WATCH congratulates and celebrates with the Rev Pat Storey on her appointment of as the Bishop of Meath and Kildare by the House of Bishops of the Church of Ireland. This is the first appointment of a woman bishop by the Anglican Church.

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 Church of England now remains the only Anglican Church within the UK and Ireland not to appoint women as bishops, following legislation which passed overwhelmingly in the Church in Wales’ Governing Body last week to enable women to join the episcopate.