The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland is the most senior office-bearer within the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, which is Northern Ireland's largest Protestant denomination.

The Moderator is elected by the General Assembly and serves for one year as the public representative of the denomination. In theory, the moderator may be a minister or an elder from among the laity but as of 2006 no lay elder has ever been appointed moderator. The appointee's formal role involves acting as the Moderator of the General Assembly. During the rest of the year, the moderator acts as an ambassador for the General Assembly and for the Presbyterian Church in Ireland as a whole.

The government of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland has a form known as presbyterian polity, and is much like that of other presbyterian churches around the world. Individual churches are represented at both the Presbytery (local) level and General Assembly (All Ireland) level.

The serving moderator is given the honorific style, Right Reverend (Rt. Rev.)

Former moderators are known as Very Reverend (Very Rev.) . The moderator is eleventh in the order of precedence in Northern Ireland along with the two Church of Ireland and two Roman Catholic archbishops. The moderator is normally an ordained minister. The current moderator is the Reverend Dr Stafford Carson.

Past Moderators

• Reverend Dr Stafford Carson (2009 - 2010)
• Reverend Dr Donald Patton (2008 – 2009)
• Reverend Dr John Finlay (2007 - 2008)
• Right Reverend Dr David Clarke (2006 - 2007)
• Reverend Dr Harry Uprichard (2005 - 2006)
• Reverend Dr Ken Newell (2004 - 2005)
• Reverend Dr Ivan McKay (2003 - 2004)
• Reverend Dr Russell Birney (2002 - 2003)
• Reverend Dr Alastair Dunlop (2001 -2002)
• Reverend Dr Trevor Morrow (2000 - 2001)
• Reverend Dr John Lockington (1999 - 2000)
• Reverend Dr Samuel John Dixon (1998 - 1999)
• Reverend Dr Samuel Hutchinson (1997 - 1998)
• Reverend Dr Harry Allen (1996 -1997)
• Reverend Dr John Ross (1995 - 1996)
• Reverend Dr David J. McGaughey (1994 - 1995)
• Reverend Dr Andrew R. Rodgers (1993 - 1994)
• Reverend Dr John Dunlop (1992 - 1993)
• Reverend Dr Rodney Sterritt (1991 - 1992)
• Reverend Dr Prof. Finlay Holmes (1990 - 1991)
• Reverend Dr James Matthews (1989 - 1990)
• Reverend Dr A.W. Godfrey Brown (1988 -1989)
• Reverend Dr William Fleming (1987 - 1988)
• Reverend Dr John Thompson (1986 - 1987)
• Reverend Dr Robert Dickinson (1985 - 1986)
• Reverend Dr Howard Cromie (1984 - 1985)
• Reverend Dr T.J. Simpson (1983 - 1984)
• Reverend Dr Eric Gardiner (1982 - 1983)
• Reverend Dr John Girvan (1981 - 1982)
• Reverend Dr Ronnie Gavin Craig (1980 - 1981)
• Reverend Dr William Magee Craig (1979 - 1980)
• Reverend Dr David Burke (1978 - 1979)
• Reverend Dr Thomas Algeo Patterson (1977 - 1978)
• Reverend Dr Andrew John Weir (1976 - 1977)
• Reverend Dr Austin Fulton (1960 -1961)
• Reverend Dr Thomas Alexander Byers Smith (1959 - 1960)
• Reverend Dr William McAdam - (1958 - 1959)
• Reverend Dr Robert John Wilson - (1957 - 1958)
• Reverend Dr Thomas McCurdy Barker (1956 - 1957)
• Reverend Dr James Carlile Breakley (1955 - 1956)

• Reverend Prof. Robert Corkey (1945 - 1946)

• Reverend Dr James Jordan Macaulay (1932 - 1933)

Revered Dr Hamilton Brown Wilson 1883

• William Johnston (1873-1874)

References

1. Example assembly record addressing the serving moderator as Rt. Rev. is Session 8, 2006 (doc format). Retrieved on September 2, 2006.
2. . Northern Ireland Parliamentary Elections Results: Biographies
3. The Times, Ireland, 25 November 1873

• PCI General Assembly website

See also

• Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland

External links

• Presbyterian Church in Ireland website