Finlay Holmes (1926-2008)
Finlay Holmes, who died earlier this week at the age of 81, following a long illness, was one of the leading authorities on Irish Presbyterianism. He was also a complete gentleman. I last spoke with Finlay a few months ago in the Great Hall at Queen's University, after an event I'd chaired. The discussion event had included references to 1798 and the United Irishmen -- a subject about which Finlay could speak with great passion -- and over coffee he was provoked into a very engaging conversation about politics, theology and the hidden histories of Irish Presbyterianism.
Finlay Holmes served as Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in 1990 and as Principal of The Union Theological College between 1987 and 1992. He was born in north Belfast on 19 July 1926, and raised in Ballymena, where his father was Principal of the Model School. His mother was also a teacher;so it was not surprising that Finlay would prove to be an academic high-flyer. After the Model School, came Coleraine Academical Institution, Ballymena Academy, Trinity College, Dublin, and Westminster College, Cambridge. After ordination, he served as a chaplain to the RAF, and as a teacher and chaplain at Campbell College, before moving back to the Academy in 1963 as a lecturer in Church History and Systematic Theology at Magee Theological College, Londonderry. When, in the 1970s, Magee College was combined with the Presbyterian College in Belfast to produce Union Theological College, Finlaty became the first occupant of the Magee Chair of Christian History, and later Professor of Church History.
His books include a bigraphy of Henry Cooke, the 19th century Presbyterian leader (whose statue, situated outside Inst, is still (mistakenly) described as 'The Black Man'); and a number of academic and popular histories of Irish Presbyterianism. In 2002, a festschrift of essays was published in honour of Finlay Holmes, with the title "".
Addressing the General Assembly as Moderator in1990, he said:
"Our forefathers believed that their faith had implications for society and politics. I am proud that this General Assembly has, on occasion, been a forum in which the rights of the poor and powerless have been championed. I believe that we need to recover something of this outlook if we are to be effective witnesses to Christ in Ireland and the wider world. We need to manifest in our public life as well as in our private lives, the transforming power of him in whom all things are to become one."
A Service of Thanksgiving for the life and ministry of Finlay Holmes will be held on Monday, 4 August, at 2 p.m., in Helen's Bay Presbyterian Church.
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