MODERATOR-ELECT of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Rev Stafford Carson (57), has given an assurance that as moderator from next June he will be happy to go to any church where a woman is preaching.
Mr Carson, who does not accept that women should be ordained to the ministry, was last month elected moderator by 10 votes out of the 21 presbyteries in Ireland.
He succeeds Rev Dr Donald Patton at the church’s general assembly in Belfast next June.
Mr Carson, who describes himself as “theologically conservative”, has been minister of First Portadown since 2005 and was at the centre of controversy there in December 2007. It has been the custom among the two Presbyterian congregations in Portadown that they host each other’s minister at the Christmas service in alternate years.
In 2007 it was the turn of First Portadown to host its more liberal Armagh Road (Portadown) minister Rev Christina Bradley. Mr Carson refused to allow her preach. However, he has now confirmed that in his term as moderator he will be willing to share the pulpits of women ministers.