, he has warm memories of his days as a pupil at Rocavan Primary School - now closed. Mr. Patterson said, "One of the highlights of the day was that if you were really good, the teacher chose you to wash the small bottles of milk we drank during the morning break. We'd wash them in a little stream outside the school, which meant we would get about 20 minutes off the next class!"

After attending Ballymena Intermediate School and Ballymena Technical College, he worked as a television repair engineer. "I remember colour TV coming in during the late 1960s, and seeing the first colour pictures on television," he said. "TV sets were in big cabinets then, with valves inside them, nothing like the plasma sets of today."

Mr. Patterson continued working for seven years and then returned to his studies. He went to Queen's University, where he obtained a degree in Semitic Studies. He spent some time at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and later completed his training for the Presbyterian ministry at Union Theological College in Belfast, where he gained a Masters in Theology in 1979.

The following year he was ordained and served for two years as assistant minister in First Bangor Presbyterian Church before becoming minister of the Bushvale congregation at the village of Stranocum near Ballymoney in 1982.

For the past 20 years Ivan Patterson has been minister of Newcastle Presbyterian Church in Co. Down. Facing on to the Main Street of the seaside resort, it normally has a congregation of around 380 families.

However, to cater for the influx of tourists and holidaymakers who flood into the town at the foot of the Mourne Mountains during the summer months, two Sunday morning services are held at the Church during the holiday season.

Last year, the Church expanded its premises, opening up a new reception area and meeting rooms for use by the public. Several organisations in Newcastle use these during the week. Members of the congregation staff the space on a daily basis during the summer, offering tea and coffee, and if needed, a listening ear, to anyone calling in.

The congregation also gathers for coffee there after services on Sunday.

"Since it has opened, we find that many more people, probably half to three quarters of the congregation, now wait on after the service. There's a great buzz there, and the sense of community it has brought has been wonderful," said Mr. Patterson.

The development of the Church's new facilities echoes Mr. Patterson's view of his ministry. Describing it as "conservatively biblical with a strong evangelical outlook," he continued, "We cannot expect people to come and find us, so we have to be open to be found. That means being active in our communities, making our Christian voice heard and having confidence in Christ to share our faith through being involved in what is going on outside the walls of our Church as well as inside."

Mr. Patterson describes cross-community relations in the town as good, and takes part in joint worship with the other denominations there.

He has also spent much of his ministry focussing on youth work and mission projects abroad. He served as convener of the Presbyterian Church's Youth Board between 1989 and 1993. He was also the first chairman of Youth Link, a body set up with government funding by the four main churches in Northern Ireland to provide support and training for youth leaders, and cross-community experiences for young people.

With his wife Maureen, a teacher, he has taken youth teams to Kenya and Holland, and has also travelled to Nepal and India to see church work. He has a special interest in Romania, where he has forged a twinning arrangement between his church in Newcastle and a congregation of the Hungarian Reformed Church in Hodos in Romania, near the border with Hungary.

Up until a couple of years ago, both Mr. Patterson and his wife, who have a son and two grandsons, made regular visits to the village. On one such trip, Mr. Patterson joined villagers fighting a fire with buckets of water at a building close to where the couple were staying.

Turning to the year ahead, Mr. Patterson plans to use 'The Word is Life' as the theme of his year as Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, set against the background of the 400th anniversary of the publication of the Authorized King James version of the Bible.

"Although we don't use the King James version, it has been influential in terms of language and our culture. As a reformed church, the Bible is central to us. I'll be thinking more about the Word of God and what that means as we try to respond to the teachings of Christ in the Bible in our society and in our lives", he said.

He also hopes to organise "a time of thanksgiving" to acknowledge the work done by all those involved in resolving the problems concerning the collapse of the Presbyterian Mutual Society. Referring to the rescue scheme that's expected to repay varying levels of funds belonging to savers and investors, he said, "It's been a long and painful story for many people, but I think it's had as good an outcome as we could have wished for."

Resolving another thorny issue - of whether he should accept an invitation to meet the Pope if Benedict XVI visits Ireland next year - is something Mr. Patterson intends to leave to the General Assembly to decide.

Last year the Clerk of the General Assembly Dr. Donald Watts shook the Pope's hand when he met him at Holyrood House in Edinburgh during his visit to Britain. However, the then Moderator, Dr. Norman Hamilton, declined to do so while attending a service in Westminster Cathedral at which the Pope was present.

The conflicting actions sent out a mixed message from the Presbyterian Church. It's one that the new Moderator hopes will not be repeated.

NOREEN ERSKINE is a former Religious Affairs correspondent for BBC Northern Ireland who now works as a freelance journalist.

Reprinted from the Presbyterian Herald with permission