wfn.org | Presbyterian to lead Irish Council of Churches

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Note #7165 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

17-May-2002
02183

Presbyterian to lead Irish Council of Churches

President-elect attended PC(USA) General Assembly last year

by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE - A Presbyterian minister has been elected president of the Irish Council of Churches.

The Rev. Robert Herron, 44, who pastors two congregations in Northern Ireland, was elected during the council's general meeting two weeks ago.

Herron was highly visible in recovery efforts in 1998 after a bomb planted by a splinter group of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) exploded in Omagh, killing 28 people and wounding more than 200.

He represented the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) at the 213th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in Louisville last year.

The Irish Council of Churches was created 78 years ago, but its origins date to 1906, when the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches formed a joint committee for philanthropic and religious work. The Church of Ireland was added in 1911. The council now has 12 member communions.

Herron said the council will address spiritual and political issues in the coming years.

"I think one major issue facing the churches in Ireland is authenticity and relevance, in a society that is changing dramatically," said Herron, who noted that churches are losing members to a culture that is more individualized and less religious than ever.

He said that clergy abuse, most visible recently in Roman Catholic circles, is affecting how all churches are viewed today.

"Dealing with the past ... the political past, the trauma, within the context of the Gospel" is part of the council's agenda, Herron said. While Irish churches have played a major role in caring for victims of political violence, he said, "The issue (now) is how to find the grace to forgive ... to be set free."

Herron, a County Down native, was appointed nine years ago as minister of Trinity Church in Omagh and of a Presbyterian parish in the nearby farming community of Gillygooley. He served the Strabane Presbyterian Church for eight years, and is the convenor of the Inter-Church Relations Board of the PCI.

As president of the council, he will co-convene the Irish Inter-Church Committee, which includes leaders of the Protestant and Roman Catholic communities.

Among the other communions that belong to the council are the Moravian church, the Irish Salvation Army, the Religious Society of Friends, the Coptic Orthodox Church and the Greek Orthodox Church in Britain and Ireland.
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