Former mission worker to be new Presbyterian Moderator

THE minister of Templepatrick Presbyterian Church will become the Presbyterian Church in Ireland’s (PCI) next Moderator, after he was elected Moderator-Designate last night in the Church’s annual election for its senior office bearer.

Rev Richard Kerr, a 60-year-old grandfather of four received the most votes in a second round of voting, having tied initially with Rev Ker Graham, minister of Clarkesbridge & First Newtownhamilton Presbyterian Church, Garmany’s Grove and McKelvey’s Grove Presbyterian Churches.

The Church’s 19 regional presbyteries had been meeting separately in various locations across Ireland to elect the Moderator-Designate, and were required to vote again on the two minsters who had tied. This is the first time that a second round of voting has taken place since 2014.

Mr Kerr, who has been minister of Templepatrick for the past 20 years who served as a mission worker in Malawi for over a decade, will be the 26th Moderator to come from a County Antrim congregation and the 180th person to hold PCI’s highest office since the establishment of the Church in 1840.

The County Antrim minister was one of four nominees for the Church to consider 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.

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

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