PCI General Assembly
Address of Outgoing Moderator Rt Rev Dr Norman Hamilton
to the Opening Session of the 2011 General Assembly
'Tis that time of year again - when the outgoing Moderator reflects on some of the things he has seen, heard and learned.
But I must start with some big "Thank you's" - not as a routine chore but from my heart. Thanks to the thousands of people who have welcomed Evelyn and myself (and Julie too on occasion) as we have travelled the length and breadth of Ireland, in the UK and in South Africa and Malawi. Thank you for what you have shown us, and shared with us - hopes, fears, joys, needs and sorrows.
Thanks too to the staff here in Church House in all the departments for unending encouragement and much fun from time to time. I will pass on to my successor some let's say - interesting - photos of some of you... Thanks also to former Moderators who have deputised for me when diaries clashed! I am very grateful.
And special thanks to those who have prayed so regularly for us and with us over the year. We are so very humbled and grateful to God for your standing shoulder to shoulder with us in all the demands of these last 12 months.
I have left my thanks to my wife Evelyn and daughter Julie to the end, for they have been outstanding in their daily support in a host of ways. I cannot even begin to tell you both just how much I am indebted to you. Thank you so very much.
I want to offer a few brief reflections on the wider political scene. There is much more detailed comment in the reports being presented to the Assembly this week, so I will not overlap with what is there. This time last year I spoke about the need for us as a society to face sectarianism. I am delighted that the latest PSNI statistics show a drop in sectarian motivated crime of over 20% in the past year.
Yet we do need to accept that a huge reduction in sectarian crime does not mean that hearts and attitudes have softened or changed to the same extent. Our local Executive as well as many of us here - and in the wider community - probably have to play 'catch up' to the Queen and President McAleese following the recent State visit to Dublin, if we are to keep the momentum going in this hugely important task of building decent community relationships. I want to say again that I believe this is a truly Biblical calling - indeed a Biblical imperative - it is so much more than tinkering at social engineering or playing local politics.
The command of Christ himself for all his followers to love their neighbours is just that - a command with no opt out clause. And we can't love them if we avoid them or scarcely know them.
North and South we have elected new governments. The democratic processes are stable, and that is a great blessing. But they are not to be taken for granted, nor can we be indifferent to what happens in the Dail or in Stormont. It is so important that we all pray regularly for our leaders - not least because the Scriptures ask us to do just that. We surely cannot simply be content with the fact of having a government. We would do well to pray for - and look for and expect good government this time round - and reject any expression of partisan or insensitive government; This seems specially important in the North, where almost half the electorate stayed at home.
No comment would be complete without mentioning the Presbyterian Mutual Society and both paying tribute and saying thank you to so many who have been committed and energetic in seeking a resolution to this crisis.
Numerous people have played a significant part - including those in Government here in Belfast and also in London, in the public service, in church house, in the various lobby groups and in other places - who along with some key advisors, the Administrator and his staff and my two predecessors have stuck with it to find a just and fair settlement.
Most of all I would thank the savers with the Society for their patience and forbearance in living without access to their money for nearly three years. The trauma, anxiety and distress experienced by ordinary PMS savers has been immense, and we hope and pray that the final pieces of the jigsaw are now falling into place and that the distress of many people is coming to an end.
May I say that it has been particularly gratifying to see the willingness of so many to defer a part of the payment due to them so that smaller savers could receive 100% of their saving back - hopefully in the very near future. Mutuality is much in evidence, and we are very grateful.
In a few minutes I want to reflect on the situation in our church - but before that we are going to have what I hope will be a short time of very special worship... Music is a rich part of church life -and over the next 10 minutes I hope you will experience something of the uplift and encouragement we have known as we travelled the length and breadth of our church throughout Ireland.
ADDRESS PART 2
I have been asked many times what the Moderator actually does! Let me put some numbers on that question...
Over the past year we have been away from home 127 nights;
• Travelled about 18,000 miles by car; plus another 17,000 by air.
• Have spoken / preached in a formal setting over a 100 times, and have had over 600 meetings with groups and individuals.
• On top of that have received about 3000 emails, letters, and cards
• And eaten an unknown number of very high quality apple creams...
