Presbyterian Distinctives (1): Roots and Shoots
- Rev Norman Cameron

Today we start a short series looking at some of the distinctives of Presbyterianism, after all we are High Kirk Presbyterian Church, part of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. But what exactly does that mean, especially today where denominations are not as important to our culture and especially to younger people? One of the trends in our society is a decline in the main denominations, a rise in new independent churches, and an increasing mobility and transfer of people between churches and between denominations. Just as it seems to be less common to have a job for life it also seems to be the case that there is no longer any guarantee that you will stay with the same church or denomination that you were born into.

We live in a time of great change and of course there are some who would positively discourage denominationalism and if we talk of being Presbyterians it should be with a small p. Indeed High Kirk, although at heart it is definitely a Presbyterian church has over the years gathered a wide variety of people from other denominations and other churches, and no churches, and the Presbyterian side has maybe not been emphasised for there are other more central Christian doctrines and truths that we hold dearer than Presbyterianism.

To be honest also Presbyterians themselves through history have been presented as a bit tight, a bit dour, sombre and grey and perhaps for some the most exciting thing about the word Presbyterians is that when you remix the letters you end up with “Britney Spears”!

But what I want to do in this series is to say that actually there are aspects of our beliefs and Presbyterian emphases that are not only interesting, but God honouring and very helpful as we try and live our lives faithfully as disciples of Jesus Christ today.

Part of the reason for doing this series is not so much to fly the flag of Presbyterianism, it is more to help people think through some of the great Christian doctrines such as the sovereignty of God, the idea of covenant that runs through the Bible and the reasons why we do the things that we do so that if you are asked in these shallow days, where people do not think too much, you can say with integrity I attend a Presbyterian church and this is what it stands for. I may not agree with all of it but at least I know what it means which is becoming increasingly important in a rootless culture where people are losing anchor points and a sense of stability, history, identity.

So today is more of a history lesson than a preach but I hope that it edifies us and encourages us in your faith and challenges us to think through what does God expect from us today as a church in the 21^st Century. Where did we come from, but more importantly where are we going to – what if anything needs to change if we are to be an effective church for God and speak to our culture.

What I want to do is to give a brief history of important people and dates and events from the formation of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland and then to suggest some things we need to think about if we are to have a meaningful future. There will be huge gaps here because of time constraints so I hope the historians will forgive me, but we want just want to pick out the highlights.

BEGINNINGS

The key people in terms of the Presbyterian church and its distinctive emphases would be John Calvin and John Knox. Calvin ministered in Geneva 1536 – 64 (apart from 4 years in Strasbourg) and had an awesome mind. His Institutes of the Christian Religion are very impressive, amongst the most influential books written in the world and have shaped Christian, western, and especially Presbyterian thought over the centuries.

Calvin was one of the Reformers (like Luther and Hus) who came out of the Roman Catholic church which they loved but they saw certain practices and abuses which greatly dismayed them. But they did not see themselves as forming a new church but rather as reforming the existing Roman Catholic church. They saw themselves as “conserving the true, catholic, apostolic church” (Moffatt). Calvin only left the Roman Catholic church when he became convinced that in doing so he was not leaving the true Christian or catholic (universal) church. He fought against division and schism until he felt he had no other choice but to leave.

The Bible themes that Calvin emphasised were God’s holiness, his sovereignty, covenant, good order in church government yet constantly reforming, and Christian influence in the community, and it is these aspects that I think mark out Presbyterians and on which I will focus over the next weeks.

Calvin greatly influenced John Knox from Scotland who spent some time in Geneva and Knox developed Presbyterian thought in the Church of Scotland to the extent that w e could say he was the main founder and shaper of Presbyterianism in Scotland, which was the mother church of the Presbyterian church in Ireland.

One historian says that the Presbyterian church since the days of Knox is marked by the following characteristics. “It is that branch of the One holy, Catholic and Apostolic church, reformed according to the word of God, which proclaims Jesus Christ to be the sole King and Head of the church and the world, in which oversight is exercised through presbyters.” The greek word presbyter is translated elder. This is where we get the name Presbyterian from, it is a church governed by elders, as opposed to a sole bishop or indeed a pope. The minister is the teaching elder, first among equals who has the same status as the elders but who provides leadership.

