The 2007 appointment of a practicing homosexual as elder at a Dublin Presbyterian church has culminated in a dispute within the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.
In October 2019, Steve Smyrl, who is in a same-sex marriage, was disallowed by the Dublin presbytery from continuing in office at the Sandymount congregation. An appeal failed, but Smyrl was then co-opted onto the Church Council. A presbytery commission found that ‘the minister and church council have caused scandal injurious to the purity and peace of the church’.The commission said it would start disciplinary proceedings in January against the church’s minister, the Revd Dr Katherine Meyer, and discipline the church council for appointing Smyrl to the council unless they recanted.
