GROOMSPORT PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH ANNUAL REPORT 2025
This is the Annual Report for 2025 for the Groomsport Congregation of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.
Classification: Religious Designation Charity Number: NIC105278. Address: - 35 – 37 Main Street
Groomsport BT19 6JR
| Trustees during 2025:- | ||
|---|---|---|
| Alastair McQuoid | Michael Steele | Lowry Manson |
| Hilary Knight | Jane Black | Audrey Thomas |
| June Kirk | John Todd | Brenda Boyd |
| William McCreedy | Samuel Ferguson | Ivan Crawford |
| Alan Chestnutt | Elaine Nixon | Margaret McCreedy |
| Fiona McCreedy | Stewart Holland | George Purdy |
| Richard McCreedy | Sharon Goldie | Maureen Stewart |
| Chris Thompson | Paul Dalzell (Minister) |
Our governing body
Our governing body Is the Presbyterian Church in Ireland and we are constituted by The Code of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.
The purposes of our charity
“The Presbyterian Church in Ireland, as a Reformed Church within the wider body of Christ, is grounded in the Scriptures, and exists to love and honour God through faith in His Son and by the power of His Spirit, and to enable her members to play their part in fulfilling God’s mission to our world.”
Appointment of Trustees
The Kirk Session of Groomsport Congregation of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland appoint new Charity Trustees. All Elders on Kirk Session are Trustees for our charity and are appointed at a meeting and asked to fill in the required Registration Form which is then input into our Registered Charity number NIC105278 by Elaine Nixon.
Public Benefit Statement
The Presbyterian Church in Ireland meets the public benefit requirement by providing benefit to its members and general public by making known the Christian Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ through the advancement of religion. The direct benefits which flow from the purposes of the Church include the gaining of an understand of the Christian beliefs as set out in the Bible and in the Church’s subordinate standards ( the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Shorter and Larger Catechisms) leading to spiritual and moral development and opportunities for response to Bible teaching. In turn, this framework leads to practical expressions of Christian beliefs and standards in the local community such as through the care of those in need (including the sick, disabled and bereaved). Generally, the above benefits are delivered locally by congregational churches and members, or are facilitated through presbyteries or are organised and delivered centrally. Local delivery is facilitated by central resources in almost all cases. Public access is made known through the use of notice boards, printed material, press advertisement, websites, and social media or in other ways. The benefits are monitored through regular evaluation of the services and informal and ad-hoc feedback from members, their families, and members of the public. The purpose does not lead to harm. The only private benefit flowing from our purpose is related to Ministers, Missionaries, Deaconess, Irish Mission workers and Lay Agents who receive benefits as a result of their holding office or employment. However, this is incidental and necessary in order to further our charitable purpose. There are no other private benefits. The beneficiaries of this purpose are members, their families, other individuals that the Presbyterian Church in Ireland is in direct and indirect contact with, the community in which pastoral services are provided and other communities throughout Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and worldwide which benefit from our engagement with and support for both Christian and other secular organisation, charities and individual members of the public.
Statement of activities
Hold services of worship and other religious activities. These, and all that follows, are open to anyone of the appropriate age and/or gender to access, without regard to whether they are member of our congregation. Through prayer, support our members, our own Church, other Christian Churches, the community and leaders in society and government. Organise meetings and events that promote our charitable purpose. Participate in the life of the local community. Participate in and support what the Presbyterian Church in Ireland and the supervising Presbytery does. Support secular and Christian organisations and charities through volunteering, providing accommodation, financial gifts and prayer.
