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The awarding of two honorary degrees of Doctor of Divinity and the retirement of a senior member of staff will mark the end of the academic year at Union Theological College in Belfast on Friday night. (24-05-96 at 7.00pm)
Receiving honorary doctorates will be the incoming Moderator of the General Assembly, Rev Harry Allen and the director of the Christian Training Centre, Rev Harold Graham.
Retiring is Professor Finlay Holmes, a former Presbyterian Moderator, who has held the chair of Church History since 1971.
Professor Holmes was brought up in Ballymena where he attended the Academy and later Coleraine Academical Institution. He graduated in history from Trinity College and continued his studies at Westminster College and Fitzwilliam House, Cambridge gaining an MA and later a Master of Literature from Trinity.
Following an assistantship in Belmont Presbyterian Church, Prof. Holmes was ordained in 1954, and subsequently became a chaplain in the RAF. On his return to Belfast in 1960, he taught for three years at Campbell College before become a lecturer in Church History and Systematic Theology at Magee College, Londonderry. In 1971 he became Professor of Church History at Union Theological College when Magee was amalgamated with the Presbyterian College in Belfast.
Professor Holmes has served on many church committees during the years and was Moderator of the General Assembly in 1990. He has also become well know for topical lectures to local historical societies and has had much of his work published. "Our Irish Presbyterian Heritage" , published in 1985 was hailed as 'a most informative and balanced survey of the Church and its peoples involvement in ecclesiastical, social and political affairs from the Plantation to the present', and established Holmes's place in the succession of Presbyterian historians. Recently a short book entitled "Presbyterians and Orangeism 1795-1995" has been well received.
In paying tribute to Professor Holmes, the Principal of Union Theological College, Professor Tom Reid said, "Finlay is a warm hearted man of grace and devotion who has greatly enriched our church by his preaching, his lecturing both in the colleges and the wider church, his writings, his work within the Committees and Boards of the Church and, in particular, as Moderator of the General Assembly."
Among his interests Professor Holmes lists rugby and following his playing days was President of Magee University College RFC and more recently Queen's University RFC. He and Mrs Holmes has no particular plans for retirement other than perhaps to spend some time travelling particularly to France for which they have a warm affection.
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