Unprecedented hurt and anger after 2018 Presbyterian general assembly
As teaching and ruling elders in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, we acknowledge, and indeed share, the profound sense of hurt, dismay and anger currently being expressed in the wake of decisions taken at our 2018 general assembly.
This level of feeling is unprecedented in our pastoral experience.
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Hide AdWe are committed to doing all we can to ensure that the decisions which have prompted such a level of concern will be subject to the urgent attention they deserve, and for which many in the church are calling.
We gladly acknowledge that we ourselves have been constantly enriched and challenged by the diversity of views found in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.
Therefore, as we participate in this work of critical engagement and discernment, we hold that any unnecessary narrowing of the range of acceptable theological perspectives within the Presbyterian Church in Ireland will damage our credibility and limit our future.
We make this statement: as a prayerful expression of appropriate loyalty to the Presbyterian Church in Ireland at this moment in our history; as a necessary consequence of our ordination vows, which we take with the utmost seriousness; and by the grace of God, as an imperfect yet credible witness to our trust in Jesus Christ alone.
To God alone be the glory.
• The full list of the 232 signatories to the above letter:
Arthur Acheson
Martin Agnew
Derek Alexander
Frank Arnold
Liz Arthur
Maurice Arthur
Olive Bell
Ronnie Bell
Heather Best
Sandra Bickerstaff
Christopher Blake
Patricia Blake
Paul Blease
W. D. Boyd
Amy Brackenridge
John Brackenridge
Leonard Brown
Anne Buchanan
Christina Bradley
Hilary Brunt
Ronnie Calvert
Denis Campbell
Purvis Campbell
Audrey Carruthers
Walter Carruthers
Maureen Collins
Susan Cooke
Joan Cowle
Dennis Crawford
Jim Dale
Ann Davey
John Davey
Grace Davin
Prof John Davis
Helen Dawkins
Norma Dawson
Molly Deatherage
George Derby
Helen Derby
Lucinda Dickey
Rae Dickson
Roy Dickson
Sylvia Dingley
David Dodds
Alan Dowd
Derek Drysdale
Barbara Dunlop
Bill Dunlop
E. H. Dunlop
Gordon Dunlop
Roberta Dunlop
Johnston Dunseath
Pamela Elliot
Ronnie Elliot
John Erskine
Hilary Fairman
William Ferguson
David Flinn
Lorraine Foster
Jonny Frazer
Robin Frazer
John Fulton
Paul Fry
Cecil Graham
Gordon Gray
Jenny Gray
Mark Gray
Randal Gray
Joan Halliday
Rodney Hamill
Sylvia Hamill
Lesley Hamilton
Walter Hamilton
Sheila Hammonds
Dr Heather Hanna
Jill Hannah
Elspeth Haren
David Harrison
Denise Henry
Gavin Henry
Jon Henry
Cecil Hetherington
Mary Hewitson
Maurice Hobson
Gay Hogan
Alison Houston
Norman Houston
James Hudson
Brian Hughes
Liz Hughes
John G Hunter
Mary Hunter
Rosemary Hunter
Sarah Hunter
David Irwin
Hilary Jess
Ian Kelly
Alastair Kilgore
Heather Kilgore
Campbell Killick
Billy Kyle
Jeremy Kyle
Victor Laing
David Latimer
Dr Derek Lee
Dr Malcolm Lees
Muriel Lilly
R. G. Little
Jean Long
Janice Lowry
Robert Magee
Trevor Magowan
Dennison Mahood
Christopher Maitland
Jimmy Mallon
Lowry Manson
David Mark
Ben Matson
Kim McAnespie
Trish McBride
Sally McCahon
Chris McCall
Mervyn McCall
Colin McCandless
Derek McClelland
Ronald McClintock
Colin McClure
Bruce McCormack
Liz McCormack
Ian McCracken
Stephen McCracken
Sylvia McCracken
Fiona McCreedy
Margaret McCreedy
Richard McCreedy
William McCreedy
Colin McDowell
Mildred McIlwaine
Joyce McKee
Janis McKnight
Dennis McLeod
Elizabeth McLeod
Derek McMaster
Samuel Carson McMullan
Gillian McNaugher
Alastair McQuoid
Louise McWatters
Elaine Molyneaux
Richard Molyneaux
Susan Moore
Maud Moorhead
Hilary Morrow
Johnston Morrow
Judith Morrow
Mervyn A Morrow
Katherine Meyer
George Nesbitt
Robert Nesbitt
Ken Newell
Bobby Niblock
Elaine Nixon
Julie-May Noteman
Wilfred Orr
Dr Michael Parker
Ted Parks
George Patterson
Robert Patterson
Ruth Patterson
Winston Patterson
Judith Payne
Valerie Payne
Henry Plester
Eddie Poots
Kenneth Porter
Michael Potter
Marina Proseckina
Ian Rankin
David Purce
Roger Purce
Arthur Rainey
Desmond Rainey
Alastair Rankin
Margo Rankin
Laureen Rolston
Barbara Reid
Colleen Rimmer
John Robinson
Susan Rocke
Gordon Ruddle
Caroline Russell
Cecil Russell
Jane Savage
Ron Savage
Anne Scott
Joan Scott
Malcolm Scott
Bill Shaw
Ralph Sheppard
Lyndsey Shields
Ann Simmons
Robin Simmons
Dot Simpson
Allen Sleith
Catherine Smith
Ruth Smith
Steven Smyrl
Sadie Somerville
Alan Spence
Doreen Steenson
Ivor Stevenson
Heather Taylor
Gary Tenant
Joy Tennis
Audrey Thomas
Dave Thompson
Marion Thompson
Brian Topping
Bert Tosh
John Vance
Ann Walsh
David Walsh
Michael Warnock
Donald J Watts
Derek Weir
Alastair White
Leslie White
Merle White
Jeffrey Whitford
Campbell Wilson
W. Richard Wilson
David Workman
Gilbert Young