Members of the troubled Presbyterian Mutual Society are to hold an unprecedented protest outside Church House on Monday evening to register their “betrayal” by the Church. The protest will take place shortly before the installation of the new Moderator, the Rt Rev Dr Stafford Carson, at the opening night of this year's General Assembly.
Organisers of the protest are hoping that groups from Donaghadee, Ballymena, Lisburn and elsewhere will attend.
Some 10,000 Presbyterians are members of the PMS, which was placed in administration last November following a run on its funds in October due to the credit crunch.
As a result many congregations have suffered a loss in the value of their investments, and this has caused hardship for a number of individuals.
Mervyn Redmond, a spokesman for the Shore Street PMS Action Group in Donaghadee, said: “We feel betrayed — once by the PMS which assured us that our savings would not be at risk, and even more by the Presbyterian Church which has failed to provide any meaningful support for us since our savings were frozen last autumn.”
He added: “We and our families and forebears have always turned to the Church in times of serious difficulty, but during this desperate situation we are reduced to confronting the Church leaders and elders because they have refused to take a compassionate and fruitful initiative.”
The General Assembly will debate the issue on Tuesday afternoon but Mr Redmond said that the resolution “does not go nearly far enough”.
He added: “It does nothing in practical terms to address our frustration, our sense of betrayal or the real needs facing those of our members who are trying to deal with increasingly serious hardships.
“With the lack of organised assistance from the Church, savers have had to rely on phone calls, word of mouth and the internet. It is through those media that, we understand, PMS savers in other congregations will join us on Monday and we will welcome the support of anyone else who can join us.
“We look forward to a peaceful demonstration and the opportunity to express our concerns to everyone entering Church House.”
The protest is expected to last about 90 minutes.
A Church spokesman told the Belfast Telegraph: “Several benevolent funds are available locally and centrally at the discretion of ministers to help those experiencing extreme hardship. So far, the take-up has been limited.”
The outgoing Moderator, the Rt Rev Dr Donald Patton, and other senior Presbyterians have lobbied the Prime Minister to help the savers, but so far to no avail.
A previous protest held outside Church House was in 2004 when Ian Paisley and his supporters objected to the presence at the General Assembly of the Roman Catholic Primate Archbishop Sean Brady, who had been invited as a personal guest of the incoming Moderator the Very Rev Dr Ken Newell.
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