For the first time in nearly a quarter of a century, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland’s (PCI) General Assembly will elect a minister from a congregation in the Republic of Ireland as its Moderator, when it meets in Belfast later this month. On Friday evening (9 June), in advance of his election on 21 June, Rev Dr Sam Mawhinney, received an honorary doctor of divinity award from the Presbyterian Theological Faculty, Ireland (PTFI).
While the minister of Adelaide Road Presbyterian Church in Dublin is a medical doctor in his own right, having completed his studies as a qualified GP before his ordination in 1997, Dr Mawhinney was honoured just as his predecessors have been, in recognition of his nomination as PCI’s incoming Moderator, the Church’s highest office.
The ceremony took place during Union Theological College’s (UTC) annual graduation service, which this year took place at Fitzroy Presbyterian Church in south Belfast. Like the College, Fitzroy is in the Queen’s Quarter of the city.
The College is the all-Ireland denomination’s principal body for the training of its ministers prior to ordination. It also offers a range of courses in ministry and undergraduate, or postgraduate academic degrees in divinity and theology. Most are accessible to all-comers, irrespective of faith, although students are typically Christian.
Dr Mawhinney and his wife Karen joined graduating students and their families, who received a number of postgraduate awards from the PTFI. Several ministerial students also received certificates of completion of studies from the General Assembly’s Council for Training in Ministry, and will shortly be licensed for ministry.
The PTFI awards degrees by the authority of its Royal Charter, which was granted by Queen Victoria in 1881 and revised by the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2021. This year’s citation was delivered by Dr Olwyn Mark, Lecturer in Practical Theology at UTC, who gave an overview of Dr Mawhinney’s journey to becoming the 178th person to be elected Moderator.
She began by saying that it was a ‘privilege’ to give the citation as the honorary doctorate is “…given in recognition of your election as Moderator Designate, marking the qualities and gifts that have been noted by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland in nominating you for the role of Moderator.”
Dr Mark spoke of his upbringing in a Christian home on the North Coast and the significant influences on his life growing up. These included his minister, Rev Godfrey Brown, and his late wife Margaret. In 1988, Dr Brown also went on to become PCI’s Moderator.
As a boy aged eight or nine, Dr Mawhinney became a Christian and joined Ballycastle Presbyterian Church when he was 16, where they’d worshipped as a family. Dr Mark explained that it was during his time at the seaside town’s high school that his faith deepened, and he became conscious of his call to ministry. On leaving school, however, he studied medicine at Queen’s University, Belfast and, after leaving in 1986, Dr Mawhinney spent five years working in various medical settings, from Altnagelvin Hospital to Templepatrick General Medical Practice.
But, as Dr Mark explained, even after becoming a member of the College of General Practitioners in 1991, he continued to sense a strong call to ministry. At that time, a trusted minister asked him a very straightforward, but pivotal question: ‘Sam, does God want you to be a minister or a doctor, in your opinion?’
“The answer to this question led to you entering the selection process for ministry, and in the Lord confirming your call to ministry throughout that process, you were accepted to begin training at Union Theological College,” Dr Mark said. “In the intervening year, before starting at Union, you continued to use your medical skills, and spent time in Kenya serving as a missionary doctor at the Presbyterian Church of East Africa’s hospital in Kikuyu – evidence of your heart for practical service and global mission…”
During training at Union from September 1992 onwards, Dr Mark explained that a number of significant things ‘fell into place’“…perhaps no more significant than your marriage to Karen. ”After he was an assistant to the minister of Old Park Presbyterian Church in north Belfast, Dr Mawhinney was called to the joint charge of Cahir and Fermoy Presbyterian Churches in Counties Tipperary and Cork in 1997 and to Adelaide Road Presbyterian 11 years later. Here, in the heart of inner city south Dublin, Dr Mark said that he serves the diversity in his church and local area with an approach to mission that “… is one that is relationship based and gospel focussed.”
She continued, “In your 25 years of ministry in the Republic of Ireland, you have witnessed first-hand the challenges and opportunities of ministering within a rapidly changing cultural landscape. These insights, and experiences of seeing God at work, will no doubt bring encouragement and challenge to the ministers, congregations and contexts that you will encounter in the coming year…”
In her closing remarks, addressing the father of three grown up sons, Dr Mark said, “Your theme for this year is one of being Confident in Christ and one, as you have indicated, that points us to the humble and self-giving love of God. It reminds us that He is at work in the Church and the World and that the Gospel remains the Good News that everyone needs to hear.
“We thank you for the years of service that have brought you to this point, and pray that you will know the Spirit’s leading and wisdom as you serve the Church in the year ahead. As Christ continues to build His Church, may you – and we – continue to pray for, witness to, and rejoice in the ‘green shoots of revival’ across Ireland in the year ahead.”
Joining Dr Mawhinney were recipients of a range of other awards from the Presbyterian Theological Faculty, Ireland. They included graduands for a postgraduate Certificate in Biblical Greek, for several Master’s awards – the Master of Divinity (MDiv), Master of Theology (MTh) in New Testament or in Reformed Theology, and the Master of Arts (MA) in Theology – and for the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). Graduands came from diverse backgrounds and contexts, but with a significant number either serving as PCI ministers, or assistant ministers, or coming to the end of their studies in preparation for full-time ministry. Several received certificates of completion from the Council for Training in Ministry and will shortly be licensed for ministry.
Welcoming those graduating this evening, members of their families and other guests, College Principal, Rev Professor Gordon Campbell, spoke of some of the significant moments from UTC’s year. These included a major conference on the reformer Martin Luther, the 150th anniversary of the College’s Gamble Library and UTC’s first Periodic Review.
“This was an internal initiative with the College inviting external experts to help us look hard at ourselves, spot areas for improvement and make changes. This exercise was very positive, establishing how far and how fast, in just a few years, the College has come in developing institutional capacity to do, in miniature, what large public universities do by ensuring, and by demonstrating, that the education we offer is of a quality that equals, or exceeds, what is expected across the higher education sector…” he said.
Offering his congratulations to those receiving awards, Professor Campbell passed on what the external examiners had told the College at the recent Exam Board. “…The quality of these awards, they said, and of your work in achieving them, is at least as good as anything they see in our public universities. Among other things, that means that you can be justly proud of your PTFI PGCert, or MA, or MDiv, or, MTh, or PhD – and if it is with merit, or a distinction, all the more. So well done!”
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