No one was more shocked than myself when then Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI), one of Northern Ireland’s largest Protestant denominations, Rev Trevor Gribben, announced he was stepping down over safe-guarding systems.
As the son of a Presbyterian minister and a religious commentator journalistically, I always felt I had my ear close to the ground in PCI. But as the saying goes, I didn’t see that one coming.
After all, only a few weeks earlier before that shock PCI press conference, I’d had tea and traditional Presbyterian tray bakes as I chatted with Rev Gribben at a Service of Recognition for Accredited Preachers in First Antrim Presbyterian Church.
As well as the shock of that resignation press conference, there was also the surprise of comments from internationally renowned safe-guarding expert Ian Elliott speaking to BBC Spotlight when it was said the Presbyterian crisis ‘could be like the Catholic Church’.
Such is the concern over the revelations, that a special meeting of the General Assembly has been called for later this week to be attended by clerics and elders, but which is open to the public and media and will also be live-streamed.
Having been a religious affairs correspondent in my time in journalism and covered the General Assembly as a reporter, normally it tends to be as routine as a past district council committee meeting.
But Thursday’s meeting is scheduled to be one of the most important in the history of PCI. It will be a defining moment and could set the direction of the denomination for decades to come.
Whilst what appears to have triggered the crisis concerns one convicted sex offender in one congregation, there is the real danger Thursday’s meeting could be the beginning of lifting the lid off further allegations of lapses in safe-guarding, abuse, bullying or harassment.
Put bluntly, a drop could become a trickle, which could result in a flood. The real dangers for PCI are the long-term consequences of this meeting and the fact that the police have launched a criminal investigation.
Could a situation emerge that if future allegations come out of the woodwork, rank and file Presbyterians may become so embarrassed or ashamed of what has allegedly taken place, they move to other denominations or places of worship.
PCI is already facing a challenge of a fall in numbers in the pews to such an extent it has also launched a so-called ‘reconfiguration’ of its congregations across the island of Ireland - a move which could see churches merge, amalgamate, having more closer co-operation, or even shut.
A glance at PCI’s journal, The Presbyterian Herald, shows an almost staggering amount of vacant churches across Ireland. Like many Christian denominations, gone are the days when there was almost a waiting list for folk wanting to train for the ministry.
Equally worrying for PCI could be the outcome financially if, like the Catholic Church, cases of alleged abuse resulted in compensation payouts. Over the years, the Catholic Church has had to pay huge compensation sums to victims of clerical sex abuse.
While any visit to the Vatican in Rome will convince anyone of the Catholic Church’s assets and its ability to pay such compensation claims, the key question must be asked - does PCI have the same cash funds if compensation was required?
Put bluntly, could PCI be bankrupted by potential compensation claims arising from alleged safe-guarding issues?
And just as the Catholic Church has faced allegations of historical sex abuse, in terms of this current PCI safe-guarding crisis, how far back in time will allegations go?
I have often written about my own experiences as a Presbyterian minister’s son growing up in the north east Ulster Bible Belt in the Seventies and being made an example of simply for being the preacher’s kid.
The worst incident happened in my early teens. I had become a born again Christian at the age of 12. I was keen to grow in my Christian faith. Then I got a Sunday school teacher who was very theologically liberal. He was one of the most bad tempered Presbyterian elders I have ever encountered.
His classes were downright boring on Sundays. There was no discussion on the catechism passages, bible verses or memory hymns we had to repeat parrot fashion. So to lighten the boredom, us lads would have some craic among ourselves.
This elder was a strict disciplinarian so us laughing did not amuse him and he decided to stop this trivial behaviour. He did so by punching me in the face reducing me to tears in front of my peers. It certainly stopped the craic! Why was I being singled out?
But those early Seventies was an era when corporal punishment was legal in schools in Northern Ireland - and that also applied to Sunday schools.
You could imagine the legal furore which would erupt in 2025 if a Presbyterian elder punched a young teenager in Sunday school in front of witnesses!
The elder in question is dead. If he was alive, he’d probably defend his action, that discipline had to be maintained in his Sunday school class and making an example out of the minister’s son was the best method.
There is also to be a time of worship prior to Thursday’s special meeting of the General Assembly. No doubt in any prayers of intercession, there will be a time to remember the persecuted church across the globe. Perhaps in their prayers, too, delegates could remember folk who have been persecuted BY the church.
As these events unfolded in recent weeks, I have often pondered what my late father, Rev Dr Robert Coulter MBE, would have made of the situation.
Dad died in September 2018 and hardly a day goes by that I don’t think about him. I miss him dearly. But in one way, I am glad he is not around to see the crisis which has consumed the denomination to which he devoted so much of his life.
The photo accompanying this column is taken from the Sixties when dad, pictured left, was assistant minister in Westbourne Presbyterian Church in east Belfast and the senior minister was the Rev David Alderdice, pictured right. Both ministers are sadly gone.
Rev Alderdice is the father of Lord John Alderdice, a former Alliance Party leader. Lord Alderdice helped compile the dossier alleging a culture of bullying and abuse of power within PCI.
Both our dads later moved to the Ballymena Presbytery of PCI, my dad in Clough Presbyterian Church; Lord Alderdice’s dad in Wellington Street Presbyterian Church.
Information and allegations surrounding the current crisis may leak out in dribs and drabs. But surely the time has also come for my earlier call for there to be a dedicated trade union for clerics to become a reality.
For me as a communicant member of PCI, the church has been a bedrock in my spiritual journey. But as a minister’s son, I have also experienced at times what I can only describe as the brutality and abuse of being in PCI.
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| Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter John is a Director for Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. |
