For Dr Kirkpatrick, retirement beckons. Not as Moderator, as the office is borne only for a year, but as minister of the north coast holiday spot where he has served since 1993. For many in the final year of their working life there is, perhaps, an element of slowing down and taking the foot off the pedal – but not in this case.
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“I thought it would be busy at the weekends,” Dr Kirkpatrick confides, “and no one would be bothered with you during the week, but once you become the principal public representative of PCI, well, that’s a different matter and it’s been nearly every day – just as ‘church’ is every day and not just on Sunday. The experience has been one of overwhelming joy and a privilege, not a burden in anyway; a time of incredible blessing,” he said.
With four presbytery tours under his belt – some with 30 engagements packed into a week – and two overseas visits to countries that have either experienced the pain of civil conflict and economic collapse as in the case of Lebanon, or the ongoing brutality of unprovoked war, as witnessed in Ukraine, it hasn’t been a run of the mill year.
Upheld in prayer
“Physically and literally Joan and I have been upheld in prayer,” he says. And it has been needed, both at home and overseas. “There is no more profound thing than that, a religious cliché some might say, but when you are in the thick of it, especially when you are tired and need to focus, you are given the capacity to do something that you know is beyond you.
“You really end up finding that Grace is actually working in your life – the first benefactor of the principle that I have been trying to convey all year. But it is only when you are in that situation you experience it and we both found that. It has been demanding and tiring, but never did I wake up and think, ‘oh no, do I really have to do this?’ It has been an incredible blessing,” he said.
There is no doubt that in our democratic Presbyterian way of doing things, for any Moderator coming from a lifetime in parish ministry to be the senior office bearer of the Church for just a year, is quite a leap – and Dr Kirkpatrick has taken it in his unassuming stride, representing PCI at some unique, if not historic, occasions.
In September he attended the State Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II and only last month he took part in the Coronation of King Charles III. Along with his colleagues in the Church Leaders Group (Ireland), he prayed for him, when the King and Queen visited Armagh.
In November, along with his Church leader colleagues, the Moderator had a working lunch with President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina at Áras an Uachtaráin in Dublin, and has met other senior politicians and civic representatives from across these islands throughout the year. But was it these ‘golden ticket’ events (my words) that stand out?
Extraordinary and encouraging moments
“There have certainly been times when you think you are so privileged to be in a particular moment, and people might automatically assume that they are the big occasions that stand out. But it is the people that you meet in the midst of them, and the people you meet going round the congregations, which are often the moments that are extraordinary and so encouraging.”
Dr Kirkpatrick spoke of those dedicated to supporting ex-service personnel, who served and also suffered when he met them at the National Day of Commemoration in Dublin last July. Then, there was one of the centenarians he visited during the year - A 100 year old lady who was still passionate about serving Jesus and who wanted her birthday, in some way, to bring honour and glory to God.
Dr Kirkpatrick said that it was humbling to meet her and hear that she had asked for no presents, just a donation in the basket in her room for the Bible Society’s ‘Bible’s for Babies’ programme. “As someone reaching the end of her life, she wanted to give the best start in life to those being born,” he said.
Each of the congregations Dr Kirkpatrick and his wife Joan visited were unique in their own different ways. “One of the blessings that we experienced right across the whole island was the kindness, the warmth, hospitality and love that was shown to us in the congregations. It’s a truly humbling thing to just be blessed by people in that way. There's no doubt about that, and it gives you a greater appreciation and love for our Church,” he explains.
“People dignify you because they dignify the office you hold. And that to me is very, very important. You come to understand that the office you hold is an important one. It's about what God wants to do through that office for the good of the Church and wider society, so it certainly isn’t about you.”
But did he find it onerous in any way? “I wouldn’t say that. A weighty responsibility, yes, onerous gives me the sense that it's something burdensome, which it hasn’t been.” It was a point that he also made when talking about the late Queen’s funeral and the Coronation.
A liberating office
“You realise that it isn’t about you and that’s liberating. You go to represent your people, Presbyterians from across the island, your Church and your Saviour. You are conscious, or at least I was, of the weight of that responsibility on your shoulders, which is OK, while thinking at the same time, ‘my goodness, please don’t let me trip in these robes and be replayed a million times on YouTube’!” Thankfully he didn’t.
But there were also hard and challenging times too, especially meeting victims and survivors who had lost loved ones during The Troubles. “For Joan and me, it was so difficult to see people reliving the pain of their own past stories. It was humbling and we both considered it a real honour to listen and pray. It was the same in Creeslough, supporting our ministers after the explosion, meeting families and standing with colleagues in other churches at a time of tragic loss,” he said.
As a son and grandson of the Manse – both his father and grandfather were Presbyterian ministers – he enjoyed going back to the congregations where they had served. He also preached in the places where he had spent time as a trainee minister nearly 40 years ago, and his first Church, Garryduff, near Ballymoney, along with many other congregations up and down the land. So how did he find the Church?
“I think that it would be fair to say that we were greatly encouraged by the life and vitality the we found, and not just on the Presbytery Tours, but each Sunday when we visited, especially when you remember that we are still in a post-Covid world,” he said.
During his travels Dr Kirkpatrick said that felt that as a result of Covid ‘nominalism’ had lessened. While it may not account for all of those who haven’t returned to church, the Moderator said that he felt that the people who come together to worship consider their involvement in church as a genuine expression of who they are.
