Weather postpones election of Free Presbyterian moderator

A meeting of the Free Presbyterian Church to elect a new moderator which had been due to be held tonight has been called off because of the weather.

A spokesman for the church said it was expected the election – to have taken place in snow-bound Lisburn – would now take place at the monthly meeting in February.

The election was called by the church governing body after the Rev Ian Paisley announced last September that he would not be seeking re-election to the head of the church he has led for 56 years.

He agreed to stand down because of concerns expressed within the church about his dual role as the North’s First Minister and moderator, after the Democratic Unionist Party decided to go into the power-sharing executive with Sinn Féin last May.

Mr Paisley was first elected moderator in 1951 when he established the church after a falling out with the mainstream Presbyterian Church.

The Free Presbyterian Church has now spread beyond the North to many parts of the world - there are churches in the South, in England, Scotland, Wales, Australia, the USA and Canada, Spain and Jamaica.