New Presbyterian Moderator ​Rev Dr Sam Mawhinney comes from congregation in the Republic of Ireland

​Rev Dr Sam Mawhinney, the minister of Adelaide Road Presbyterian Church in Dublin, was chosen as the new moderator this evening in the church’s annual election for its principal public representative.

Brought up in Ballycastle in Co Antrim, the 60 year-old father of three received the most votes from the church’s 19 regional presbyteries when they met in various locations across Ireland.

Dr Mawhinney, who has been minister of the Dublin city centre church since 2008, will be the denomination’s 178th Moderator since 1840.

Dr Mawhinney will be formally elected as moderator by the Church’s General Assembly in June and will be the first moderator from a congregation in the Republic of Ireland since the year 2000, when Co Dublin minister, Rev Trevor Morrow of Lucan Presbyterian Church, was elected to lead the church.

Speaking about his election, the moderator in waiting said: “I am genuinely surprised and humbled by my election this evening. It is a position I have not sought, but happily accept as God’s will for my life.

"While in some respects it is quite a daunting task, I know that God’s help is promised for every task we are called to and I therefore thank Him for the opportunity to serve the Church in the year ahead.”

The minister of Drumreagh Presbyterian Church in Country Antrim, Rev Richard Murray, was also considered for election to the position of moderator.

He received nine votes to Dr Mawhinney’s 10 votes in an extremely closely run election.

Dr Mawhinney will be the 11th minister serving in a Dublin congregation to become moderator and the third serving in Adelaide Road to be elected.

Dr Mawhinney will be officially nominated to this year’s General Assembly at its Opening Night in Belfast in the third full week of June when he will succeed the current moderator, Rt Rev Dr John Kirkpatrick.

Dr Kirkpatrick will continue in office as the Presbyterian Church in Ireland’s principal public representative until then.