Recorded in the Weir Chapel in Assembly Buildings in Belfast, this morning’s service looks at Ephesians 1:5-6. “Last week, we looked at just three verses in chapter 1 of Ephesians, and this week it’s the same. The pace will pick up as we go, but Paul starts his letter with a huge subject which we need to look at on its own – and he does it for a reason,” Dr Bruce explained.
“You will gather by the title of this message today – A Chosen Church – that in these verses, we are taken to very bedrock of our knowledge of God and his ways, and of course it introduces a fierce intellectual mystery which has occupied the minds of philosophers and theologians for centuries.
Dr Bruce continued, “We will look at a number of questions, for example, ‘Are believers chosen by God, that is ‘predestined’ to be his followers, or do we use our free will to decide to be his followers? We will look at why did Paul raise this tricky question with the new church in Ephesus – and what can it says to us about being church in a world of racial tension and deep division?”
Over the next period, the Moderator plans to invite one Presbytery from the Church’s 19 regional bodies to participate in his service each week. This week, members of PCI’s Dromore Presbytery will participate in the service with recorded contributions. In a further contribution, the Clerk of the General Assembly and General Secretary of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Rev Trevor Gribben, will explain what a Presbytery actually is, and why PCI has them.
This hymns and worship songs in today’s service will be:
- Holy Spirit, living breath of God
- Yet not I but through Christ in me
- I’m forgiven
- Amazing Grace how can it be
During the service, Rev John Davey, minister of Hillsborough Presbyterian, who is the Clerk of the Dromore Presbytery, will read the passage from Ephesians. Rev Andrew Faulkner, the minister of Sloan Street Presbyterian Church in Lisburn, and the Moderator of the Presbytery for this year, will lead in the opening prayers. A member and volunteer youth leader in Elmwood Presbyterian Church, Zara Carson, will lead prayers for other people.
Presbytery of Dromore
Covering the north eastern corner of County Down, the Presbytery of Dromore extends along the Lagan Valley from the City of Lisburn, westwards towards Moira and the south eastern shore of Lough Neagh. To the south it reaches beyond Hillsborough towards the Dromara Hills and eastwards to Anahilt. Its 22 congregations take in a Presbyterian family of over 12,000 people of all ages, with 6 of the churches tracing their history to the mid-17th century, with the newest, Elmwood Presbyterian, having been started in 1976.
Next week...
The Presbytery of Dublin and Munster will be featured next week as the Moderator talks about being an adopted church – a part of the family of God.