One of Ireland's most popular bishops, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, Most Rev Walton Empey, is to retire on July 31st. He will be 68 in October.
Among those tipped to succeed him are the Bishop of Meath and Kildare, Most Rev Richard Clarke, Bishop Paul Colton of Cork, Bishop John Neill of Cashel and Ossory, and the Archdeacon of Dublin, Ven Gordon Linney.
Ordained in 1958, Dr Empey served as Bishop of Limerick and Killaloe from 1981 to 1985 and was then Bishop of Meath and Kildare until 1996, when he became Archbishop of Dublin.
In a tribute last night the Church of Ireland primate, Archbishop Robin Eames, said Dr Empey "has been a superb Archbishop of Dublin where he won the affection and respect of all traditions and communities. His pastoral gifts, his warmth and his great courage as a leader have been admired far beyond the Church of Ireland."
Archbishop Empey is believed to be the only Irish bishop to have served in the FCA, where he was a three-star private when he left in 1957. He is unusual in other ways too. As Kevin Myers wrote in The Irish Times in 1991: "All the caricatures, the simplified images, the clichés about Church of Ireland bishops are exploded by Walton Empey; the accent is broad, the manner genial, the figure ample, the laughter ready, and most important of all, the opinion strong and free and forthright. All the political timidity, the pretence at Laodiceanism lest opinion on all but traffic accidents and dog licences be taken as disloyalty to Ireland, and all those cultured vowels that echoed sept and transept of Canterbury - all are absent from Walton Empey."
He was born in Dublin in 1934 where his father was a curate at St James. Rev Frank Empey was ministering at Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, when he died aged 53, leaving his wife Mildred and four sons. Walton, the eldest, attended Portora in Enniskillen before going to Trinity. While at Trinity he worked with the Seamen's Mission in Dublin and it was there he realised his vocation. He also met his wife Louie. He was a curate in Dublin for two years before going to Canada where he and Louie spent six years.
"It was a much harder wrench to come back to Ireland than it was to leave, I can tell you. Returning to the constraints of the Church of Ireland was extremely difficult after the freedom of expression I found in Canada. I found the Church of Ireland stultifying; oh we came so close to going back to Canada. That close."
However, Dr Empey was rarely frustrated in his freedom of expression during the following years. As Dean of Limerick (1971-81) he crossed swords with the then Catholic bishop there, Dr Jeremiah Newman, more than once. He openly encouraged Church of Ireland involvement in the Defence Forces and Garda, as well as civic life.
He never kept secret his Irish nationalism or his ecumenism and incurred the wrath of the Rev Ian Paisley, Mr John Taylor, the Orange Order, the select vestry at Drumcree for his views, while making clear his revulsion at IRA activities. More recently he has spoken out on asylum seekers and third world debt.