Presbyterian General Assembly 2025: Moderator urges church to follow US Speaker Mike Johnson's example - 'do not be ashamed of the gospel'

Rev Dr Richard Murray was speaking as he opened the annual General Assembly of ministers and elders from over 500 congregations in Presbyterian Assembly Buildings in Belfast yesterday.

Over the next three days and 19 sessions obusiness from the Assembly’s seven councils and commissions, delegates will publicly discuss over 100 resolutions.

Also attending are overseas guests from five partner churches in Greece, the US, Malawi, Indonesia, and Kenya.

Rev Murray said that during his year in office he had felt like an “itinerant preacher” having preached in over 50 congregations.

Speaking to the gathered leaders on Tuesday, he reflected on his visit to Washington DC in January, a private visit to the high profile National Prayer Breakfast that was held in conjunction with an international conference on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience.

He said that he was struck by the speech by Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, who referenced his own personal faith and spoke about ‘the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings’.

Rev Murray added: “When he had finished, I couldn’t help but ask myself would any politician in Europe speak in such terms?

"Or have we been so cowed by the culture, politicians or otherwise, that we are tempted to be ashamed of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to the spiritual poverty of our souls?”

He warned church leaders, "let us not think the power of the Church is found in this building, in its Councils and Committees…nor in the political influence the Church may have, nor in any financial muscle, or in some person or office…rather the gospel is the power of God unto salvation and we neglect it at our peril”.

The moderator also highlighted what he saw as a rising “culture of death”.

He added that “increasingly I see society immersing itself in what someone has called ‘a culture of death’.

"Whether its abortion at one end of life or legalised suicide at the other end – it all speaks of people without hope, without God in the world.

“But the good news is that Jesus came as the Lord of life…So, brothers and sisters, as I close, let us not be ashamed of the gospel in a world that wants to sideline us, to relegate us to private piety, to keep us quiet – for when Jesus died on the cross He did so publicly.

"It wasn’t done in a corner, but it was done for all the world to see and written in three languages, Latin, Greek and Hebrew, so that whoever repents and believes in Him shall not perish but have the gift of eternal life.”

He said that a month ago, while he was at Buckingham Palace Garden Party and the King was there, but he could only see him in the distance.

The next day in Westminster Abbey the King was just five metres away, “but I didn’t meet him then either – so near and yet so far!” he said.

“And it is possible with God, in a similar way, to be so near and yet so far."