The Clerk
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The Clerk of the General Assembly is the General Secretary of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) and conducts correspondence on its behalf, and is responsible for all official records and documents of the Assembly. The Clerk officially acts as Secretary to the General Council, Council for Public Affairs and Judicial Commission. Alongside the Moderator, the Clerk is an ex-officio member of all Councils and their respective committees and panels. The Clerk is also one of PCI's principal spokespeople.
There is no annual election of the role of Clerk as, since its inception at the first General Assembly of 1840, the office is considered ad vitam aut culpam – for life or until fault.
The current Clerk and 12th since 1840, is Rev Trevor D. Gribben who began his role at Assembly Buildings in September 2014. Mr Gribben was appointed Deputy Clerk in 2008 having served for over 18 years in parish ministry. Having been ordaind in 1988 as the assistant minister of St Enoch's and Duncairn Presbyterian Churches in North Belfast, two years later he was called to serve as minister of Leckpatrick Presbyterian in County Tyrone and then Whiteabbey Presbyterian Church, County Antrim, in 1996.
In 2020, Rev Dr David Allen took up the role of Deputy Clerk and Deputy General Secretary, supporting the Clerk with various duties and responsibilities.
Any questions, complaints or objections relating to the Church should be addressed to the Clerk at:
Assembly Buildings,
2-10 Fisherwick Place,
Belfast, BT1 6DW.
Rev Trevor Gribben can also be contacted via email clerk@presbyterianireland.org or by telephone +44 (0)28 9041 7208.
For a list of all Clerks of the General Assembly, click here.
The Moderator of the General Assembly
Following a minister’s selection as Moderator-Designate by the Church's 19 regional presbyteries, which meet separately across Ireland on the first Tuesday in February each year, the Moderator-Designated is formally nominated, elected and installed as Moderator by the General Assembly on its Opening Night in June. This year's Moderator is the minister of Adelaide Road Presbyterian Church in Dublin, Rev Dr Sam Mawhinney.
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As the denomination’s senior office bearer, their formal role involves acting as the Moderator (or Chair) of the General Assembly, overseeing its debates and putting resolutions to the House to be decided on. You can see an overview of the 2023 General Assembly here. During the rest of the year, the Moderator acts as the principal public representative for the General Assembly and Church as a whole.
During their ear in office Moderators are styled, Right Reverend, abbreviated to Rt Rev. Following thier year in office, former Moderators are given the title Very Reverend, abbreviated to Very Rev. In recognition of their nomination as PCI’s incoming Moderator, ahead of the General Assembly the Presbyterian Theological Faculty, Ireland traditionally honours each Moderator-Desigate with an honorary doctorate of divinity.
Moderator’s serve for one year and during their year in office they typically travel throughout Ireland and overseas to see the work and ministry of the Church and encouraging its ministers and members. This also includes undertaking four weeklong Presbytery Tours and an Overseas Tour.
During his year in office Dr Mawhinney will tour tour the:
Moderators also make an overseas visit. In November Dr Mawhinney made a 15-day visit to Kenya. The primary purpose of an overseas visit is to continue to build relationships, and strengthen ties with global partner churches, in this case one of PCI’s longest established partners – the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) - and to encourage and support PCI’s Global Mission Workers. In Kenya, PCI has five, all of whom work with PCEA. You can read about his visit here and his 'Postcards from Kenya' here (select 'Overseas Tour' in the filter).
Moderator 2023-2024 - Rt Rev Dr Sam Mawhinney
Dr Sam Mawhinney has been minister of Adelaide Road Presbyterian Church in Dublin city centre since 2008 and is the first Moderator in nearly a quarter of a century to come from a congregation in the Republic of Ireland. The last Moderator from the 26 counties was Dr Trevor Morrow of Lucan Presbyterian Church in County Dublin who was elected the year 2000. Since the establishment of the denomination in 1840 there have been 25 Moderators from what is now the Republic of Ireland. Dr Mawhinney is the 11th to come from Dublin and the 178th person to hold the office. One of his predecessors as minister of Adelaide Road, Rev Dr Robert Hanna, was elected Moderator in 1926.
Born in Ballycastle on the north Antrim coast in 1962, Dr Mawhinney worshipped with his family at the local Presbyterian Church and attended Ballycastle Primary and High Schools. It was while he was at the High School, where he was Head Boy, that he became conscious that he was being called to ministry. As a result he decided to study medicine at Queen’s University Belfast with a view to becoming a missionary doctor.
After he left Queen’s in 1986 Dr Mawhinney spent five years working in Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry, Waveney Hospital in Ballymena, the Holywell Hospital in Antrim and Templepatrick General Medical Practice, becoming a member of the Royal College of General Practitioners in 1991.
Speaking about this time he said, “Having fully qualified as a GP, the question arose again about ministry within PCI, as that strong sense of call had remained with me. With the advice of a trusted minister, I was encouraged to test the call and see if this was from God.
“The process was a thorough one as I explored the idea of a call to medicine verses a call to church ministry in my presbytery interview. At each stage, God graciously confirmed my sense of call to the latter and I was accepted to begin training for the Presbyterian Ministry at the Church’s Union Theological College in September 1992. As I had a year to wait before I started, I was able to spend that time in Kenya, serving as doctor at the Presbyterian Church of East Africa’s hospital in Kikuyu, 10 or so miles northwest of the capital Nairobi.”
As part of his ministerial training, Dr Mawhinney was the assistant to the minister of Old Park Presbyterian Church in north Belfast in 1995 for two years, before he was ordained as minister of Cahir and Fermoy Presbyterian Churches, a joint charge in Counties Tipperary and Cork respectively. He and his wife Karen lived in Fermoy with their three sons before being called to Adelaide Road Presbyterian Church, where Dr Mawhinney has served since 2008.