Kirk Session Report 2025
The Kirk Session is the governing body of our congregation and has responsibility for the spiritual upbuilding of our members and the extension of Christ’s kingdom amongst all people. Amongst a long list of duties, the Kirk Session is responsible for the oversight of our worship, observation of our sacraments and the pastoral care of our flock. I am indeed thankful to our Minister and the 22 ruling Elders who carry out their duties with dedication and diligence. We are also thankful for the work of our pastoral assistant, Rev Denis Campbell for visiting many in our congregation who have been ill, in hospital or just unable to attend regular worship due to frailty. We also thank Denis for his willingness to undertake pulpit duty for our minister when he is on leave, and we are grateful for his wisdom and guidance during these times. We had a wonderful service on 18 January 2026 when we celebrated Denis’s 50[th] anniversary as an ordained minister. In all things we are mindful of our complete reliance on our Saviour Jesus Christ and his plan for our congregation here in Groomsport Presbyterian Church.
2025 has been another busy year with many highlights and some challenges.
There have been so many uplifting services of worship throughout the year. I think particularly of our services at Easter, Harvest and Christmas some of which are shared with our good neighbours from Groomsport Parish Church. We are blessed by having our choir who lead our praise each Sunday. They particularly add spiritual depth to our Palm Sunday service and joy to the Carols by Candlelight. Thank you to the choir
chairman, Alastair McQuoid, our organists John McIlwaine and Isabel Keenan and Gillian
McCutcheon who is so generous with her time and support throughout the year. Each year we have the Leprosy Mission Sunday and World Development Service both of which remind us of the needs of others facing disease and poverty in distant lands. Both services are generously supported by our congregation. We always look forward to our Children’s Day service in June and Gift Day service in December. It is gratifying to see the number of Christmas presents donated and delivered to the Belfast Central Mission.
In October we hosted the King’s Chorale led by their musical director, Rev Mark Spratt. It was ‘touch and go’ as to whether this praise service would go ahead, but despite the high winds and rain, the choir battled their way to Groomsport to provide a magnificent evening of choral music. They were supported by Gillian McCutcheon and the amazing talent of one of her young pupils Cabhan Keag, who played the clarinet and saxophone. We raised £2,150 and £2,500 was donated to ‘Open Doors’, a charity which provides much needed support to persecuted Christians around the world. We are so blessed to have freedom of worship here on this small island of Ireland.
We are without doubt a generous congregation and you will hear more about this from our treasurer, Mr Chris Thompson in his report. Apart from our normal FWO, we respond to many special appeals throughout the year. Last year the congregation donated over £42,000 to charities at home and overseas. In addition to this we have supported many seeking asylum in our land through the International Meeting Point, the Op-Shop at Carlisle Circus and folk staying temporarily here in Bangor. We have provided toiletries, duvets, children’s clothes and suitcases. For new arrivals, we have given special welcome packs and gifts at Easter and Christmas. We were able to provide winter shoes to some who had arrived only in flip flops. Thank you.
I now turn to a subject that has overshadowed our church this past year – Failures in Safeguarding: We are all aware of the damage done to the Presbyterian Church in Ireland by the failing in safeguarding leadership within our denomination. We have had two special meeting of the General Assembly to address this issue. On 18 December the acting Moderator, Rev Richard Murray, apologised to those who had been hurt or harmed by these failings. In his address he said that ‘we are deeply ashamed and sorry’. PCI has already started to introduce changes by creating a new safeguarding leadership team which will be overseen by three independent, externally appointed safeguarding
practitioners one of whom will chair this panel. There are currently on-going investigations by the PSNI and Charities commission following which there may be further recommendations to improve safeguarding as well as the governance, culture and integrity of our church administration. There will be new training for elders and other church leaders and a new set of guidelines covering safeguarding in adults and children. Our Kirk Session has approved setting up a small task group to review these guidelines when they are published online and to adapt them for our own congregation. Our current safeguarding leads, Elaine Nixon-Shepherd and Audrey Thomas have decided to step down from this role. I would like to thank Elaine and Audrey for their work in management of safeguarding within our congregation over many years. This is work that goes on in the background and often not seen. Thank you. In the meantime, I would like to reassure you that our Kirk Session will continue to make safeguarding a priority to ensure that our church remains a safe welcoming place to join in worship and fellowship together.
