There is a video of Rev David Wilson’s ordination service in the Martyrs Memorial Church and his answering the questions put to him on September 18th of this year, on the Martyrs Memorial FaceBook website. At 26 minutes and 30 seconds into that video, Mr Wilson may be heard answering the following question put to him by Rev John Greer, Clerk of Presbytery.
The question was:
“Will you publicly expose and oppose the IMMORALITY AND SOCIAL VICES of this present evil world such as DRINKING, DANCING and GAMBLING and by example live righteously, soberly and godly before all men?
Mr Wilson is heard on the video swearing before the Lord that HE WILL ‘publicly expose and oppose the IMMORALITY AND SOCIAL VICES of this present evil world such as DRINKING, DANCING and GAMBLING’.
The BOOK of ORDER states this as one of the DISTINCTIVES OF THE FREE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF ULSTER
“Sanctified in Behaviour, requiring its members to lead godly lives in obedience to the Scriptures which call on God’s people to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Testimonies of holiness and righteousness are vital to the life and witness of Christ’s Church in a world increasingly plagued by the pleasure crazes of this generation, such as drinking (as defined in 5.6c), DANCING and gambling.”
THIS IS THE SAME REV DAVID WILSON, SOME 50 DAYS LATER, WHO IS PICTURED DANCING AT THE WEDDING OF HIS DAUGHTER.
Is this publicly exposing and opposing ‘the IMMORALITY AND SOCIAL VICES of this present evil world such as DANCING’?
Are we witnessing the abandoning of the BOOK OF ORDER, so recently complied by Presbytery?
AM I WRONG IN BELIEVING THAT THIS IS A VIOLATION OF THE SOLEMN OATH MR WILSON SWORE BEFORE GOD AND HIS BRETHREN AT HIS ORDINATION ON THE 18TH SEPTEMBER 2023?
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
15th November, 2023