The Church of Ireland episcopal electoral college for Clogher diocese failed yesterday to appoint a new bishop there to succeed Bishop Michael Jackson recently elected Archbishop of Dublin and Glendalough, writes Patsy McGarry.
The decision on the Clogher vacancy now passes to the church’s House of Bishops, which will meet to do so “in due course”, a spokeswoman for the church said last night.
It is the second time in as many months that electoral colleges have failed to appoint a bishop to a vacant diocese in the Church of Ireland and that the decision has then had to be made by its bishops.
On April 13th last the House of Bishops appointed the Dean of Armagh Patrick W Rooke as the new Bishop of Tuam, Killala and Achonry, to succeed Bishop Richard Henderson, who has moved to the diocese of Carlisle in the Church of England.
That followed the failure on March 30th of the episcopal electoral college for Tuam, Killala and Achonry to appoint a new bishop there. It, in turn, followed a special meeting of the Church of Ireland General Synod in Dublin on March 5th, which decided overwhelmingly not to delay calling an electoral college for Tuam, Killala and Achonry, as proposed by the House of Bishops.