A special meeting of the General Synod of the Church of Ireland may take place before Christmas to consider the appointment of a bishop to the diocese of Tuam, Killala and Achonry.
Former bishop of the diocese, the Right Rev John Neill, took up his new post in Cashel and Ossory in June, leaving a vacancy in the west of Ireland.
He was enthroned yesterday in St Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny.
It had been decided that the church's electoral college would make no appointments before the findings of a specially appointed church commission were published next May, when the synod would be held.
The commission, set up to look at episcopal needs and (diocesan/ parish) boundaries within the church, may consider an amalgamation of the west of Ireland diocese with Limerick or the midland diocese of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh.
But a resolution, passed at a meeting of the diocesan synod of Tuam, Killala and Achonry in Westport, Co Mayo, this week called for the immediate election of a bishop there.
Officiating at the synod, Dr Robin Eames, the Church of Ireland primate, agreed to consider what was described as the pressing need for such an appointment.
He will also decide if a special meeting of the General Synod should discuss the matter.
Dr Eames said proposals had been made for the reorganisation of the west of Ireland dioceses, but these had not been accepted locally. Failure to reach agreement had delayed filling the vacancy, he said, adding that in many other dioceses numbers in single parishes exceeded numbers in the west, estimated at 2,500. Proposals for a way forward, which had Tuam's support, would receive "the most careful consideration", he said.
The Church of Ireland press officer, Ms Liz Harries, said the church was reorganising its resources throughout the island, in the lead-up to the millennium, and was addressing this with members in the west now as part of that effort.
