A year in the spotlight As the Moderator begins his last full month in office, PCI’s press officer, Mark Smith, caught up with Charles McMullen to discuss the ‘bird’s-eye view’ that he’s had of the Church this year.
“I
t’s a funny old feeling” was the text I got from the Moderator the night presbyteries met to elect his successor in February. “How do you mean?” I texted back. Given the year that the Church has had, his response may surprise many: “Sad, I suppose that my tenure is now moving to an end. An indication of how much I have enjoyed this year.” While Dr McMullen admits that it has been more challenging and intense than he had imagined, it has been a year when he has been inspired and excited by what he has seen of the work of the Church across Ireland and overseas. “It may seem a bit twee, but it feels like in many ways that every day has been Christmas Day. “Each day has been special, encouraging and different. I have met all kinds of people and experienced such hospitality, realising that there is a tremendous heart in our Church and that is one word that I would want to emphasise as I step down, this whole idea of ‘heart’, and the overall heart of our denomination is good. “There is a great love, a great commitment, a great dedication and
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Herald May 2019
desire to serve the Lord across our congregations, a vibrant beating heart that reflects the rhythms of grace. This year has given me a renewed passion for the local church and how it is not on its own, but part of a bigger family. It has also shown me and reinforced the overall importance of relationships,” he says. ‘Building relationships, Christ’s love compels us’ – Dr McMullen’s theme for his year in office – has been a constant presence. It has also been a theme that may have seemed a little unfortunate to some, foundering at the General Assembly’s decision to end its symbolic relationship with the Church of Scotland and other controversial issues. While
…there is a tremendous heart in our Church and that is one word that I would want to emphasise as I step down…
hindsight is a wonderful thing, he completely disagrees. Looking back, he says that his theme came to him on the night of his election. “Two words struck me: ‘building relationships’. I believe I was given those words, it was as if God said to me, ‘This is right, but it will not be altogether easy… this is very much for the long haul.’ Throughout the General Assembly and the ensuing year, bearing in mind I believe that God gave me this theme and said that it would be for the long haul, it became all the more vital and all the more imperative,” he says. In the immediate aftermath of the Assembly, with the headlines and general reaction, Dr McMullen says that as he began his engagements and preaching in different congregations, he encountered both “support and heartache” over what had happened. “Initially when I was elected I might have talked myself into this role by saying it would be a career break from my