When he is not in the pulpit, or visiting members of his congregation, Dr Mawhinney relaxes by doing bits of DIY, tidying the garden and watching sport and TV dramas. As a former hockey player he also enjoys sport and road cycling in particular. A keen Manchester City supporter, he was until recently manager of YMCA Dublin’s 1st IX hockey team.
‘Surprised and humbled’
Speaking about his election as Moderator-Designate in February Dr Mawhinney said, “I am genuinely surprised and humbled by my election this evening. It is a position I have not sought, but happily accept as God’s will for my life. While in some respects it is quite a daunting task, I know that God’s help is promised for every task we are called to and I therefore thank Him for the opportunity to serve the Church in the year ahead.”
Talking personally about his journey of faith, Dr Mawhinney said, “I grew up in a Christian family home and remember listening to Rev David Armstrong of CSSM, the Children's Special Service Mission, which was later to become Scripture Union. He preached in my primary school canteen of all places when I was eight or nine and it was then that I came to a saving faith in Jesus Christ.
“My faith deepened in my teenage years, I became a member of my home church when I was 16 and when I was 17/18 I served with Portrush CSSM under Rev Godfrey Brown, who himself became Moderator in the late 1980s. As a disciple of Jesus, at Queen’s the outworking and deepening of my faith lead to me being offered positions of leadership, becoming Prayer Secretary of Queen’s Christian Union and its President in 1983/1984. It was during this time there was a real involvement of students from the Republic which inspired me, developing the sense of call I had to serve south of the border.”
Confident in Christ – Dr Mawhinney’s theme for the year
On the Opening Night of the General Assembly, which took place on the 21 June, when he was formally nominated, elected and installed to serve as Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, in his address the new Moderator introduced his theme for the year, which is ‘Confident in Christ’.
Speaking to the Members of Assembly, invited guests, members of the public in gallery - and those watching on line - Dr Mawhinney used the parable of the wise and foolish builders in Luke 6:46-49 to talk about his theme.
“In the picture Jesus paints, “the flood came, and the torrent struck”, a crisis, and a testing. We live in post Christian Europe and the culture and society is hostile to the church of Jesus Christ.
Speed of change
“The speed of the change has been breath taking and for those of us who live in the Republic of Ireland in 2015 a majority of people in the State affirmed that marriage would be between two people irrespective of the sex of each partner. Then abortion was legalised through the repeal of the Eighth amendment in May 2018. Two of the primary teachings of Jesus and the Church were rejected, “the flood came, and the torrent struck.” Two foundation blocks of Christian teaching for society, marriage and the sanctity of life in the womb were rocked and we felt the seismic ripples beneath our feet.”
He continued, “Added to that society tends be intolerant of contrary views, and when contrary views are expressed, they are assessed it seems primarily by how they make the recipient feel, rather than the merit of the argument. Contrary views are often cancelled and it is becoming harder to get a hearing for the Church in the public square. So, we live in post Christian times, the Christian message is now not seen as good news, there is hostility towards the Church, from an increasing number of quarters, these are the storms that we face.”
Responding to the storm of society’s challenges
Dr Mawhinney went on to ask “What has been our response to this storm of society’s challenge?” he quotes the Apostle John who wrote of a time in Jesus’ ministry when his followers started to desert Him, “from this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him” (John 6:66).”
Dr Mawhinney explained that Jesus felt this personally, asking His disciples, “do you want to go away as well?” (John 6:67). Jesus’ deep desire of course is that His people would not abandon him and would not build on sand, or follow the tide of the world’s thinking and find themselves sadly without hope in collapse and destruction when the storms of life come, and they face death, judgement and eternity without the One who loved them and gave His life to save them and keep them for eternity.
“Thankfully Simon Peter utters these brilliant words, “Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68). This is my call to myself and the Church of Jesus Christ and particularly to PCI. Let us be confident in Christ, let us build on the rock. Let us hold to His words in the scriptures and let us build lives and communities that will stand and thrive in the reality of our present world, without criticism, cowering, capitulation or caving in and to do that with confidence…”
Dr Mawhinney also quoted the Apostle Paul in his address, “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you, will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6). As true for the Philippian church members then, as it was for the members of the congregations in Fermoy and Cahir in County Cork and County Tipperary, when I was their minister, just as it is for Adelaide Road members in Dublin, for us here this evening and all believers.”
Jesus is our hope in the storms of life
“Jesus is our hope in the storms of life, and as our relationship with Jesus grows, we become more like Him and in that we are confident in Christ…Confidence in Christ comes when we know Him, obey him and live in community with others who seek to follow him as disciples within the church with a focus that is outward and missional. This is how Jesus has built his Church throughout the last two millennia and it is how Christians have survived and thrived despite the hostility of the world in every generation,” he said.
Dr Mawhinney concluded his address by saying, “As Jesus memorably says to us in this short story of a house that stood the test, the one who can be confident, “is like the one who dug down deep and laid the foundation on the rock…When the flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it because it was well built” (Luke 6:48)
Let us be confident in Christ. Let us build well, let us dig down deep, into Christ and His word, for His glory alone. Amen.”
For a list of former Moderators, click here.
Photography credit: (1) Dr Mawhinney standing in front of the Carrickfergus Window (Press Eye) (2) Dr & Mrs Mawhinney outside Adelaide Road Presbyterian Church (Jamie Trimble) (3) The Mawhinney Family (Dr Mawhinney) (4) Dr Mawhinney addressing the Opening Night of the 2023 General Assembly (Jamie Trimble).