New principal appointed to C of I Theological College

Canon Adrian Empey has been appointed principal of the Church of Ireland Theological College in Rathgar, Dublin. He will take up the post in September.

Canon Empey, brother of the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Walton Empey, is an academic who has played a leading role in church affairs.

Last year, as vicar of St Ann's Church, Dawson Street, Dublin, he and the select vestry of St Ann's refused permission to the Orange Order to hold a special service at the end of its planned parade in Dublin. The parade was later cancelled.

At the time, Canon Empey said: "The Church of Ireland has been linked in the popular imagination with Drumcree, and through Drumcree people have the impression that the Church of Ireland is linked to the Orange Order which, emphatically, it is not."

To have permitted the service "would only have reinforced the perception", he said.

Canon Empey's stance on the issue may prove controversial with some of the students of the Church of Ireland Theological College, which takes a sizeable minority of its annual intake from Northern Ireland.

The appointment was welcomed yesterday by the Church of Ireland Primate, Dr Robin Eames, and by the Bishop of Meath and Kildare and chairman of the Theological College, Dr Richard Clarke.

In a joint statement, Dr Eames and Dr Clarke described Canon Empey as "a person of immense integrity, deep spirituality, sparkling humour and intellectual openness".

The son of a rector, Canon Empey was born in 1942 and educated at Portora Royal School in Enniskillen and at Trinity College, Dublin. He was a medieval historian until his ordination in 1974.

Canon Empey is also precentor of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.