The next leader of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland will be Rev Trevor Gribben, it was announced last night.
Mr Gribben is currently the church’s Clerk of the General Assembly and General Secretary.
He received the most votes from the Church’s 19 regional presbyteries when they met independently across Ireland to elect the next moderator.
Before he takes office, the moderator-designate will be formally elected and installed by the General Assembly in Belfast this June.
The Tandragee-born 63-year-old will be the seventh clerk to serve in the Church’s highest office, the last being Dr Sam Hutchinson who was elected in 1997.
Mr Gribben said: “Having served as an ordained minister within PCI for the last 37 or so years, it really is a great honour, and a very humbling experience, to be nominated as moderator-designate.
“Although it’s been my day-job over the years as clerk to ring colleagues to inform them of their nomination as moderator-designate, it was a very different experience tonight to get that phone call myself from the deputy clerk.”
The other nominee was Templepatrick minister Rev Richard Kerr.
Rev Gribben received 16 votes: The Presbyteries of Armagh, Ballymena, North Belfast, East Belfast, Carrickfergus, Coleraine & Limavady, Derry & Donegal, Down, Dromore, Dublin & Munster, Iveagh, Monaghan, Newry, Omagh, Route, and Tyrone
Rev Kerr received three votes: Ards, South Belfast and Templepatrick.
Mr Gribben completed his formal theological studies in 1987, and was ordained in 1988 as assistant minister of Duncairn and St Enoch’s Presbyterian Church in inner-city north Belfast.
Two years later, in 1990, he was called to Leckpatrick Presbyterian Church in Co Tyrone. Serving there until 1996, Mr Gribben was called to Whiteabbey Presbyterian Church in Co Antrim, where he remained for a further 12 years.
The lifelong Arsenal fan enjoys watching Irish League football, becoming a Linfield season ticket holder in recent years. Cricket is another passion of his and he supports Waringstown Cricket Club.