The moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland is the most senior office-bearer within the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, which is Northern Ireland's largest Protestant denomination.

Role of moderator

The moderator is elected by the General Assembly and serves for one year as the public representative of the denomination. The moderator may be either a teaching or ruling elder from within the denomination but, as yet, no ruling elder has ever been elected to the role. The appointee's formal role involves acting as the moderator of the General Assembly. During the rest of the year, the moderator acts as an ambassador for the General Assembly and for the Presbyterian Church in Ireland as a whole. The government of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland has a form known as Presbyterian polity, and is much like that of other Presbyterian churches around the world. Individual churches are represented at both the Presbytery (local) level and General Assembly (All Ireland) level. The serving moderator is given the honorific style Right Reverend (Rt. Rev.). Former moderators are known as Very Reverend (Very Rev.). The moderator and the two Church of Ireland and two Roman Catholic archbishops are thirteenth to seventeenth in the order of precedence in Northern Ireland, according to the seniority of their consecration or election.

Current moderator

The current moderator is Richard Murray, minister of Drumreagh Presbyterian church near Ballymoney.

Past moderators