The role of Moderator is a very demanding one - emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually Yet there is an unanswered question... what should the MINISTRY of the Moderator look like... that is a very different question from what does the Moderator do - but I want to formally ask the Assembly to give some careful thought to this question of ministry, for it is much too complex for any Moderator to work out on his own as he seeks to fulfil the role. I do think that part of the answer is to upgrade the public role of Moderators of our Presbyteries, but this is not the place to explore the issue in any detail
As Evelyn and I set out on this year long journey we assumed that it would take us to places, people and situations we had never encountered. And so it did.
We have been in Parliaments and prisons; in cathedrals, castles, churches and community centres; visited hospices, homes and Head quarters buildings. I have talked with political representatives and paramilitary leaders, civic leaders and community activists - and have been in night clubs and news rooms. Spoken in theatres, town halls and an African township. And we have been welcomed so warmly everywhere we have gone by some quite extraordinary people in South Africa, Malawi, Spain, here in Ireland and throughout the UK.
Both Evelyn and I feel greatly humbled by the people we have met, and I want to say a huge thank you to the Assembly and the church at large for entrusting me with the privilege of being Moderator.
So many memorable people, places and events. One of the most memorable was being with some of the group of young people who led our praise a few minutes ago... Evelyn and I heard them at a wonderful concert run by the Carrickfergus Presbytery in the Ulster Hall... They inspired us then - and all of us here tonight too...
Out of many many conversations, some of them very troubling, let me take you to the Odyssey Complex and the magnificent ministry of the Nightlight team... I found myself talking to two young men in their early twenties who had just come out of one of the nightclubs there. We talked about drugs - very openly for about half an hour. They were quite clear there were no drugs on the premises, but that they personally were on drugs as we spoke - and they were highly articulate. I asked if they ever wanted to give them up - answer - every week... Why don't you do it then?... The answer was devastating... Well, it's like this. Either you sit at home on a Friday night with a six pack, and have a row with your Da - or you go out with your mates when they text you to tell you they are going somewhere interesting. The decision seems a bit of a no brainer when faced with that choice and you are 21 years old.
Christian ministry to young men (and women) like this is a huge challenge that most of us at congregational level haven't even begun to think about, never mind address.
There is a message well worth sharing with such young people - and everyone else - but it seems to me that we often back away from figuring out how to share that message on our local streets. Learning from the experience of Nighlight would help us at local level. We should ask them. And as well, there is much to be learned from the ministries of our Social Witness Board in Thompson House and Carlisle House here in Belfast - where they are on the cutting edge of bringing that message of hope - the one Mark read a few minutes ago from Titus ...deliverance, salvation being worked out in self-controlled, upright and godly lives.
As this Assembly knows, the trends over the last 30 years continue. 4500 fewer people connected with us last year than in 2009; Fewer baptisms and fewer new communicants. These figures on their own don't bother me, as much as the long term apparently irreversible trends do.
But are they really irreversible? I think not.
For I have visited churches that are growing steadily... I think of one smaller congregation that has seen a 50% increase in the last few years.. And I go back just a week to our only church in Co Leitrim which was actually closed down in 1980 - but has since been refurbished and in use again - and last Sunday it was packed out - with chairs in the aisles and standing room only for a Songs of Praise where the gospel was sung and preached - and the whole event hugely appreciated by the 200 people there.
Let me offer three perspectives from this last year which seem to mark congregations which are growing and enthusiastic...
1. They are places where relationships matter a great deal. People are of one mind - and where the Bible's emphasis on dwelling together in harmony is actually worked out in practice all the time - whatever the difficulties.
I am very alarmed at the ease with which many of God's people fall out with each other, or with their minister, or even within their own families. And this can express itself in many ways... sometimes there are internal rows; sometimes it becomes very public without any gracious conversation happening between the people involved. Sometimes people are shunned and ignored. Whatever form it takes - poor relationships amongst God's people ought not to be. Can I say firmly, but graciously and humbly, that poor relationships in any congregation are a heartbreak to Christ and in clear defiance of what his word teaches.
2. Growing and enthusiastic congregations have people with a big heart for the needs of others. What happens to others people matters to them. They pray; they care; they make meals; they offer hospitality; they visit; they minister in a host of ways for as long as it takes. And I can think of congregations right now that do this. The people in their community and in their congregations matter - and matter a lot.
