Ballycastle man is elected as new Moderator of Presbyterian Church in Ireland

Rev Dr Sam Mawhinney, the minister of Adelaide Road Presbyterian Church in Dublin was elected Moderator-Designate of the all-island denomination on Tuesday (February 7) in the Church’s annual election for its principal public representative.

The 60 year-old father of three received the most votes from the Church’s 19 regional presbyteries when they met in various locations across Ireland. Dr Mawhinney, who has been minister of the city centre church since 2008, will be the denomination’s 178th Moderator since 1840.

Dr Mawhinney was one of two nominees for the Church to choose from this year, which traditionally elects the Moderator-Designate on the first Tuesday in February. He will be formally elected as Moderator by the Church’s General Assembly in June and will be the first Moderator from a congregation in the Republic of Ireland since the year 2000, when County Dublin minister, Rev Trevor Morrow of Lucan Presbyterian Church, was elected to lead the Church.

Until then Dr Mawhinney will be known as the Moderator-Designate and continue to serve in his congregation.

The Moderator-Designate said: “I am genuinely surprised and humbled by my election this evening. It is a position I have not sought, but happily accept as God’s will for my life.

"While in some respects it is quite a daunting task, I know that God’s help is promised for every task we are called to and I therefore thank Him for the opportunity to serve the Church in the year ahead.”

The minister of Drumreagh Presbyterian Church, Rev Richard Murray, was also considered for election alongside Dr Mawhinney.

As a boy, Dr Mawhinney grew up on the North Coast and worshiped with his family in Ballycastle Presbyterian Church, attending Ballycastle Primary and Ballycastle High Schools.

It was during his time at High School, where Dr Mawhinney was head boy, he became conscious of being called to ministry within the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. As he explained, the reality of this was so overwhelming he decided to study medicine at Queen’s University, Belfast, but become a missionary doctor. “In many ways I considered this an acceptable compromise,” he said.

After he left Queen’s in 1986 Dr Mawhinney spent five years working in Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry/Londonderry, Waveney Hospital in Ballymena, the Holywell Hospital in Antrim and Templepatrick General Medical Practice, becoming a member of the Royal College of General Practitioners in 1991.

“Having fully qualified as a GP, the question arose again about ministry within PCI, as that strong sense of call had remained with me. With the advice of a trusted minister, I was encouraged to test the call and see if this was from God,” he said.

“The process was a thorough one as I explored the idea of a call to medicine verses a call to church ministry in my presbytery interview. At each stage God graciously confirmed my sense of call to the latter and I was accepted to begin training for the Presbyterian Ministry at the Church’s Union Theological College in September 1992. As I had a year to wait before I started, I was able to spend that time in Kenya, serving as doctor at the Presbyterian Church of East Africa’s hospital in Kikuyu, 10 or so miles northwest of the capital Nairobi.”

As part of his ministerial training, Dr Mawhinney was the assistant to the minister of Oldpark Presbyterian Church in north Belfast in 1995 for two years, before he was ordained as minister of Cahir and Fermoy Presbyterian Churches, a joint charge in Counties Tipperary and Cork respectively. He and his wife Karen lived in Fermoy with their three sons before being called to Adelaide Road Presbyterian Church, where Dr Mawhinney has served since 2008.

Dr Mawhinney said: “I grew up in a Christian family home and remember listening to Rev David Armstrong of CSSM, the Children's Special Service Mission, which was later to become Scripture Union. He preached in my primary school canteen of all places when I was eight or nine and it was then that I came to a saving faith in Jesus Christ.

“My faith deepened in my teenage years, I became a member of my home church when I was 16 and when I was 17/18 I served with Portrush CSSM under Rev Godfrey Brown, who himself became Moderator in the late 1980s. As a disciple of Jesus, at Queen’s the outworking and deepening of my faith lead to me being offered positions of leadership, becoming Prayer Secretary of Queen’s Christian Union and its President in 1983/1984. It was during this time there was a real involvement of students from the Republic which inspired me, developing the sense of call I had to serve south of the border.”

Today he ministers to around 110 families in the city centre congregation totalling around 150 people.

Dr Mawhinney continued: “As Moderator I am looking forward to sharing with the church this vision of confident Christianity. I am also looking forward to having a front row seat and being able to travel and visit the Church across Ireland. It will be a real blessing to have an opportunity to support and pastor our ministers and people.”

When he is not in the pulpit, or visiting members of his congregation, Dr Mawhinney relaxes by doing bits of DIY, tidying the garden and watching sport and TV dramas. As a former hockey player he also enjoys sport and road cycling in particular. A keen Manchester City supporter, he was until recently manager of YMCA Dublin’s 1st IX hockey team.

Dr Mawhinney will be officially nominated to this year’s General Assembly at its Opening Night in Belfast in the third full week of June when he will succeed the current Moderator, Rt Rev Dr John Kirkpatrick from Portrush. Dr Kirkpatrick will continue in office as the Presbyterian Church in Ireland’s principal public representative until then.