Rev Noble McNeely is next Presbyterian moderator

The 63-year-old minister was nominated by 10 of the Church’s 19 presbyteries this evening when they met across Ireland to elect a successor to the current moderator, Rt Rev Dr Frank Sellar.

Known as the Moderator-Designate, Rev McNeely will officially be elected and installed as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland at the start of the General Assembly on 5th June.

Rev Noble McNeely was ordained as assistant minister of Fisherwick Presbyterian Church, Belfast, moving on to First Ballymoney in 1984 where he ministered for 13 years before moving to First Holywood in 1997.

Four ministers were nominated for the moderatorship.

The successful nominee will now serve a period of one year from June.

The other nominees were the Rev Brian Boyd, of Kells and Eskylane Church, Co Antrim; the Rev Tony Davidson, First Armagh and the Rev Charles McMullen, Bangor West.

Ministers and elders from 539 congregations in Northern Ireland and in the Irish Republic met in respective presbyteries to nominate the moderator.

The vote in each presbytery is by simple majority, meaning that whoever receives most votes within a particular presbytery – local regional church bodies made up of a minister and an elder from each congregation in that particular area – receives the single vote of the presbytery. The person who receives the majority of these votes from the 19 presbyteries becomes moderator-designate and is formally nominated for installation to the General Assembly in June.

Democracy is considered one of the strengths and hallmarks of Irish Presbyterianism.

The Presbyterian Church in Ireland has 235,000 members belonging to 539 congregations across the 19 presbyteries.