Presbyterian Moderator to address Mutual Society crisis
On tomorrow's Sunday Sequence, we will return to the Presbyterian Mutual Society, now in Administration, and to the role of the Presbyterian Church in this continuing crisis.
One commenter on this blog has written: "If you are still checking out this blog, please can you post if there are any email groups being set up for members to share knowledge about what is happening? I live a long way from Belfast and am hearing absolutely nothing except what I can glean from the internet. There seems to be a deafening silence from the PMS and we all know how helpful the PCI have been ..."
We will try to describe the situation as it currently stands on tomorrow's programme. The Presbyterian Moderator, Dr Donald Patton, will join me live in the studio from 8.30 am.
My blog posts to date summarise some of the key issues at stake:
A run on the Presbyterian bank
Presbyterian Church asks PM to guarantee savings
The Church and the Mutual Society
Update-Sunday 23 November: Dr Donald Patton said today on Sunday Sequence that the church is not ruling out any options, including a hardship fund, in responding to the Presbyterian Mutual Society crisis. He also accepted said that the wording of General Assembly resolution encouraging church members to "avail themselves of the services" of the Mutual Society was unhelpful, and that the church's response to this crisis was partly shaped by a sense of "shock".
Comment number 1.
At 22nd Nov 2008, goodbyepci wrote:Well done William!
It is really good that you have got the Moderator to come onto your show.
It will be interesting to hear what he has to say............ and where he has been for the last 2 weeks!
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Comment number 2.
At 22nd Nov 2008, Peter wrote:I have a feeling this story will run and run and I really do feel sorry for anyone with considerable funds invested in the PMS. Very little is being highlighted by the local media. Did Peter Robinson and Nigel Dodds say anything to the PM last week about the situation ? I sincerely hope they did. Surely the assembly finance department should be doing their utmost to sort this situation out ?
I assume the government's gaurantees on UK savings would extend to all mutual societies/building societies in the province ?
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Comment number 3.
At 23rd Nov 2008, MarcusAureliusII wrote:Has anyone considered that this is a warning from God to Presbyterians that the love of money is the root of all evil and that going broke is their punishment and a sign that if they don't change their evil ways and live a life of poverty they will go to hell?
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Comment number 4.
At 23rd Nov 2008, Peter wrote:Has anyone considered that this is a warning from God to Presbyterians that the love of money is the root of all evil and that going broke is their punishment and a sign that if they don't change their evil ways and live a life of poverty they will go to hell?
In the parable of the talents, wasn't the servent who buried his money in the ground criticised for not putting it in the bank ? In a modern day setting, I just wonder what the master would have said if the servent had put the talent in the PMS ?
Don't forget though, that it is the love of money that is the root of all evil, not the possession of money
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Comment number 5.
At 25th Nov 2008, jovialPTL wrote:I congratulate the Moderator, Dr Patton, for his interview on the programme this week. His colleague Dr Watts gave a dreadfully unhelpful interview the previous week, in which he sounded extremely aggressive and very evasive. Dr Patton, by contrast, was excellent and sounded like a pastor.
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