Presbyterian General Assembly 2025 agrees to build 10 new congregations and plant 10 more
The Presbyterian General Assembly heard this week of shrinking membership, finances and trainee ministers - but also of substantial growth across a range of churches which the denomination aims to build on.
The General Assembly - which met in Belfast for three days this week - is the annual gathering of leaders from over 500 congregations across the island as they debate and steer the direction of the denomination.
Hearing of substantial success in churches - especially in the south - the assembly approved a plan to establish at least 10 new congregations and launch 10 more church planting projects in the next 10 years.
Presenting the Report of the Council for Mission in Ireland (CMI), Council convener, Rev Ben Walker, said that the narrative of decline and shortages in the wider denomination was not the narrative of its Council for Mission in Ireland.
“From West Belfast to Wexford, Carrigart to Cork, Galway to Greystones, this revolutionary message is being shared—in preaching, around tables, in conversations; through churches, chaplaincy, pioneers and projects,” he said.
Building on this theme, Rick Hill, Council for Mission in Ireland Secretary, highlighted the growth and development of projects and congregations in Balbriggan, Belfast, Wexford, Carrigart, and Kilkenny.
This week the assembly formally voted to adopt Central Church in May Street Belfast, a church plant by Carnmoney Presbyterian Church which has some 300 members, mainly in their twenties and thirties.
Speaking about the Council’s major report ‘Church Planting – The Next Decade’, or ‘10+10 in 10’ Mr Hill pointed out that recent church growth in Maynooth, County Kildare, and Donabate in County Dublin, have been examples of this, and commended
CMI’s vision to see 10 newly constituted Congregations, plus 10 new church planting projects, in the next 10 years.
“Central to this vision is for the wider church to be bold, courageous and expectant,” Mr Hill said. “We are praying for this vision to impact towns and cities, stretching southerly and westerly to renew our witness across Ireland."
The ongoing ‘Reconfigeration of Ministry’ review of the church aims to divert resources to successful models of ministry.