Presbyterian General Assembly 2023: Leaders narrowly reject proposal to clamp down on excessive public dissent by ministers - after repeated rows on LGBT issues

Ahead of the gathering, Clerk of the General Assembly Rev Trevor Gribben told journalists that they would be considering a code to reign in ministers from excessive dissent in the media.

The moves come after repeated clerics and elders have gone to the media in recent years to express personal anger about the denomination's conservative views on LGBT relationships.

The proposed code, from the Decision and Dissent Task Group, said it would "not be appropriate for an ordained minister or elder to fail to implement a decision taken by the courts of the church, or publicly to promote a view which undermines a stated position of the church, whether doctrinal, moral, or administrative."

However Rev Mark Rev Mark Neilly from First Ahoghill Presbyterian Church proposed that this clause, from the four page report, be sent back to the church's General Council to be revised and re-presented next year.

He was uncomfortable with the apparent ambiguity.

"For example would I or another minister be permitted to present a position from the pulpit that is at variance with what is in our code or a decision taken by the general assembly?" he asked.

He said this is not contrary to the supreme standards of the church but would be contrary to the proposed code under debate.

"Since there is no mention of exceptions in this report for churches or the preaching of the word, it feels as though we are left in no-man's land."

His fear was that the clause could be "used as a blunt instrument to bash certain sections of the church".

Seconding the proposal, Rev Richie Cronin from Trinity Presbyterian Church in Cork, said the clause was not clear to him - and others.

"It is not clear and because it isn't I am worried that this line would be weaponised against members of the assembly in the future,” he said.

He added: "People come and go in our church, and who is to say that some future Presbyterians won't look at these words and tell us that this ban is much stronger than we are being told today?"

He suggested that landmark decisions that were taken by the church in the past - and might come again in the future - might not have been possible without public dissent; such as the decision to sever ties with the World Council of Churches in the 1970s.

Prof Michael McClenaghan, the incoming principal of the church's Union Theological College who helped draft the code, politely disagreed - and urged the house to reject their amendment.

In consulting widely about the proposed code, he said one point that came back “frequently and emphatically… was that ordination vows need to mean something".

An audible vote on the amendment was too close, so elders and ministers had to stand to indicate their wish to reject the controversial clause, while accepting the rest of the report.

It will now go back to the church's General Council to be reviewed and re-presented to the assembly next year.