Outgoing Moderator reflects on challenges of a pandemic-hit year in office

Dr Henry, who was brought up in Mallusk and attended Hyde Park Presbyterian Church, was reflecting on a year in office that pushed him out of his comfort zone.

Speaking days in advance of Rev David Bruce’s installation as the new Moderator on Monday, Dr Henry said going around the Church, including a visit to Carrickfergus Presbytery, he was “inspired” by what he saw on the ground.

The 51-year-old minister of Maze Presbyterian Church’s term as Moderator also involved a 14-day tour of Kenya, regular meetings with church and political leaders, media interviews and preaching most Sundays.

“It has pushed me outside my comfort zone,” Dr Henry admits. “I’m naturally quite shy and reserved, and that’s not who a Moderator is. You have to get out there, you have to speak and do the things that you are called to do,” he said.

“Looking back, it is that sheer sense of privilege to have been in this position that impacts me most. Knowing that God gifted you for each moment, it is that sense that it is God who has done this, enabled you to cope, which is truly humbling, because it is so full on. I am so thankful for the support of my family, and the prayers of God’s people, especially when I’ve been way outside my comfort zone. They have sustained me, something that I have been very much aware of.”

Each Moderator has to face challenges to varying degrees, but for Dr Henry, the youngest in living memory, it came with a unique set of challenges, a young family and the coronavirus pandemic.

“You are doing plenty all week, but it is at the weekend that you are particularly busy, so that was challenging at times.”

Dr Henry says his children, Bethany, Megan and Connor (who were 21, 18, and 14 respectively when he took up office) all did ‘Moderator Duty’, “but I was very conscious of not pulling them out of the church family, where they are well planted”. He did, however, pay for them to accompany him and his wife Nora on his overseas tour of Kenya in February, primarily to encourage PCI’s Global Mission Workers there and meet with PCI’s partner church, the Presbyterian Church of East Africa.

Three weeks after he returned,PCI announced that all congregational activities, including Sunday services, were to cease, due to the unfolding coronavirus emergency.

“While we have all been affected by the pandemic, my heart goes out to those who have lost loved ones across our island and those who have battled against the virus. They have been in my thoughts and prayers, just as those who continue to go that extra mile in providing daily, routine care for them in our hospitals and care homes. It has been incredible and as a Church we thank God for their selfless service and sacrifice,” he said.

As Dr Henry last spoke in a congregation on Sunday, March 15, he said that he has been asked if he feels if he has missed out in some way, because of the Covid emergency.

“We have all had to make adjustments and live with changed times. Your diary is full, you know exactly what you are doing, and then suddenly 12 weeks or more are wiped.”

But just like the nine months before it, Dr Henry says he has been busy, if not busier, but in a very different way, like the 11 weekly pre-recorded services he has done.

“I was anxious for those ministers who didn’t have the capability to put on an online service. I wanted to take the pressure off them and do something for the whole denomination, providing a bit of normality, perhaps. At the same time, uppermost in my mind was the sense of identity, of being a Presbyterian family who couldn’t meet together and I wanted to give expression to that in the midst of everything,” he explained.

Since the lockdown, Dr Henry says that meetings have increased. When Ireland’s main church leaders would have met once every two months, they video conference nearly every two weeks. Dr Henry has taken part in online meetings with the Taoiseach, the First Minister and deputy First Minister, and church leaders from across Britain and Ireland. But something he has valued most, was the opportunity to call his colleagues – all 400-plus of them.

“It took time, five to six days a week, never less than four and a half hours a day to call over 400 ministers. It was an opportunity to hear what was going on, listening to their struggles, encouraging them and praying with them. That personal contact with each of my colleagues was time consuming and something a Moderator doesn’t get to do, but was time well spent,” he said.

Pre-lockdown, Dr Henry said that he also really valued seeing what the church was doing quietly on the ground. “We can get a bit myopic at times, measuring success in terms of budgets, buildings and the number of people in the pews. Getting out there, however, and seeing ordinary Christians being involved in their communities, understanding the impact that they have in business, public service, or in voluntary work was amazing,” he said.

Dr Henry added that his year in office reinforced in him the importance of evangelism and making the gospel relevant in a changing world.

“While we can get cosy as a church, this year I have been inspired by what I have seen on the ground, which has reminded me of the utter importance of evangelism - sharing the message of Jesus. It is a transformative message that meets people where they are. It is an unchanging message, but in a changing world, and we often struggle to bridge that gap. We need to remind ourselves how we make the gospel come alive in the changing context in which we minister,” he said.