|
|
|
Presbyterian Moderator Dr John Lockington will hear again first hand the plight of rural communities when he meets with farmers, their families and ministers of country congregations at a reception to be held in Greenmount Agricultural College tomorrow evening, Thursday 09 March at 8.00pm.
Organised by the Templepatrick Presbytery, the informal gathering is designed to give an opportunity to the agricultural community to explain to ministers the difficulties they are facing and for the church to offer its support at this difficult time. Apart from short speeches from the Moderator and a farmer's representative the evening will largely be one of informal conversation.
Rev Derek Weir, Clerk of the Templepatrick Presbytery explains. 'The Moderator is on an official visit to our Presbytery this week and as part of that we have been reflecting the rural nature of our community. Therefore it is appropriate we reflect the problems as well. We have invited farmers from every congregation in the presbytery - the Antrim, Templepatrick, Ballyeaston area - together with their ministers and we are expecting about 100 people to be there at Greenmount.'
In a report presented to the General Assembly in 1994 it was recognised how important the rural community is to the Presbyterian Church noting that just over half of its membership is constituted from the 'rural community.' The report went on to say that 'the rural congregations are a heartland of resource which the church must cherish and nourish.'
Dr Lockington has welcomed the opportunity to meet again with farming families. 'The whole idea of official Presbytery visits is to meet with Presbyterians on the ground and hear what is going on in their lives. The farming community is a large part of our church and we are concerned for the wellbeing of farmers and their families and the General Assembly has assured the them of our support and prayers. Some time ago the Four Church Leaders met with European Officials to express their concerns about how EU agricultural policy was adversely effecting our farmers and earlier this week we also expressed to the Secretary of State our pastoral concern for the rural community and asked the government to do what ever they could to ease the problems.'
Issued by Stephen Lynas, Presbyterian Information Services. Info@PresbyterianIreland.org
PCI Home . . . Press Office . . . News Archive