The new Presbyterian Moderator has lamented the state of Christianity in the Republic where “contrary views are often cancelled and it is becoming harder to get a hearing for the Church in the public square”.
In his first address as Moderator to the church’s General Assembly in Belfast, Rev Dr Sam Mawhinney (61), the first Presbyterian Moderator from a congregation in Dublin for almost a quarter of a century, said: “The speed of the change has been breathtaking for those of us who live in the Republic.”
Dr Mawhinney told General Assembly delegates how in 2015 a majority of people in the Republic affirmed same-sex marriage and legalised abortion in 2018 through repeal of the Eighth Amendment.
“Two of the primary teachings of Jesus and the church were rejected,” and “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 said.
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“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.”
In the Republic “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,” he said.
“Having lived in Dublin city for the last 15 years, this is reality; it is hard to stand against the tide, to hold on to to Christ and the foundations of the word of God.” Rapid change in society “means that following Jesus has got a lot more difficult and there are competing and opposing views to our Christian world view,” he said.
“However, this is not a new reality. Jesus felt the same vulnerability and sadness of the loss of disciples because of the difficulty of believing in an unbelieving world,” he said.
Dr Mawhinney’s installation as Moderator took place in Belfast on Wednesday night at the opening of the Church’s 2023 General Assembly.
Dr Mawhinney – from Ballycastle Co Antrim, and serving at the Presbyterian church on Dublin’s Adelaide Road since 2008 – is the first minister serving in the Republic to become moderator since Rev Dr Trevor Morrow in 2000, then minister at Lucan Presbyterian church. More than 90 per cent of the church’s 200,000 membership is in Northern Ireland.
In 2018, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland controversially banned gay people from full church membership and banned their children from Baptism. It also broke links with its mother church in Scotland because of a perception it was becoming too liberal on the gay issue.
In 2019, the church provoked a bitter row in the Republic when it removed Steven Smyrl, an elder at its church in Dublin’s Sandymount, when he married his same-sex partner.
