The Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland derives its name and its liberal and tolerant identity from early 18th century Presbyterian ministers who refused to subscribe at their ordination to the Westminster Confession, a standard Reformed (Calvinist) statement of faith; and who formed, in 1725, the Presbytery of Antrim. A similar phenomenon led to the creation of the Remonstrant Synod of Ulster in 1830. The two bodies created the Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland (NSPCI) in 1910. The Synod of Munster became part of the NSPCI in 1935.
Many Non-subscribing Presbyterians keep close contact with the Unitarians and are sometimes identified as such, though they are distinct bodies. The Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland has associations with the IARF but not with the ICUU. The IARF does not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ:
"Unitarians believe that Jesus was a man, unequivocally human. It has long been our view that to talk of him as God is unfaithful to his own understanding of himself."
Today, the denomination has thirty-one congregations in Northern Ireland and two congregations in the Republic of Ireland, with a total of about four thousand members. They are served by fewer than twenty ministers; both women and men serve as ministers. The NSCPI is a member of the Irish Council of Churches, the European Liberal Protestant Network and the International Association for Religious Freedom.
Famous quotes containing the words presbyterian, church and/or ireland:
“He is a Presbyterian first and an artist second, which is just as comfortable as trying to be a Presbyterian first and a chorus girl second.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“There was on old person of Fratton
Who went to church with his hat on.
“If I wake up,” he said,
“With my hat on my head,
I shall know that it hasn’t been sat on.””
—Anonymous.
“They call them the haunted shores, these stretches of Devonshire and Cornwall and Ireland which rear up against the westward ocean. Mists gather here, and sea fog, and eerie stories. That’s not because there are more ghosts here than in other places, mind you. It’s just that people who live hereabouts are strangely aware of them.”
—Dodie Smith, and Lewis Allen. Roderick Fitzgerald (Ray Milland)