The new Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the Rev Dr John Finlay (61), has been minister at Harryville Presbyterian Church in Ballymena for the last 25 years.
Harryville is more widely known for the periodic blockades there had been there on its local Catholic church. It has also been petrol bombed, paint bombed, had its windows smashed and been daubed with graffiti.
Dr Finlay 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."
Son of missionary parents from Killinchy, Co Down, John Mateer Finlay was born in 1945 and spent his early years in Argentina. He was seven when they returned to Ireland and the Lurgan/Portadown area, where he attended Portadown College. Later he attended Queen's University and Assemblies College, graduating with BA and BD degrees.
He was ordained in 1971. 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 is married to Christine and they have four married children and four grandchildren. He was elected moderator-designate last February having received a nomination from nine of the 21 presbyteries in Ireland. The Rev Joe Fell, minister of Ebrington, Co Derry, was next with five nominations, followed by the Rev Wilfred Orr from Newtownbreda in Belfast, who received three.
There are about 300,000 Presbyterians on the island of Ireland. They are the largest Protestant denomination in Northern Ireland,
with just over 23,000 in the Republic. About 1,200 of their representatives attend General Assembly every year.
- Patsy McGarry