Church of Ireland press release: Bishops Appoint The Revd Pat Storey As New Bishop Of Meath And Kildare
The House of Bishops of the Church of Ireland meeting yesterday in Dublin appointed the Revd Pat (Patricia) Storey as the new Bishop of Meath and Kildare, to succeed The Most Revd Dr Richard Clarke, who is now Archbishop of Armagh. The appointment of the new bishop had passed to the House of Bishops as the Episcopal Electoral College which met on 28 May failed to appoint a Bishop of Meath and Kildare dioceses. The Revd Pat Storey is currently Rector of St Augustine’s Parish Church, Londonderry.
Announcing the appointment of the Revd Pat Storey, The Most Revd Dr Richard Clarke, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, said: ‘Having known Pat Storey since she was an undergraduate and I was Chaplain at Trinity College, Dublin, I very much welcome her as a new bishop. She is a person of great warmth, intelligence and spiritual depth and I am certain that her ministry in the Dioceses of Meath and Kildare and the wider Church will be a blessing to many. We remember her and her family in our prayers.’
Responding, the Revd Pat Storey said: ‘I am both excited and daunted by this new adventure in our lives. I have had an extraordinarily happy experience in St Augustine’s and in this wonderful city which I will be sad to leave. However, I count it an enormous privilege to begin a new phase of my ministry with the people of Meath and Kildare, and I look forward to working with the team of clergy who are already there. I would sincerely ask for your prayers for myself and my family, who are the best family in the world!’
The Revd Pat Storey (53) has been Rector of St Augustine’s, Londonderry (Derry and Raphoe) since 2004. She is married to the Revd Earl Storey and has two adult children, Carolyn and Luke, and a son–in–law Peter. Having grown up in Belfast and studied French and English at Trinity College, Dublin, she trained at the Church of Ireland Theological College (now Institute) and was ordained deacon in 1997 and priest in 1998. She served a Curacy in Ballymena (Connor) and was a Team Vicar in Glenavy (Connor) and a part–time Youth Worker Co–ordinator with the Church of Ireland Youth Department. Among Central Church participation, she is a member of the Standing Committee of the General Synod. The Revd Pat Storey becomes the first woman to be appointed a bishop in the Church of Ireland.
The consecration of the new bishop will take place in due course, followed by enthronement in the diocesan cathedrals thereafter.
Another press release: Archbishop Of Dublin Welcomes Appointment Of The Revd Pat Storey As New Bishop Of Meath And Kildare
This is the first appointment, 22 years after the vote of approval! Most Irish Anglican bishops don’t wear mitres..it will be interesting to see if Bishop Storey does. I can imagine that her consecration will have a fair number of Catholic liberals in attendance!
The House of Bishops appointed her. Can you help a Mexican Anglican, who is used to electing our bishops, (damn those folks in the Americas are so democratic!) understand the order of the CoI? Is she a diocesan bishop in her own right or an area suffragan under another bishop? What input did the folks whom she is to pastor have in her selection, especially if she is their bishop ordinary? Etc, etc, etc.
Meath and Kildare is a diocesan bishopric. The Church of Ireland does not have suffragan bishoprics I think. Meath is the senior see, after the two archbishoprics (akin to London, Durham and Winchester in England perhaps), and its bishop is styled ‘the Most Reverend’ rather then ‘the Right Reverend’. Irish diocesans are generally chosen by an electoral college that includes representatives from the dioceses (plural since Irish bishoprics are held in plurality) and of the national church. The electoral college for Meath and Kildare met some months ago and elected a candidate. On the eve of his consecration the candidate… Read more »
Well, whatever one might say about the Church of Ireland – it’s certainly ahead of the Church of England, in its pro-activity in the appointment of Women as Bishops in The Church. Congratulations!
TBTG and God bless!
What irks me is that she is described as the first Anglican woman bishop in Britain and Ireland. The diocese is exclusively within the Republic, and has not been part of the UK since December 1922!
RIW: how does the statement that she is the first woman bishop in Britain and Ireland conflict with the fact that Meath is in the Irish republic? Both statements are true.
No, Ireland is not Britain. The 26 counties left the United Kingdom in 1922, first as an independent dominion and since 1949, as an independent sovereign Republic outside the Commonwealth.
I watched the report on Bishop designate Storey on RTE and noticed her Church in Derry diocese (still in the UK) celebrates from the north end and has a vase of flowers on the communion table and no cross.
