A report presented to the General Assembly yesterday disclosed that, of the church's 21 presbyteries, nine were opposed to representatives of the Catholic Church being invited to its opening night.
Three other presbyteries had supported such an invitation while a further six had not reported back on the matter. "Comments from the remaining three, in which no votes were taken, were that `the matter was too divisive to put to a vote', `a vote could have gone either way' and `reaching out should begin at the bottom rather than the top'."
The Inter-Church Relations Board was instructed at last year's General Assembly to contact presbyteries on the matter.
The General Assembly agreed to change procedures surrounding the election of the moderator every year. Mr Ralph Shephard, of the Donegal presbytery, said that the names (of nominees) were "largely unrecognised by a majority of the elders present" (at the relevant meeting of the presbytery).
Elders changed every one or two years and could not be expected to be familiar with the "rise to eminence" of candidates, he said. "To every elder, the nomination system is a mystery." Whereas it was true that the Lord moved in mysterious ways, it was still striking "how the same names crop up [for election] at every presbytery in the country".
He had no objection to people getting together in groups to choose candidates. "If that didn't happen, every presbytery would choose its own nominee," he said. However, there was a need for more information to be made available.
The General Assembly agreed that written information about candidates for the Moderatorship, amounting to no more than 200 words, would be circulated to all presbyteries in advance of the election meeting each year.