His return visit to First Lurgan was the opening service to mark the start of a weeklong pastoral tour of the church’s Presbytery of Armagh, one of the denomination’s 19 regional presbyteries. The tour is one of four such visits each Moderator makes during their year in office. That evening, Dr Bruce went on to preach in First Portadown Presbyterian Church and this Remembrance Sunday, he will preach in First Armagh in the morning, before laying a wreath at the city’s cenotaph. In the evening, he will preach in Richhill Presbyterian.
Presbytery tours are primarily about encouraging the local church and for the Moderator to get ‘out and about’, seeing first-hand the work that congregations are doing in the community. They would normally involve around 30 engagements over the course of the week and are an opportunity for moderators to meet and thank those who contribute to community life in a wider context. Usually involving visits to hospitals, the police service, local schools, elected representatives, voluntary groups and other organisations, due to the current situation, however, the Presbytery has scaled back the tour significantly.
“For me it will be like a home coming, as we moved to Lurgan from Banbridge when I was six where I attended King’s Park Primary School, before going to Cabin Hill in Belfast. As a family we worshipped at First Lurgan, whose minister, Dr Jim Matthews, coincidently, went on to become Moderator a few years after I was ordained,” Dr Bruce said.
“Congregations do an incredible amount of work reaching out and serving their local communities quietly and compassionately in the name of Jesus, often behind the scenes. I was really looking forward to discovering for myself what that looks like on the ground, across the Presbytery of Armagh, especially in these Covid times, but I will be able to get a good feel for it in other ways,” he said.
The Presbytery encompasses much of the historic county. Its 29 congregations stretch from the southern shore of Lough Neagh to the border near Keady, and from Waringstown into the south-east corner of Tyrone. These urban and rural congregations range in size from those with 17 families to more than 550, making a Presbyterian family of around 10,500.
During the week the Presbytery itself – ministers, an elder from each congregation, retired ministers and others under its care – will meet for its monthly meeting. The Moderator will lead its opening devotions. He will also have the opportunity of ‘meeting’ most of the presbytery’s ministers for a virtual coffee, chat and time of prayer, in four separate Zoom calls throughout the week. Dr Bruce will also have the opportunity of visiting Craigavon Food Bank and take questions from Year 12-14 students at the Royal School Armagh. He will also see Year 8 and 9 classes at Killycomaine High School in Portadown.
“In light of the current restrictions to ensure people’s safety at this particular time, we took the collective decision to scale back the tour. While the main focus will be preaching in local congregations, I will also have an opportunity to convey my thanks and appreciation, on behalf of the Church, to senior members of the Southern Health and Social Care Trust, for what their teams have done and continue to do, during these difficult times,” Dr Bruce continued.
“It will also be an honour to lay a wreath on Remembrance Sunday in memory of those who sacrificed their lives for us in both World Wars, and the terrible conflict that we endured here at home, from which so many are still suffering the loss of loved ones.”
Rev Peter Gamble, Clerk of the Presbytery of Armagh, and minister of The Mall Presbyterian Church, said that he was looking forward to the visit, especially at this time. “A visit by the Moderator to your presbytery, so that they can see the work and witness of the Church for themselves, is always a tremendous encouragement to ministers and their congregations. While this will be a very different kind of tour, we are delighted to be able to welcome Dr Bruce to Armagh, as you could say, and I am sure that he won’t mind me saying so, that we are welcoming home a presbytery ‘old boy’”.
The clerk continued, “Presbytery tours are primarily pastoral visits and this visit is timely. As a community of God’s people, and as a community living together in a more general sense, in these days, we probably don’t realise the stress and anxiety that we have all been under for so long now. To have the Moderator come, with all the social distancing and other safety measures in place, to bring God’s word, and to encourage us as Presbyterians, is something we welcome and give thanks for, particular at this time.”
Photo: First Lurgan Presbyterian Church.