A painful row within Presbyterianism, but it is an internal one

That might be an obvious thing to say but it does need to be said, given the large number of people who are weighing into the debate, some of whom are not only uninvolved in the Presbyterian Church, they are entirely irreligious.

This is not to downplay the significance of the debate. It has led to a regrettable breach with Scotland, the ‘mother church’. That long link is apparent in the very earliest surviving Belfast News Letters, from 1738, which are full of news about Presbyterian goings on here and in Scotland.

It is a divide on which there are strong, at times bitter, feelings on both sides. A similar row rages within Anglicanism, and in Christian churches on either side of the Atlantic and elsewhere, including thriving African churches.

Lord Alderdice, who has left the Presbyterian Church, is someone with a deep background in it: his father was a minister and he was an elder for three decades.

But while he is a much respected figure inside and outside the church, it would be remarkable if churches were suddenly to change centuries-old beliefs based on sudden cultural shifts. The Roman Catholic Church doesn’t do this, and would lose many of its admirers if it did.

This is going to be a painful debate for the main Christian churches but it is first and foremost a matter for them and their congregations.