Rev John Finlay (61) has been elected moderator-designate of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.
He was chosen last night by 21 presbyteries around Ireland that were meeting to elect a successor to the present moderator, Dr David Clarke.
Rev Finlay was nominated by nine out of the 21 presbyteries. Dr Joe Fell, minister of Ebrington, Co Derry, received five nominations, while the Rev Wilfred Orr from Newtownbreda in Belfast received three.
Dr Donald Patton, from Old Church Randalstown, Co Antrim, was nominated by two presbyteries and the remaining nominations were for Rev Derek McKelvey of Fisherwick in Belfast and Rev Willis Cordner of First Bangor, Co Down.
Commenting on his election, Mr Finlay said: "Apart from surprise, I'm overwhelmed by the sense of responsibility placed in me but I accept this honour out of a desire to serve Christ and the church." Mr Finlay has been minister of Harryville Presbyterian Church in Ballymena, Co Antrim, for the last 25 years.
The area has witnessed sectarian problems, particularly the protracted picket of the area's Catholic church.
The area has been portrayed unfairly, the new moderator has said.
"We certainly have our problems but we are not the only local community having to face up to sectarianism and the drug culture, and I believe Ballymena is making progress in dealing with these difficulties," he said.
The son of missionary parents from Killinchy, Co Down, John Mateer Finlay was born on July 11th, 1945, and spent his early years in Argentina.
His family returned to Northern Ireland in the early 1950s to Co Armagh and he was educated at Portadown College and later Queen's University and Assemblies College, graduating with BA and BD degrees.
He was ordained on January 20th, 1971, and after serving as assistant in Ulsterville Presbyterian Church on Belfast's Lisburn Road, he was called to joint charges of Castledawson and Curran in mid-Ulster in 1973.
Nine years later in 1982 he became minister of the Harryville congregation in Ballymena.
He says he is an armchair sports enthusiast and spends his spare time with his wife, Christine, four married children and four grandchildren.
The new moderator describes his ministry as one of bringing people to personal faith and encouraging and strengthening them in that faith.
The Presbyterian Church in Ireland, he believes, is in a state of transition as it faces what he calls "the exciting challenge of changing into the different sort of church needed to impact a secular postmodern generation".
The Presbyterian Church in Ireland has some 300,000 members in more than 560 congregations and is the largest Protestant denomination in Northern Ireland.
There is no list of candidates for moderator and the members of each presbytery voted on names proposed by their own members to decide who their presbytery would nominate.