Lecture Talks in the 2024-25 Programme
Thursday 16th May 2024 - 8.00pm
Union Theological College, Botanic Avenue, Belfast BT7 1JT
Robert Allen Lecture
“Jonathan Swift and Presbyterians”
by Professor David Hayton, Queen’s University Belfast
Saturday 15th June 2024
Field Trip to Presbyterian Churches in East Down
Thursday 17th October 2024 - 8.00pm
Bannside Presbyterian Church, Banbridge
“James Harshaw, Presbyterian Elder of Donaghmore Presbyterian Church and Diarist, c. 1818-1864”
by David Huddleston, Acting Director of PRONI
Thursday 21st November 2024 - 8.00pm
1st Presbyterian Church Belfast (Rosemary Street)
“Presbyterians and opposition to slavery: principle, pragmatism and protest”
by Dr Andrew Holmes, School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics, Queen’s University Belfast.
Thursday 20th February 2025 - 8.00pm
Newtownards Reformed Presbyterian Church
“Andrew Melville and his contribution to Presbyterianism in Scotland and ultimately throughout the world”
by the Rev Dr David Sutherland, Professor of Pastoral Theology, Covenanter History and Homiletics at Knockbracken Reformed Presbyterian College.
Thursday 20th March 2025
Carryduff Presbyterian Church
7.00pm AGM
8.00pm “History of the Ordination of Women to Eldership and Ministry”
by Mrs Avril Heenan
Thursday 15th May 2025 - 8.00pm
Union Theological College
Robert Allen Lecture
“Reflections on the 1625 Revival”
by Dr Robert Armstrong, Associate Professor of History, Trinity College Dublin
Previous Talks available on YouTube
The Workmans of Victorian Belfast - Dr Alice Johnson
Lost Presbyterian Meeting Houses - Mr Tom Hartley
The Rev Dr William Campbell, a New Light Presbyterian - Very Rev Dr Donald Patton
Lecture Talks in the 2022-23 Programme
Thursday 24th March 2022
Newtownbreda (St John's) Presbyterian Church, Ormeau Road, Belfast BT7 3HX
7.00pm Annual General Meeting
8.00pm “The Events Leading up to the Establishment of Northern Ireland”
by the Rev Dr R S Tosh
Thursday 5th May 2022
Union Theological College, Botanic Avenue, Belfast BT7 1JT
Robert Allen Lecture
“William Sharman Crawford and his interaction with Irish Presbyterians”
by Professor Peter Gray, Queen’s University Belfast
William Sharman Crawford was the leading Ulster-based radical reformer of the mid-19th century and a supporter of land reform and the extension of the franchise. Though Anglican by birth, he obtained strong support from the Presbyterian clergy and tenant farmers of Co Down. The talk will look at his interventions in the contentious politics of religion and identity in the 1830s-50s and consider the reasons for his personal conversion to Unitarianism towards the end of his life.
Thursday 19th May 2022
First Presbyterian Church, Rosemary Street, Belfast BT1 1QB
“Preaching to the Poor in Belfast - the Diary of the Rev A McIntyre, 1853-56”
by the Rev Dr John Nelson
The Rev McIntyre was employed by the Belfast Domestic Mission. The Domestic Mission movement began in the 1830s and over the next 20 years it spread extensively in Great Britain and Ireland and across denominations. It sought to reach out to the urban poor who were often beyond the membership of established congregations and parishes.
Thursday 20th October 2022
Cullybackey Reformed Presbyterian Church,
2 Main Street, Cullybackey, Ballymena BT42 1BN
“The Rev William Martin, Preacher, Pioneer and Patriot”
by the Rev Geoffrey Allen
William Martin was the first Irish Reformed Presbyterian minister (ordained at the Vow, near Ballymoney) who then resettled hundreds of his congregation and others in South Carolina in 1772 only to find themselves embroiled in the American Revolution. Twice he carried the witness as the sole Covenanter minister, once in Ireland and then in the United States.
Thursday 2nd February 2023
Cregagh Presbyterian Church, Belfast BT6 9ER
“Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs”
by the Rev S.W. Moore
In 1840, the unaccompanied 150 Psalms of the Scottish Metrical Psalter were the lawful form of praise but throughout 19th century and into the 20th century, a range of musical features have been accommodated eg using instruments rather than voices a and lyrics composed rather than scripturally 'inspired'. Each new innovation brought it disunity, dissension, and diversity. We explore these themes together.
Thursday 23rd March 2023
Belmont Presbyterian Church, Sydenham Avenue, Belfast BT4 2DT
7.00pm Annual General Meeting
8.00pm “The Auld Meetin'-Hoose Green”
by Mr John Erskine.
A relaxed miscellany looking at aspect life, language and practice in the Presbyterian tradition.
Thursday 4th May 2023
Union Theological College, Botanic Avenue, Belfast BT7 1JT
Robert Allen Lecture
“Presbyterians in Print in 18th century Ulster”
by Dr. Robert Whan
This lecture will consider the history contents of the Antrim Presbytery Library in the context of the denomination's wider engagement with print.
Saturday 17th June 2023
Field Trip to Route Presbytery - Details
Thursday 19 October 2023
Finaghy (Lowe Memorial) Presbyterian Church, 191-193 Upper Lisburn Road, Belfast BT10 0LL
“Union and Presbyterian Ulster Scots: William McComb, James McKnight, and the Repealer Repulsed”
by Dr Andrew Holmes, Queen's University Belfast
Exploring the relationship between literature and Union amongst Presbyterian writers in 19th century Ulster. The various writings of McComb and McKnight employed a shared Ulster-Scottish Presbyterian heritage to express opposition to the imposition of English Protestant forms and principles, and to highlight the importance and distinctiveness of Presbyterian Scots and Ulster-Scots within the United Kingdom.
Thursday 16 November 2023
First Dunmurry Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church, 23 Glebe Road, Dunmurry, BT17 0PN
“James Kirkpatrick c. 1676-1743 and the First Non-Subscription Controversy”
by Rev Dr David Steers
The son of a minister and a graduate of Glasgow University, the Rev Dr James Kirkpatrick was himself minister successively at Templepatrick and Second Belfast. A prominent defender of the rights of Presbyterians in early eighteenth-century Belfast he became one of the leading proponents of Non-Subscription.
Thursday 15th February 2024
First Portadown Presbyterian Church, Bridge Street, Portadown BT63 5AA
“'Catch-My-Pal' and the Temperance Movement”
by Rev Dr Mark Wilson
Thursday 21st March 2024 - 8.00pm
Whitehouse Presbyterian Church, 143-145 Shore Road, Newtownabbey BT37 9SY
7.00pm Annual General Meeting
8.00pm “Rev. John Johnston's Cause Célèbre: Irish Presbyterianism and the Ulster Plantation in the High Court”
by Dr Norma Dawson, Emeritus Professor of Law, Queen's University Belfast