Ian Paisley Forced Out as Church Head

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Ian Paisley Forced Out as Church Head

September 13, 2007

By Barry McCaffrey

NORTHERN Ireland’s First Minister Paisley has been dramatically forced to resign as the head of the church he founded more than 50 years ago after hardline opposition to his decision to go into government with Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness.

The firebrand cleric established the Free Presbyterian Church in 1951 and has been re-elected unopposed as its leader every year since.

Paisley often appeared to run his church and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which he formed in 1971, as the one entity.

However on Friday Paisley was forced to announce that he would stand down as Free Presbyterian moderator in January after threats from hardline elements within his church that they would oppose his re-election.

A meeting of senior church elders on Friday discussed concerns over Paisley’s dual role as first minister and church moderator.

Ominously around a dozen protesters handed out leaflets condemning Paisley’s decision to go into government with Sinn Fein before the meeting.

“Ian Paisley’s own words stand as a condemnation to him,” the leaflet claimed. “He is guilty of all that he accused others of being guilty of. There’s only one thing left for Ian Paisley to do: repent.”

A Free Presbyterian spokesman insisted that Paisley’s decision was non-controversial.

However it was claimed that the one-time firebrand cleric had chosen to jump rather than be pushed after delegates at Friday’s meeting had voted overwhelmingly to separate church and politics.

Addressing his congregation at Martyrs' Memorial Church on Sunday, Paisley admitted that he had agreed to stand down because his church was facing a “very real crisis.”

"While I am no longer going to carry the weight which I have carried for over 56 years as moderator of our presbytery, I have news for you ... that I will be here and I am praying to God that I will be able to preach right to the end of my days," he said.

The Free Presbyterian church, which is believed to have around 10,000 members, has about 60 congregations across the North with other churches in the Republic, England, Scotland, Australia and the U.S.

In the past Paisley has previously branded the Pope and the Catholic Church as the “whores of Rome’ and warned that Republicans would only get into government over “his dead body.”

In the 1960s, he campaigned against Northern Ireland’s then Prime Minister Terence O’Neill holding talks with then Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Sean Lemass.

Throughout the Troubles he repeatedly refused to share power with Republicans or to have any contact with the southern government. As late as July last year he insisted that he would not share power with Sinn Fein, warning, “They are not fit to be in the government of Northern Ireland and it will be over our dead bodies if they ever get there."

But over the last year he appears to have undergone his own political “Road to Damascus” by not only visiting Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in Dublin but also going into government with Sinn Fein with McGuinness as his deputy.

On Monday Paisley broke new ground when he and Irish President Mary McAleese attended an event together to commemorate those killed during World War I.

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