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The Presbyterian Church's 21 presbyteries will gather tomorrow night to elect their new Moderator. This event is likely to be overshadowed internationally by the results of the 24 US states voting for a presidential candidate in the Super Tuesday caucuses on the same day -- though I suspect the chances of a Fox News interview with the new Moderator were always quite slim.

The new Presbyterian figurehead will take up office in June, leaving the current Moderator, Dr John Finlay, slightly media-challenged for a few months. The presbyteries -- regional governing bodies -- will select the new Mod from a list of seven candidates: Rev Willis Cordner (First Bangor), Rev Joe Fell (Ebrington), Rev Norman Hamilton (Ballysillan), Rev Derek McKelvey (Fisherwick), Rev Wilfred Orr (St. John's, Newtownbreda), Rev Ruth Patterson (Director of Restoration Ministries), Rev Dr Donald Patton (Old Church, Randalstown).

Presbyteries are made up of ministers and lay elders from every congregation across Ireland. There are some (shall we say) "interest groups" who often vote as a block across various presbyteries. For example, members of the conservative-leaning Westminster Fellowship will often vote for a candidate who may best maintain their interests during the year. These interests may include not sharing worship with a Catholic bishop or a female Presbyterian minister (it's hard to say).

Joe Fell was the runner-up in last year's election, but I'm hearing rumours that some conservatives are backing off from this candidate and switching allegiance to Donald Patton. I would place Donald Patton as the favourite on the basis of various soundings. He is a traditional evangelical in theology with a PhD in religious history. If memory serves me well, he wrote a doctorate at Queen's on James McCosh, the 19th century theologian and phiosopher who left Belfast to become president of Princeton University. Donald Patton is unlikely to disturb the right-wing of the church, while his quiet style will prove agreeable to many centrists. In his previous congregation -- Lowe Memorial in Finaghy -- he was involved in a controversy over infant baptism which divided that congregation and had to be resolved in the higher courts of the church. The issue was whether someone could be ordained as a church elder (a lay leader) if that person opposed the church's teaching on infant baptism. Since that difficult period in his ministry, he has concentrated on parish work in his new congregation in Randalstown.

That said, I wouldn't understate the chances of Norman Hamilton. This is the first year he's been nominated, but he is an experienced media-performer and is widely-known throughout the church and across society. If elected, he would hit the ground running on some of the key social issues the church is facing in contemporary Northern Ireland. In 2006, he was awarded an OBE for services to community relations following the role he played in defusing tensions between loyalists and nationalists in North Belfast over controversial parades and the Holy Cross school dispute. Norman Hamilton's theology is also classically evangelical -- he worked previously in the university Christian Union movement and has served as the national chair of that movement.

What sets these two candidates apart is probably their attitude to the church's relationship with society rather than any fundamental theological differences.