Seymour Street Methodist minister Rev David Turtle is officially installed as President of the Methodist Church in Ireland

The installation took place at Assembly Buildings in Belfast on Thursday June 8.

In addition to the members of the Conference, those in attendance included family, friends, members of Seymour Street Methodist Church in Lisburn, and Methodists from across the Lagan Valley & South Down Circuit Methodist Circuit.

In his inaugural address on the evening, the Rev David Turtle reflected on the words of Jesus found in the book of Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest!”

Rev Turtle said: “These words of Jesus which Matthew records for us, the best term I can come up with is to say that they have haunted me for over 15 years. They continually chase me down.

“More than any other, these are the words of Scripture that I come back to again and again. This passage is the place that my heart and soul is drawn to. Because, at least for me, though I believe actually for each and every human soul, those words both answer and call out a longing that resides within me. At the very depths of our beings there is a desire for this kind of rest, for this kind of life in Jesus.”

Ahead of his installation, Rev Turtle spoke to the Star about his year ahead. “It will be a busy year. It will certainly be a challenging enough year.

"It has been a really difficult number of years and a lot of folks are feeling discouraged and weary so I want to try to draw alongside as many people as I can and encourage them in what they are doing.

"My theme for the year will be inspired by the words of Jesus in Matthew 11 ‘Take my yoke upon you’”, Rev Turtle continued.

“The vision statement for the Methodist Church as a whole is that we should become wholehearted followers of Jesus for the transformation of the world. Last year we had a particular emphasis on ‘wholeheartedness’ and this year we will be picking up on growing as ‘followers of Jesus’."