Last week Liam Clark’s column in the News Letter again addressed the issue of the Presbyterian Mutual Society. The new moderator elect Norman Hamilton has again suggested that: “We really do care about what happens to you but we can’t fix it.” The current moderator Stafford Carson of course conveniently forgot (or mentally reserved) the high value properties which the PCI owns and clearly has no intention of mortgaging, let alone selling to help the PMS savers: instead stating that the PCI only owned churches and halls and had no other assets. In addition, however, Liam Clarke is asking about the £42 million central investment portfolio and why none of it has been invested in the PMS, nor used to help the savers. Presbyterian moderators seem to have difficulties remembering money: or for that matter it seems certain passages of scripture such as the ninth commandment:
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
and Mark 12: 38-40:
And he said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces,
And the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts:
Which devour widows houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation.
This author has not written a biography and will not be writing one.