Preispitéirigh Agus An Ghaeilge (Presbyterians and the Irish language) are not often words heard in the same sentence. At least that has been the case for most of our lifetimes, but it wasn’t always so. In previous centuries ministers with Presbyterian convictions were much to the fore in the preservation of the Irish language and even of Irish culture. They acted in this way because they believed that if the native Irish were to come to faith in Christ, they needed to hear the gospel preached in a language they best understood, i.e. Irish. At one time candidates for the Presbyterian ministry were required to learn Irish.
This was the gist of a presentation given by Rev Paul Thompson, a guest minister from County Antrim, at a public meeting held in the building in Pump Street in Derry City where Gateway Christian Fellowship, a church plant of the Western Presbytery of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland, meets for worship and operates a bookshop.
The meeting, which was introduced by Gateway’s interim moderator, Rev Paul Wallace, had been widely advertised particularly to those known to have an interest in the Irish language, and the congregation were thankful to God and very pleased to see our building, which seats about 80 people, filled to near capacity. Many of the attendees were previously unknown to us, or present in our building for the first time.
A display of old Irish Bibles and other Christian books which had been translated into Irish was available. This included a copy of the Bedell Bible, the first translation of the full Bible into the Irish language and first published in 1685. Some display boards told the story of the Bible in the Irish language.
A fluent Irish speaker read some portions of John 10 and John 14 in Irish. As he did so the passages were projected on the wall with the Irish and English side by side.
The spoken elements of the evening were sandwiched between traditional Irish music tunes performed by Martin Crossin (an elder in our Milford congregation) on the Uileann pipes accompanied by his daughter Grace on the Irish harp. In a moving conclusion to the evening Martin sang Psalm 117 in Irish.
Some books related to the theme were available for sale and a good number were purchased. Free literature was also available including John Blanchard’s “Ultimate Questions” in Irish and Irish/English copies of John’s Gospel. The latter, in particular, were gladly received by quite a few of those in attendance.
The meeting was not intended to be overtly evangelistic but intended to bring us into contact with people with whom we may have had little contact to date. To that extent it was successful and we pray that some of those who attended the meeting would return and visit the Gateway Shop or one of our worship services. We pray also that the Holy Spirit would bless the Word read publicly, displayed on the wall during the meeting or read afterwards from one of the John’s gospels which had been taken.
Graham Fallows
