Next Tuesday 1 February, Presbyterians around Ireland will meet to elect a Moderator Designate who will succeed the present Moderator Dr Ken Newell at the Presbyterian General Assembly in June.
The voting will take place in the 21 presbyteries that independently meet around Ireland in locations as diverse as Dublin and Londonderry, Carrickfergus and Omagh.
Presbyteries are the governing bodies responsible for groups of approximately 25 congregations in different geographical locations around Ireland. Each one has a membership composed of all the ministers and a representative elder from every congregation in its area.
There is no list of candidates for Moderator and the members of each presbytery will vote on names proposed by their own members to decide who their presbytery will nominate as the Moderator Designate as he is officially known.
Each presbytery can just nominate one name and these are communicated to Church House in Belfast where the result is declared out of a total of 21 votes, one from each presbytery. The identity of the next Moderator is expected to be announced by 9.30pm on Tuesday evening.
For the last two years the election in February has resulted in a tie involving Dr Newell first with Dr Ivan McKay from Dundonald and last year with Dr Harry Uprichard, minister of the Trinity congregation in Ahoghill. Both required supplementary votes in March. This year a tie is not expected though a number of Śnewą names are likely to receive nominations from presbyteries.
In the February election last year the voting was as follows:
In the supplementary vote in March between Dr Newell and Dr Uprichard, Dr Newell was elected by 12 presbyteries to 9.
Issued by Stephen Lynas, Presbyterian Information Services. Info@PresbyterianIreland.org
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