“While we discovered that many churches have reduced the number of things they do to focus on the things that matter more, which isn’t a bad thing, making them leaner, we found a lot of life and vitality in worship, prayer life and sharing the Christian life in the community,” he said.
New beginnings
As part of that new life, Dr Kirkpatrick also welcomed the opportunity to open a number of church halls, cutting the first sod for the very first Presbyterian Church in Maynooth, or a new meetinghouse in Buckna, County Antrim. They’d outgrown their old one, which was built in the mid-18th century – and all in a challenging economic climate.
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He also welcomed the opportunity, like all Moderators, to see the wider work of the denomination – PCI’s social witness through its social care programmes and homes, the great work being done across the board by our chaplains, the work of Union College, and those individual Presbyterians engaged in education.
Dr Kirkpatrick also got to see the work of the Church overseas, where he came to appreciate the real value of gospel based partnerships. His most recent journey was to the Middle East, when he was a guest of the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon at a conference on the outskirts of Beirut.
He brought up a map of the region on his phone, pointing out the cities where some of the Presbyterian ministers he’d worshipped and prayed with came from: Damascus – where the Apostle Paul met Ananias on Straight Street – Aleppo and Homs, the last two obliterated cities etched on the fading collective memory of the Syrian civil war.
Standing in solidarity with members of the Reformed Church in Transcarpathia in Western Ukraine was also a time he wouldn’t forget. Likewise, their brothers and sisters in Christ in the Reformed Church in Hungary, caring for the thousands of Internally Displaced People fleeing the war in eastern Ukraine.
A faith sharpened
Presbyterians across Ireland raised over £1.5 million for the relief effort, with Dr Kirkpatrick and his wife seeing just how some of that support had helped. He would never forget the sound of the air raid sirens, or the resilience and reality of the faith in people that he met.
“Faith is altogether different, especially in a country at war, or a country like Lebanon and the hardships people are experiencing due to the economic collapse, but faith has to have legs on it. We saw amazing work being done by our partners, where there is a tremendous sense of dependence in God,” he said.
“Even in those places, which are so different, it still sharpens your faith, totally. Faith is not theoretical, it's like that old saying, ‘You never know that Jesus is all you need, until Jesus is all you have’.”
His year in office comes to an end in two weeks’ time, when Rev Dr Sam Mawhinney takes on the role for the ensuing year at the General Assembly. Dr Kirkpatrick will return to Portrush for a few months, before he retires from active parish ministry to the County Antrim farm where he was brought up.
As we came to the end of our time together, the Moderator told me, “You know, sometimes the Lord and His mercy pulls back the curtain a little bit to show you what He is doing in the lives of his children. And having pulled back the curtain, it allows you to see that Grace works, or maybe, more specifically, Grace at work.” Dr Kirkpatrick can certainly testify to that.
Photos (1) Preaching at Hazelbank Presbyterian Church's 50th anniversary in Coleraine, County Londonderry (2) Presbytery Tours: (i) Dromore Presbytery - with Northern Ireland Air Ambulance (ii) Dublin & Munster Presbytery - with Minister Heather Humphreys TD and Dáil Éireann An Ceann Comhairle, Seán Ó Fearghaíl TD (iii) Route Presbytery - at Ballycastle High School (iv) Newry Presbytery - at Sea Source in Kilkeel, County Down (3) Dr Kirkpatrick delivering his address at the Opening Night of the 2022 General Assembly (4) (i) with King Charles III at St Patrick's Church of Ireland Cathedral in May (ii) Dr Kirkpatrick and colleagues in the Church Leaders Group (Ireland) with President and Mrs Higgins (iii) with Most Rev Eamon Martin, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh, Rev David Nixon, President of the Methodist Church in Ireland, and Most Rev John McDowell, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh in the precincts of Westminster Abbey ahead of the Coronation (iv) with the King at a special service for the late Queen Elizabeth II at St Anne's Cathedral in Belfast in September (5) Taking part in July's National Day of Commemoration in Dublin (6) With his wife Joan and Very Rev Dr William Henry at Maze Presbyterian Church (7) in Westminster Abbey after the Coronation (8) cutting the first sod for Buckna Presbyterian Church's new buildings in County Antrim and (9) in Maynooth for the first Presbyterian church in the County Kildare town (10) outside PCI Global Mission Partner the Near East School of Theology in Beirut (11) Ukraine: (i) Dr Kirkpatrick on one of the ‘exodus’ roads that brought some 500,000 Internally Displaced People from eastern, central and southern Ukraine to Transcarpathia (ii) A bomb shelter used by one of the Reformed Church in Transcarpathia’s (RCT) schools (iii) with a grandmother and her grandson who had escaped from eastern Ukraine with the Director and Lay President of the RCT, Mr Béla Nagy (iv) On a visit to the RCT's’ Diaconal Centre in Berehove with Joseph, one the bakers who earlier in the conflict helped to bake 1,000 loaves a day (12) time to relax...
Dr Mawhinney’s election and installation as Moderator will take place at the Opening Night of the General Assembly, which will take place on Wednesday, 21 June. It will be livestreamed on here on this website. All public sessions will be livestreamed until the Assembly’s close on Saturday, 24 June. You will find the business before the Assembly here and the Reports that will be discussed here. You can follow proceedings live via Twitter @pciassembly using the hashtag #PCIGA23.