Until 1961, communion table crosses were illegal in the Church of Ireland as are chasubles.
RIW: “No, Ireland is not Britain.”
So what? How does that contradict a statement about “Britain and Ireland”?
I’m an Englishman who is now a CoI Rector. I confirm for RIW that the CoI is indeed Anglican, so there is no cause for him to be irked. There are indeed no suffragans, just 12 diocesans. Paul Cork sometimes dons mitre. Fr Smith sounds as if he disapproves of the CoI. Having worked in CoE as well as CoI there are things to be said in favour of the latter.
Sorry to come in again, but: candles, crosses etc much as in CoE: some do, some don’t. Nobody has objected to my chasubles. I celebrate Holy Communion sometimes starting at the north end, sometimes shopkeeper style and, increasingly, properly, ie facing the same way as the people. ‘1662’ has by no means died out – yet. In the diocese I work, there is more likely to be seemly canonical worship than in much of the CoE. What is RIW’s problem?
@Simon Kershaw, as a comment on one news story I saw put it, it would have been equally true in 1988 to say that Barbara Harris was the “first woman bishop in Britain and the United States,” and just as much a non sequitur. Actually, comparing the wording of the various news outlets is quite interesting: the more sensible ones simply said “the British Isles,” though they might equally have just said Europe.
Simon, England, Scotland and Wales constitute Great Britain. the 6 counties of Northern Ireland.The official national name since 1922 is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. As for The Church of Ireland being just like the C of E, that is a complete distortion. There is no eucharistic reservation in the CofI, no religious orders, no Marian shrines and Anglo catholics are a rarity. The North is still very Protestant, but the south has become more liberal.The Cof Ireland will soon be in full communion with the Methodist Church of ireland.the Church of Ireland threw out the… Read more »
Look folks, ‘Britain and Ireland’ is the normal semi-official description of these two islands (and their smaller islets). It leaves unanswered and ambiguous any political questions, and avoids the suggestion that the islands are all (politically) British — which the term ‘the British Isles’ does not. ‘Britain and Ireland’ is the wording used by, for example, Churches Together in Britain and Ireland; and it did not originate with them. The Church of Ireland, of course, exists across both the national political units in these islands — both the United Kingdom and (the Republic of) Ireland. And it is perfectly normal… Read more »
Oh I see what you are getting at now. Apologies. I didn’t realise British Isles was no longer pc.I just thought you were an overseas blogger
, who didn’t know the facts. Like those who call Britain, England and think the Welsh language is a dialect of English.
Although RIW is correct in suggesting that the CofI is not ‘just like’ the CofE – and why should it be, Anglican churches throughout the world are not uniform – he is actually incorrect in some of his points. My predecessor founded the Community of St. John the Evangelist, a women’s community, in 1912. It has now dwindled so that there are, sadly, only two surviving sisters. The place where they now live was once the home of another women’s community. There are members of TSSF in the CofI. Eucharistic reservation is indeed rare, but not completely unknown. The current… Read more »
RIW thought I am ‘an overseas blogger, who didn’t know the facts’
Hmmm. I only administer this blog, that’s all. So be careful what you say or I might not publish your comments 🙂 See the ‘About TA’ link at the bottom of the left column of each TA page.
“It leaves unanswered and ambiguous any political questions, and avoids the suggestion that the islands are all (politically) British — which the term ‘the British Isles’ does not.”
I am about as rabid an Irish Republican Socialist as you’re liable to find on here and am quite serene about “the British Isles.” It needn’t be a political descriptor (“Pretanic” may avoid connotations of contemporary politics, but there’s a limit even to my pedantry).
On a rare visit to Ireland ( Dublin ) in my youth I was registering in a Youth Hostel, when the matronly dame in charge asked me my nationality. When I said “British” she quickly retorted “we are all British – you are English.” That was fine with me.
Locuste…That must have been some years ago, or she was one of the five percent ..the Protestants in the Republic. Although today even the Protestants are fiercely Irish.Some of the greatest nationalists were Protestants.
Interesting discussion. I recall being quite surprised a few years ago, when, on a visit to Dublin, I saw votive candles in one or, perhaps, both of the cathedrals. I had assumed that the C of I was too Low Church for that.
Dear ‘Rambler’. I’ve only just caught your remark about my seeming disregard for the Church of Ireland. This is not so. I have a great regard for an Anglican Church that has survived the domination of the Roman Catholic Church in that country. (As I have for the Roman Catholic Church in England, that has survived the domination of the C.of E.!)