THE NEW Church of Ireland bishop of Tuam, Killala and Achonry is Dean of Armagh Patrick Rooke, as elected by the church’s House of Bishops yesterday. He succeeds Bishop Richard Henderson, who resigned to take up an appointment in England’s Carlisle diocese in March.
Dean Rooke’s maternal family comes from Mayo, while family members live in his new diocese.
“Having spent the past 33 years in Northern Ireland, returning to the Republic will be different,” he said.
“However, I have found throughout my ministry that the experience gained growing up in a rectory family in Dublin has prepared me for most things.”
He is married to Alison and they have three grown-up children: Emily, Nicholas and Susanna.
“To have had the oversight of St Patrick’s Cathedral and of Armagh public library for the past five years has been a real privilege and we will be saying farewell with heavy hearts,” he said.
The diocese has the smallest Church of Ireland membership on the island, estimated at 2,000. Talk of amalgamating part or all of it with neighbours has been ongoing since 1868.
