The Rev Gordon McDonald, a former senior pastor of Grace Chapel, Massachusetts, was the principal teacher at a three-day conference from October 2nd to 4th on "Equipping Leaders for 2000". The church youth board, which organised the conference, arranged seminars in Belfast at Union Theological College and Church House, and in the Oaklands Hotel, Dungannon, Co Tyrone, and Lucan Presbyterian Church, Co Dublin.
The conference opened with a rally in Church House on Monday, when Mr McDonald spoke on "Renewing our Vision - the Challenges and Responsibilities of Leadership in the 21st century". The topics dealt with have arisen out of Mr McDonald's experience of ministry in the US. His wife, Gail, spoke to wives in a seminar entitled "Help! I'm a Minister's Spouse" and also spoke on "Maintaining a Christian Home" and "The Process of Mentoring".
This is Mr McDonald's second visit to Ireland in this connection. He has commended the initiatives being launched by the Presbyterian Church, and believes the problems encountered here are met with around the world.
Dr Roger Crooks, chairman of the Committee Resourcing Christians for Ministry has commented that "Equipping Leaders 2000" presented an opportunity for active church members to focus on future challenges.
Leaders and people in the churches at large will be saddened at the news of the death of the Very Rev Dr Jack Weir in his 81st year after a long and increasingly debilitating illness. He served the church as missionary teacher in China, in the footsteps of his parents.
He was minister for a time in Letterkenny on his return from China and then served as home mission convenor and assistant to the clerk of the General Assembly before his succession to the clerkship for some 20 years. He was elected to the moderatorship in 1976.
Dr Weir initiated courageous and sometimes unpopular attempts to reconcile and end violence and promote peace during troubled times in the North. A few years before his death he returned to his birthplace in Manchuria, where his parents are buried. Dr Weir was unmarried.
Paying tribute at his funeral in Malone Presbyterian Church, Belfast, the moderator, the Rev Dr Trevor Morrow commented: "Jack Weir was a man of utter integrity. Apart from his wisdom and sound judgment, his willingness to honour and give of himself to those with whom he may have disagreed meant that there was no one in the Presbyterian Church and in the wider community who did not respect and genuinely admire him. He was not only a good but a godly man."
An annual overseas missionary tour is scheduled to begin on Sunday, November 5th, with a rally in the Abbey Church, Parnell Square, Dublin, 7 p.m. Missionaries home on furlough and doing deputation work are available to conduct services around these times. Ministers requiring a speaker should immediately contact the Rev Sam Anketell 05433415. Mr Anketell also requests details of Presbyterians serving with missionary societies and agencies overseas, or likely to be overseas by January 2001.
In reaction to the shocking internecine strife between loyalist paramilitaries in the Shankill area of Belfast, the Presbytery of South Belfast recently sought to support and encourage churches and people in the area. The presbytery appreciates the marvellous work of various church members and their ministers in the Shankill area and calls upon all church members to support their people in every way possible, as they continue their work for peace.