Reverend Campbell, who was born into a unionist family in Ulster in Northern Ireland and studied theology in Edinburgh, became on September 26 the sixth minister to occupy the St Andrew's pulpit.

He filled the vacancy created by the retirement of Reverend Joy Bartholomew, the last female Presbyterian minister in Australia, more than a year ago.

Reverend Bartholomew, who is now the moderator of the Canberra Presbytery, conducted the induction service.

Her husband, Arnold Bartholomew, who had served as the pastoral care minister at St Andrew's, retired at the same time.

When the Presbyterian Church, which became more conservative following the formation of the Uniting Church from the union of former Methodist and Presbyterian congregations, voted to reverse its position on the ordination of women in 1991 the decision was not made retrospective.

Reverend Campbell, who said the open mindedness and tolerance of the St Andrew's congregation had played a significant part in his acceptance of the call to minister in the ACT, said while it was no longer possible to ordain female clergy, because this was a national issue governed by the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, there was considerably more flexibility when it came to ordaining female elders.

"This is a state matter," he said. "All states in Australia, with the exception of NSW and the ACT, have barred the ordination of female elders as well.

"The Australian church has gone backwards. It has become male dominated. This is something I feel a degree of sadness and disappointment about."

However, Reverend Campbell, who has adopted an ecumenical and outward-facing approach to his ministry since the earliest days of his studies, has no intention of making the fight for women's rights the defining platform of his service in Canberra.

"I have never really been an advocate or a campaigner [on this front]," he said. "My question is why does this battle have to be won all over again?"

Having grown up in a part of the world where identity and religion were closely linked and some of his peers feared that even being seen in the company of a Catholic clergymen might be construed as an act of betrayal by members of their congregations, Reverend Campbell places a high value on tolerance and acceptance.

One of the reasons he studied in Edinburgh rather than Northern Ireland was because he knew he had to challenge the constraints and prejudices of his immediate environment with different ideas and influences.

The son of a farmer, he has a long-term involvement with Australia that dates to the early 1960s, when the family migrated to Melbourne for two and a half years.

"We were back on the ship in 1963 because Dad felt the pull of home," he said.

Reverend Campbell returned to Australia as an exchange minister with the Uniting Church in 1990 and spent time at Lakes Entrance.

He, his wife Carolyn and their three children, Chris, Rebecca and Philip, returned for the third and last time at the turn of the century.