New principal appointed to lead Prebyterian's Union Theological College in Belfast

Prof McClenaghan will serve for a period of three years following the decision taken by the church’s general assembly last month.​

His tenure will begin on September 1 when the current principal, Rev Prof Gordon Campbell steps down.

Prof McClenahan said: ‘I’m grateful to our current principal for his dedication to the college over many years and particularly during his time as principal.

"Union is a wonderful place to work and an exciting place to study. I’m really looking forward to working with an amazing group of professional and academic staff who show every day their love for Union and the students who study with us.

"In this time of great need and challenge in the global arena of theological education I am looking forward to leading this next chapter of Union’s long history and all for the glory of God.”

Looking back on his own spell as principal, Prof Campbell refers to the split with Queen’s University, and said he found the role both “exciting and exhausting, in roughly equal measure".

Queen’s announced a review of the link in the wake of the Presbyterian Church voting to withhold membership from anyone in a same-sex relationship.

He said: ”In just a few years, our college has come quite far, and rather fast, along a new and challenging road. For many years we delivered Theology up to PhD-level for Queen’s University, while training ministerial students for service in the Presbyterian Church as our core activity.

"Since 2019, ministerial students, serving ministers and many others besides have been preparing for Gospel ministry or other outcomes even as Union has been evolving, before their eyes, into a small specialist University in its own right, awarding our own postgraduate degrees in Theology and Divinity, under our Royal Charter.”

Prof Campbell added: "While teaching out courses to remaining QUB students – the last of whom graduates this summer – we have been welcoming school-leavers once more, since September 2022, through our new BA in Theology, developed with a new collaborative partner: St. Mary’s University, Twickenham."