Reconfiguration of Ministry (ROM). This is something that has been somewhat overshadowed by the Safeguarding failings. Some of you may have heard of this already or read about it in the Presbyterian Herald. In June 2024, the General Assembly
accepted a report that was the culmination of three years’ work and consultation across the Church. We are facing challenges on several fronts – shortage of ministers, declining numbers of contributing families, increased running costs and too many meeting houses.
So how are we as a presbytery and a congregation responding to this challenge? Following up on written submissions from each church, Ards Presbytery along with all other presbyteries in Ireland have been consulting the churches in their locality asking how they see their role in witnessing to Christ. Last May, a delegation from Ards Presbytery met with representatives of our Kirk Session to understand how we saw our role within the wider ministry of the church in this area. We advised them of our more traditional style of worship and that over 50% of our members come from the greater Bangor and Donaghadee area. When asked about how we saw ourselves in coming years, we shared our hope that we would remain a friendly, vibrant and outwardlooking congregation. We would wish to co-operate with our neighbours in the Parish Church and other Presbyterian churches nearby although we occupy a unique position
being at the centre of Groomsport. We have been blessed by the expertise and experience of our property convenor ensuring that our buildings have been maintained to the highest of standards. Incidentally, the Presbytery were conducting their interviews in our own recently renovated Walter Nelson Hall complex. We drew attention to the work of our mission outreach at home and overseas. We were able to advise how we were using our new hall complex to reach out to our local community. In a typical month, about 1,800 people from 20 different organisations would be taking part in activities in this complex. We drew attention to our mission statement as headlined on our website, ‘Sharing God’s Word, Reflecting Christ’s Love’. It is our hope and prayer that we can continue to serve Christ as a Christian community here in Groomsport.
ROM is a work in progress and will take several years. It is however, already taking place in our Presbytery with some amalgamations and cooperation between existing churches. Within our denomination there are areas of growth. In the last year a new church called Belfast Central has opened in the Cathedral quarter of Belfast and is operating out of the old May Street church building. Reconfiguration is not about managing decline. It is a bold and radical initiative looking at how best we can witness for Jesus Christ in an increasing secular and sometimes hostile world.
Moderator Elect: On a more positive note, we learned that the Moderator Elect this year is the Rev Richard Kerr from Templepatrick PC. He is a former neighbour and colleague of Rev Dalzell and previously worked as a missionary in Malawi for 12 years. In fact, his service overlapped with my own time there by 4 years. Please remember Rev Kerr in your prayers that he may have wisdom and courage as he prepares for his role as Moderator in these testing times.
The Kirk Session would like to express their deepest thanks to all those who give of their time and energy in leading the many organisations and sub-committees within our congregation. Further information on their work is outlined elsewhere within the annual report. I would like to give special thanks to our facilities co-ordinator, Mr Ian McDonald who has been doing a sterling job in managing all the new activities and visitors to our renovated hall complex. I would like to thank Sharon Goldie and all the Kidszone leaders
who provide a very important ministry to our small group of young children throughout the whole year. Thanks to Fiona McCreedy who keeps our website looking fresh and up to date. Fiona also maintains our Facebook pages and is the talent behind many of our display posters. I would encourage you to look at our website which gives a wonderful insight into the life and witness of our church.
Finally, I would like to pay tribute to our minister, Rev Dalzell, for his leadership of our congregation, his insightful teaching during weekly worship and bible studies, and the extensive pastoral care he has provided throughout 2025. We are also grateful for his engagement and co-operation with our neighbouring churches in Groomsport and in leading important community events such as the village remembrance service in November and the community carol service in December. We were all delighted with the news that Rev Dalzell and his wife Catherine have now become grandparents for the first time. We wish their daughter Chloe and son-in-law Steven, God’s blessing with the arrival of their little daughter, Winnie. We pray for Paul and Catherine and indeed for each other that we may strive to reflect the Love or Christ and further the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour. Thank you.
Groomsport Presbyterian Church March, 2025