Presbyterians 'play a positive role in society'
OUTGOING Presbyterian moderator the Rev Dr Stafford Carson has praised the work being carried out by Presbyterians, both within the Church and in the wider community.
"Through visiting so many congregations during my year of office it has been very clear to me the significant, powerful and positive contribution that Presbyterians make to this society and beyond," said Dr Carson, who stands down as moderator this evening.
"The practical life of the Church reaches out into numerous areas of ordinary life, unobtrusively and without any great fanfare, through those who work both professionally and voluntarily with a vast range of people in a huge number of areas."
Dr Carson was reflecting on his year of office which ends when the Church installs his successor, the Rev Dr Norman Hamilton, at the opening session of its four-day General Assembly meeting in Presbyterian Church House, Belfast.
Dr Carson pointed out that the government's own statistics indicate that the solid majority of those who give their time, money and energy to voluntary service in their local communities are practicing Christians.
"At the end of this year as moderator I can clearly say that I have seen, first hand, the overwhelming evidence for that claim.
"All across this island, and indeed all across the world, Irish Presbyterians are living out their faith through a passion for Christ and a compassion for people. I believe that the Presbyterian Church in Ireland is responding to the needs of real people living in the real world."
He also was full of praise for the generosity of Presbyterians to financial appeals for developing countries and disaster emergencies.
"I want to thank the Church particularly for its tremendous response to both the World Development Appeal for projects in Ethiopia, Mali, Cambodia and India at Christmas and to the moderator's appeal following the Haiti earthquake.
"Those appeals raised more than 1.5m and, in a time of economic recession, that is a wonderful and generous response."
However, despite all that is positive within the Church, the moderator observed that the Presbyterian Mutual Society situation had "cast its dark shadow everywhere I have gone this year. Individuals, congregations and organisations have been adversely affected, some to the point of deep despair".
Dr Carson also revealed he had hoped that the PMS crisis would have been resolved last autumn.
"When I was appointed moderator last June, I was naive enough to think that, given the fact that the then prime minister, Gordon Brown, had set up a working group with the promise of a report in September, we might have had the PMS situation resolved by last autumn.
"Sadly and tragically, that has not happened and there still is no satisfactory solution for the long-suffering PMS savers. I consider it an appalling situation that ordinary savers have been denied access to their money for over 20 months during one of the most severe economic recessions.
"We can only hope that clear commitments made by the Conservatives prior to the election will be honoured and this situation will be resolved speedily.
"While I will pass on my moderatorial responsibilities to my successor, I will remain actively involved in representing the needs of the savers until this saga is brought to a successful conclusion."
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Weather for Belfast
Monday 28 May 2012
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