The Reverend Aian Ferguson, a minister in Carrickfergus in Co Antrim, has been named the next President of the Methodist church in Ireland.
The Methodist church is the smallest of the four main churches in Ireland with around 60,000 members in Northern Ireland.
Mr Ferguson said he would take part in Catholic church services and said he supported the power-sharing government at Stormont.
He will take up his new role next month.
