Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster
| Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Classification | Protestant |
| Orientation | Fundamentalist Calvinism |
| Polity | Presbyterian |
| Moderator | Rev. Thomas Murray |
| Associations | Whitefield College of the Bible |
| Region | mainly Northern Ireland but also in mainland Great Britain |
| Founder | Ian Paisley |
| Origin | 17 March 1951 Crossgar, Northern Ireland |
| Separated from | Presbyterian Church in Ireland |
| Separations | FPCNA |
| Congregations | 61 (Northern Ireland) 22 (elsewhere) |
| Members | 15,000 |
| Official website | www |
The Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster is a Christian denomination founded by Rev. Ian Paisley in 1951. Doctrinally, the church describes itself as fundamentalist, evangelical, and separatist. Most of its members live in Northern Ireland, where the church is headquartered. The church has additional congregations in the Republic of Ireland, Great Britain and Australia, and a sister denomination in North America that has congregations in Canada and the United States. It also has a sister denomination in Nepal which was formed from the Nepal mission to the Unreached in November 2013
The current Moderator of the Church is Rev. Thomas Murray, elected in September 2015.
The Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster began on 17 March 1951 (St Patrick's Day) as the result of a conflict between some members of the local Lissara Presbyterian congregation in Crossgar, County Down, Northern Ireland, and the Down Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.
At a meeting on 8 January 1951, the Down Presbytery banned the elders of the local congregation from using the church hall for a Gospel mission, but the date when the Lissara elders not were informed of this is disputed. The Presbytery met with the Lissara Session 90 minutes before the mission was due to begin on 3 February with an "Opening Witness March". When two elders refused to accept the Presbytery decision, they were immediately suspended. As a result of this disagreement with the Presbytery, five of the seven session members, all the Sunday School teachers, and 60 members of the congregation withdrew from the Down Presbytery and the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.
College lecturers of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland have suggested that the above story, though often quoted, is incomplete. While the Gospel Mission was a reason for the breakaway church forming, the Presbytery objection was not to the Mission or to the Gospel, but to the invited preacher, Ian Paisley. The Lissara Mission went ahead with a different preacher and Lissara Presbyterian Church continued to exist (albeit with fewer members), and a number of dissenting members later returned. However Free Presbyterians from Crossgar dispute that there ever was such a mission.
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