The newly-elected Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland expressed his hope today that Northern Ireland's politicians are finally on course for a restoration of devolution.
The Rev John Finlay (61) said: "We are encouraged and hopeful that it is going the right way."
As the North prepares for elections to a new Stormont Assembly next month, he said: "There seem to have been so many false dawns, but it looks good and we are hopeful there will be a happy conclusion in the not to distant future."
Mr Finlay welcomed the Sinn Féin commitment to support policing and justice arrangements and said he understood that there would also be movement by loyalists towards the ending of paramilitarism.
Speaking publicly for the first time since his selection as Moderator last night, Dr Finlay expressed disappointment by the British government's recent decision to allow gay adoption.
He accused it of pushing Christian opinion to one side during public debate in what he conceded was an increasingly secular society.
Mr Finlay has a strong family tradition of involvement with the church. The son of missionaries, he is the father of a son who is a Presbyterian minister in South Armagh.
He has been minister of Harryville Presbyterian Church in Ballymena, Co Antrim, for the past 25 years.
Harryville is an area renowned for sectarianism and many years of loyalist attacks on the neighbouring Catholic church and on its Mass-going congregation.
But Mr Finlay said: "We have been through difficult times, but that is water under the bridge, they are a good community. Harryville is a good place now."
The Presbyterian Church is understood to be having a fresh look at its policy of appointing a new Moderator each year and considering appointing for longer.