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. 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. The current moderator is John Kirkpatrick. Sam Mawhinney was elected Moderator-Designate on 7 February 2023 and will be officially nominated to the General Assembly at its Opening Night in Belfast in the third full week of June. Past Moderators 1840 Samuel Hanna D.D. (Rosemary Street, Belfast) 1841 Henry Cooke D.D., LL.D. (May Street, Belfast) 1842 John Edgar D.D., LL.D. (Fitzroy, Belfast) 1843 Robert Stewart D.D. (First Broughshane) 1844 John Brown (Aghadowey) 1845 James Carlile (Dublin) 1846 James Morgan (Fisherwick, Belfast) 1847 William McClure (Londonderry) 1848 Henry Jackson Dobbin (First Ballymena) 1849 John Barnett (Moneymore) 1850 William Bailey Kirkpatrick (Abbey, Dublin) 1851 John Coulter (Gilnahirk) 1852 John Bleckley A.M. (First Monaghan) 1853 Henry William Molyneaux D.D. (First Larne) 1854 David Hamilton (Belfast) 1855 Robert Allen A.M. (Ballina) 1856 Robert Wilson (Assembly's College, Belfast) 1857 Alexander Porter Goudy (Strabane) 1858 John Johnston A.M., D.D. (Tullylish) 1859 William Gibson (Assembly's College, Belfast) 1860 Samuel Marcus Dill (First Ballymena) 1861 John Macnaughton (Rosemary Street, Belfast) 1862 Henry Cooke (May Street, Belfast) 1863 John Rogers (Second Comber) 1864 John Rogers (Second Comber) 1865 David Wilson (Limerick) 1866 David Wilson (Limerick) 1867