3. And growing congregations have a big heart for good evangelism. They tune their lives personally and the life of the congregation so that as opportunities come - and they do - they are already prepared to take them. One minister asked me only last week whether we could cope with revival if God brought it to us... sadly, he was not optimistic that we could.
There are some very gifted people in our church who do evangelism very well... Here is one of them - actually my assistant for the year - David Clawson - who made this video with a few of our own people in Ballysillan. 3.5 minutes...
Available via You Tube - and if you go to the website of our own Board of Mission in Ireland you can watch it there - and download it for use in your own congregation. Please do!
It used to be commonplace for people to tell their own story of what God had done and was doing in their lives... much less common now - but may I suggest it is needed ever more, and we should re-introduce I to normal congregational life and Sunday worship. Personal testimony is very powerful when it is done simply and well...
And let me introduce you to John Dempster who told me his story one day as we leaned on a banister in a local hotel...
JOHN DEMPSTER STORY
I come from a working class family in East Belfast, Westbourne being our family church, was where I consider my seed was planted.
I had a strong link there during my early years like many through Sunday school and the Boys Brigade, but fell away when I started work and moved in different circles. I felt no direction at all in my life.
Though this was all to change when in March 2002 I went on a trip to Scotland I had organised with my friends in the Ambulance service. We went to a local night spot in Glasgow and it was here that I collapsed, as if someone had hit my head with a bat. My friends got an ambulance and while in hospital I was told by staff I had a brain haemorrhage. Boy did this scare me, as I knew this would possibly require surgery if this didn't stop.
My wife Marlene got to speak to me on the phone and shared with me her faith and told me that I should pray like never before. Can I tell you I did just that all week end - and actually heard a porter whistling a tune by Charlie Landsborough, "My Forever Friend", which my wife had also bought on a cassette for our car. The Lord was sending me a message, and I was experiencing something inside me that made me ask for forgiveness and for the Lord to come into my life.
Monday morning came pretty fast and I was down for a second and larger scan which to everyone's amazement showed that the bleed had stopped.
How powerful is our God!!! I returned home later and made a promise to a visitor, Rev Mervyn Gibson, that he would be seeing more of me at Westbourne.
Since then I have been enjoying my new direction. I was ordained as an elder with five friends on 16th June 2006 and in January this year appointed as Clerk of Session.
Our prayers for direction were answered when Mervyn produced a small flyer saying three houses were available in Madrid St. This was our chance to own our own home again - and belong to and witness to the community around Westbourne. And only in April past we able to move into a newly built home which we had helped work on ourselves through Habitat for Humanity
In finishing can I ask if in particular you live near or can come along to Westbourne and have no live church connection you will be made most welcome. Thank you very much.
Thank you so much John...
Growing churches are ones where relationships matter a great deal; where the people have a big heart for the needs of others; and there is good evangelism.
There is however one more ingredient that I suggest is sorely lacking in our witness to Christ and the truth of the faith once delivered to the saints - to quote from the opening chapter of Jude.
It is the apparent loss of both the will and the ability to bring the teaching of the Bible and the gospel of Christ to an increasingly secular society in language that people understand and that is winsome and compelling. Good preaching is essential - but we cannot preach to people who are not in church to hear that preaching.
In the public arena we can often say what we are against - but we struggle to say what we are for; we are not good at engaging with the tough questions that are asked of us; we back away from the media because, wrongly, we often think that they are out to get us. The media, and others who ask, are entitled to receive proper responses to decent questions.
The witness of the local church, and indeed the credibility of Christian faith is hugely influenced by the public understanding of what we are about and what we believe. In Acts 18 we find the apostle Paul engaging in vigorous public debate and not for the first time! Who among us right here, right now, could and should be doing the same today? That is a serious question and challenge I want to put on the table for discussion and more importantly for action - for if that capacity is not there, and is not used, the hurdles of cynicism and apathy in the community at large will only get ever higher - and ever harder for local congregations to surmount.
Thank you so much once again for the privilege of serving as Moderator - it is time for me to stand down and for this Assembly to install our new Moderator.
© Presbyterian Church in Ireland. info@presbyterianireland.org Information correct at time of upload.