It is based on verses like Titus 1:5 where Paul says to Titus “appoint elders in every town”, or in the letters to Timothy where Paul talks about elders being appointed in the churches; he describes them as overseers, who are responsible for correct teaching in the church, the ordering of the church’s affairs and pastoral oversight. So our church is based on presbyters, and it is linked to the Reformed family of churches which began in the 16^th century and which encourages ongoing reformation.

The key jump from Scotland to Ireland came with the movement of Scottish settlers from Scotland to Ireland in the early 1600’s. With settlers came a number of Scottish Presbyterian ministers. At this time the main Protestant churches were Anglican but with the sympathy of Archbishop Ussher who was sympathetic to Calvinism a number of Presbyterian ministers occupied Anglican churches. There were about 19 prior to 1613, 30 presbyterian ministers by 1630.

NON-CONFORMISTS

The story of the 17^th and 18^th centuries tended to be a see-sawing between Anglican and Presbyterian influence on the Protestant side, and within Anglicanism in its lower and higher forms. If the king and his archbishop was more high Anglican then the Presbyterians were not encouraged and sometimes there was open persecution, so that Presbyterians got the name of being non-conformists when they were pressurised to conform to the Church of England liturgies (such as under Wentworth and Laud). In Ireland Presbyterians like Catholics tended to be treated as second class citizens by the Anglican influenced govt. of the time.

A key date for us is 1642. A scottish army had been sent over to quell an uprising and Presbyterian chaplains came over with the army. These chaplains formed the first Presbytery which was set up in Carrickfergus 10^th June 1642.

1643 – Under Charles 1 the Assembly of Divines called to draw up what became the Westminster Confession of Faith and Larger and Shorter Catechisms (completed 1646). Subsequemtly the Presbyterian Church in Scotland and Ireland bought into this document and adopted it as the subordinate standards of the church but the Anglican church although initially subscribing to it eventually preferred the 39 Articles. Today an elder of the PCI must sign up to this Confession as their summary of their faith

Periods of Presbyterian oppression continued under Cromwell after 1649, under Charles 2^nd in 1660 with passing of the Act of Uniformity in 1662 requiring every minister to be ordained after the Episcopal fashion. Many ministers were turned out of churches and some decided to build their own churches or meeting houses.

1683 – Francis Makemie emigrated to the USA and established Presbyterian congregations in Maryland and Virginia.

1685 Charles 2^nd died and succeeded by James 2^nd who was openly sympathetic to Roman Catholicism, but he was also open to Presbyterians worshipping more freely as well. But William of Orange was invited to take over the English throne and after one or two skirmishes which we are familiar with here William was installed as king.

By 1702 there were 120 Irish Presbyterian congregations formed into 9 Presbyteries and 3 Synods.

NON-SUBSCRIBERS & SECEDERS

The 18th and 19^th century was largely a tale of conflict within the Presbyterian church over doctrine and whether ministers should sign the Westminster Confession of Faith. Some argued (Like Henry Montgomery) that it should be enough to sign up to the Bible. On the other side led by Henry Cooke (Minister in Killyleagh at a time) that we should to stop errors coming in and in fact a number of the non-subscribers had distinctly Arian leanings - that is questioning the divinity of Jesus and his equality to God the Father. This Subscription debate ran from 1720 through to 1830. Non-subscribers formed their own congregations and by 1829 formed the Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church or sometimes called the Unitarian church.

1733 - on top of this there were a number of ministers from Scotland who had seceded from that church because of the policy that a wealthy landowner could choose who the minister of the local church could be (patronage). The Seceder ministers tended to be less liberal in theology and warmer and more devotional than the Synod ministers. By 1840 140 seceder congregations had been formed (High Kirk started as a seceder congregation near Kirkinriola around 1760 before moving into the town with a Buckna seceder cong. 29^th June 1823 High St. 1891 rebuilt. 1976 rebuilt on Thomas Street site.

