With the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) opening on 21 June, outgoing Moderator, Rt Rev Dr John Kirkpatrick, has spoken of the unique and historic events that he took part in, like the Coronation, and how he feared tripping in his robes. But, by his own admission, his year in office “…has been one of overwhelming joy and a privilege…”
Few Presbyterian Moderators have had a year in office like the year Dr Kirkpatrick has had: representing the all-Ireland denomination at the State Funeral of a queen, attending the Coronation of a king, a working lunch with Ireland’s president, and seeing for himself the realities of mass displacement due to war. Along with his wife Joan, he has taken the year in his stride – and it wasn’t the big occasions that made the greatest of impact, he says.
“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.”
Looking back he continued, “I thought it would be busy at the weekends, 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,” Dr Kirkpatrick 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.
“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…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.
Each of the congregations they 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.”
Dr Kirkpatrick continued, “When you realise that it isn’t about you, 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.
The Moderator in Westminster Abbey a few hours after the Coronation last month. Dr Kirkpatrick took part in the historic event along with Ireland’s Church Leaders
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 and where he had spent those early years of his own ministry. 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 four Presbytery Tours, but each Sunday when we visited, especially when you remember that we are still in a post-Covid world,” he said.
But there were also hard and challenging times too, especially meeting victims and survivors who had lost loved ones during The Troubles. He also said it was the same in Creeslough, “supporting PCI’s ministers after the explosion, meeting families and standing with colleagues in other churches at a time of tragic loss,” he said.
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 at the end of May. Here he met and prayed with Presbyterian ministers from Damascus, Aleppo and Homes.
In October last year he stood in solidarity with members of the Reformed Church in Transcarpathia in Western Ukraine, a time he wouldn’t forget easily, having witnessed how PCI’s partner, the Reformed Church in Hungary, was caring for the thousands of Internally Displaced People fleeing the war in eastern Ukraine with the support of part of the £1.5 million raised for the relief effort by Presbyterians across Ireland.
At the same time, 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.’”
In one final reflection, Dr Kirkpatrick said, “…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.”
The Moderator and his fellow Church Leaders with President and Mrs Higgins at the President’s official residence, Áras an Uachtaráin last November.
As his year in office comes to an end, Rev Dr Sam Mawhinney of Adelaide Road Presbyterian Church in Dublin, will succeed him as Moderator at this month’s General Assembly. Dr Kirkpatrick will return to Portrush Presbyterian Church for a few months, before he retires from active parish ministry to the County Antrim farm where he was brought up.
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