Presbyterian General Assembly 2023: New moderator Rev Sam Mawhinney says he is ‘confident despite hostility to the church’

In his address to the 800 church members, overseas guests and civic dignitaries in Assembly Buildings in Belfast, the minister of Dublin’s Adelaide Road Presbyterian Church spoke of the “overwhelming hope and confidence” they have in the Christian faith.

The opening service heralds three days of discussion on a diverse range of church, social and public issues.

Dr Mawhinney spoke of his theme for the year as being, “Confident in Christ”.

"We live in post Christian Europe and the culture and society is hostile to the church of Jesus Christ…” he said.

For those, like him, who live in the Republic of Ireland, he said that “the speed of the change has been breath-taking”, especially in light of the introduction of same sex marriage in 2015 and the repeal of the Eighth amendment three years later that legalised abortion.

“Two of the primary teachings of Jesus and the Church were rejected, two foundation blocks of Christian teaching for society, marriage and the sanctity of life in the womb were rocked and we felt the seismic ripples beneath our feet,” Dr Mawhinney said.

Contrary views are now often cancelled, he said, “and it is getting harder to get a hearing for the Church in the public square. So, we live in post Christian times, the Christian message is now not seen as good news, there is hostility towards the Church, from an increasing number of quarters, these are the storms that we face… following Jesus has got a lot more difficult and there are competing and opposing views to our Christian worldview.”

Dr Mawhinney said that even so, this was not a new reality, as the Apostle John wrote that Jesus himself lost many disciples who turned away.

“[His] deep desire of course is that His people would not abandon Him and would not build on sand, or follow the tide of the world’s thinking, finding themselves sadly without hope in collapse and destruction when the storms of life come, facing death, judgement and eternity without the One who loved them and gave His life to save them and keep them for eternity.

“Thankfully Simon Peter utters these brilliant words, ‘Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life’. This is my call to myself and the Church of Jesus Christ and particularly to PCI. Let us be confident in Christ, let us build on the rock. Let us hold to His words in the scriptures and let us build lives and communities that will stand and thrive in the reality of our present world, without criticism, cowering, capitulation, or caving in, and to do that with confidence.”

The Presbyterian Church in Ireland has 200,000 in 525 congregations throughout the island of Ireland.