After the settling of the Subscription controversy around 1829 the path was cleared for a coming together of the Synod and the Seceder congregations which united in 1840 when they processed from their separate churches to a united assembly in Rosemary Street church and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland was formed. 292 Synod churches and 141 seceder congregations (433) joined together with a total Presbyterian membership of 650,000 persons. Today the total is 261,000 in about 500 congregations.

Other events that had an influence upon the Presbyterian church were the Irish famine of 1846, the 1859 Revival, the completion of Church House in 1905, the forming of various Mission organisations (Home Mission 1826, Jewish Mission 1841, Colonial Mission 1848 and Continental Mission in 1856). Two presbyterian Colleges were built to train ministers, Assembly College in Belfast and Magee College in Londonderry which were amalgamated in 1978 to become Union College at Queens; introduction of clerical collars around 1900.

WORSHIP WARS

The 19^th and early 20^th centuries were marked by controversies around form more than substance – music, hymns and communion wine. In 1861 Enniskillen Presbyterian introduced an harmonium and others followed the trend. From 1861 – 1891 the Assembly debated the question of instrumental music in services until it eventually “passed from the question” and organs began to appear in virtually every congregation.

The next debate was over the introduction of hymns. Presbyterians just sang Psalms up to the late 19^th century, and some seceder ministers only agreed to join with the Synod if Psalms alone were sung. But another debate led to agreement to include hymns at worship and the first hymnbook appeared 1898 and revised in 1927, 1973 and 2004). Communion wine debate as to whether fermented or unfermented wine should be used, debated between 1878-89. It was decided it was up to individual congregations. (St Enoch’s decided to serve communion with fermented wine before the sermon and unfermented wine after the sermon!) It was usually served in large common cups until smaller cups were introduced from the USA. Beginning of 20^th century there were 606 ministers, 570 congregations and 165 students in training for ministry.

Other key dates:

1862 Sabbath School society formed

Partition in 1921 with NI Parliament meeting in Assemblies College for 11 years until Stormont Buildings were built.

Growth of Youth organisations/ministries – BB, GB, Youth Clubs, Youth Fellowships.

1926 women eligible to be elders. 1976 first woman minister ordained.

RECENT EMPHASES

Since the 1970’s a number of things:

Presbyterian church becoming more evangelical and less liberal; influence of the house church movement on worship and ministry, more team led and less one man ministry, less formality, stronger mission links with other churches, emphasis on body life in churches, less robing and clerical collars, less organs and choirs, more Bibles but less Bible knowledge, employment of Youth Directors and other staff, growing distancing between politics and faith, growing interest in other faiths and yet a more secular society leading to decline in main denominations (IN our church over past 35 years membership has dropped 33%, baptisms have dropped 71%, new communicants by 49% and numbers in S Schools by 58%. The pace of change is increasing and there are more new churches springing up.

Has the Presbyterian Church a future? As I prepared this one of the things that struck me was that our churches can be very much shaped by our culture. We can hold to certain doctrines that transcend culture, fashion and politics but it will be obvious to you as it was to me during our survey that our church in its history has been shaped by powerful forces in the culture and that continues to be the case - we cannot ignore our culture.

We have to work at this balance of being distinctively different from the world and offering the gospel and gospel lives that are marked by forgiveness and holiness and love; and at the same time be relevant to our culture, engaging with the culture in a meaningful way to win people for Christ. This is an enormous challenge but it has always been there. My impression is that High Kirk has been one of the churches that has led in this and has grown because it has sought to follow God’s call and yet relate to where people are at today. This “double listening” to God and the world in which we live, as John Stott calls it, needs to continue if we are not just to survive but to thrive.

Over this series I hope you will catch the excitement of what it can mean to be a Presbyterian church which is alive, God honouring and engaging with our world. For this to happen things cannot remain the same. The substance of the gospel cannot change, but the clothing can – so that we are reformed and reforming, like the Presbyterian logo of the burning bush - burning and living into the 21^st century.

May God lead us so that High Kirk, and indeed our wider church, will not be a dinosaur of the past but a living vital church for today, where many people are drawn to Jesus Christ and through him to honour and glorify the God who is worthy of our best; and to Him be the Glory.