A SPECIAL meeting of the Church of Ireland General Synod in Dublin at the weekend overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to delay calling an electoral college to choose a new bishop for the diocese of Tuam, Killala and Achonry.
There has been an episcopal vacancy there since January 31st when Bishop Richard Henderson stood down. Last Saturday he took up a new position in the west of England as honorary assistant bishop in the diocese of Carlisle and as team vicar in the Heart of Eden team ministry there.
At the weekend the church’s bishops proposed to the special meeting in Christ Church Cathedral that there be a delay in calling the electoral college to allow time to consider episcopal ministry there, a diocese with the smallest Church of Ireland membership on the island, estimated at 2,000.
A total of 288 people attended the special synod on Saturday, 106 clergy and 182 lay people. The vote in favour of postponing the electoral college was 12 clergy and 14 lay people, with 88 clergy and 142 lay people against.
Thanking all in attendance the Church of Ireland primate Archbishop Alan Harper said he would call an electoral college for Tuam,Killala and Achonry “if possible before the end of this month”.
A similar special meeting was planned in 1997 when last there was a vacancy for a bishop in Tuam, Killala and Achonry but it was called off when a motion was passed at the diocesan synod seeking the “immediate” election of a bishop there.
Talk of amalgamating Tuam, Killala, and Achonry diocese, in whole or in part, with neighbours, has been going on since 1868.
