The Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI; ; Ulster-Scots: Prisbytairin Kirk in Airlann) is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the Republic of Ireland, and the largest Protestant denomination in Northern Ireland. Like most Christian churches in Ireland, it is organised on an all-island basis, in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The church has approximately 210,000 members.
Membership
The Church has a membership of approximately 210,000 people in 534 congregations in 403 charges across both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. About 96% of the membership is in Northern Ireland. It is the second-largest church in Northern Ireland after the Catholic Church, and the second-largest Protestant denomination in the Irish Republic, after the Church of Ireland. All the congregations of the church are represented up to the General Assembly (the church's government).
History
Presbyterianism in Ireland dates from the time of the Plantation of Ulster in 1610. During the reign of James VI of Scotland, a large number of Scottish Presbyterians emigrated to Ireland, chiefly to Ulster. The first move away from the Church of Scotland, of which the Presbyterians in Ireland were part, saw the creation of the Presbytery of Ulster in 1642 by chaplains of a Scottish Covenanter army which had arrived to protect the mostly Protestant British (Scottish and English) settlers in Ulster and to crush the Irish Rebellion of 1641 threatening these settlers. It succeeded in protecting the settlers but failed abysmally to crush the rebellion. Under the more secure protection of Cromwell congregations multiplied and new presbyteries were formed. However, after the Restoration, nonconforming ministers were removed from parishes of the Established Church, but no matter the opinions of the king on religion, the Irish administration could not afford to alienate such a substantial Protestant population and Presbyterianism was allowed to continue in the country, with the stipends of ministers paid through the – literally 'the King's gift'.
William III rewarded Presbyterian support against James II (James VII of Scotland) with an increase in the . From the 1690s, Presbyterian congregations, now organised in the Synod of Ulster, enjoyed practical freedom of religion, confirmed by the Toleration Act of 1719. However, their members remained very conscious both of continuing legal disabilities under the penal laws and of economic hardship as many were tenant farmers and objected to the payment of tithes to support the Church of Ireland. Throughout the eighteenth century, many Presbyterians were involved in movements for reform which, carried by enthusiasm for the American and French revolutions, culminated with their prominent involvement in the United Irishmen. Among the ordained ministers publicly associated with the republican society were Thomas Ledlie Birch, William Steel Dickson, William Porter, William Sinclair and David Bailie Warden.
The eighteenth century saw significant tensions within the Synod of Ulster, which was divided between the Old Lights and the New Lights. The Old Lights were conservative Calvinists who believed that ministers and ordinands should subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith. The New Lights were more liberal and were unhappy with the Westminster Confession and did not require ministers to subscribe to it. The New Lights dominated the Synod of Ulster during the eighteenth century, allowing the more conservative Scottish Presbyterian dissenters, Seceders and Covenanters to establish a strong presence in Ulster.
In the nineteenth century, a belief that some of those who did not subscribe to the Westminster Confession were in fact Arian provoked a new phase of the conflict. This ended when seventeen ministers opposed to subscription seceded with their congregations to form the Remonstrant Synod. This led to the restoration of obligatory subscription to the Westminster Confession within the Synod of Ulster and facilitated union with the Seceders in 1840 to create the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, whose first moderator was Samuel Hanna. The united church was active in missionary activity both at home and abroad, particularly benefitting from the evangelical Ulster Revival of 1859.