The consecration of the new Bishop of the United Diocese of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh, the Ven Kenneth Clarke, will take place in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh on Thursday, 25 January, the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, at 2.30pm.

He is at present Archdeacon of Dalriada and Rector of Coleraine.

The Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland Dr Robin Eames will preside and he will be assisted by the Archbishop of Dublin, the Bishops of Derry, Cashel, Limerick, Connor, Down, Tuam and Cork.

Other retired Bishops from Ireland will also assist, as will the Suffragan Bishop of Ohio, with which the Kilmore Diocese is linked. The former Bishop of Peru and Bolivia, with whom Archdeacon Clarke worked in South America, will also be present.

The former Primate of the Southern Cone of America, the Rt. Rev. Colin Bazley, will preach the sermon.

Ecumenical visitors will include the Most Rev. Leo O’Reilly, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Kilmore, the Rt. Rev. Dr Trevor Morrow, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, and the Rev. Edmund Mawhinney, former President of the Methodist Church in Ireland.

The new Bishop will be presented to the Archbishop by the Bishops of Connor and Limerick. The Chaplain to the new Bishop will be the Rev. Andrew Forster, Dean of residence at Queen’s University, Belfast.

The Bishop-elect was born in Belfast in 1949 and was educated at Sullivan Upper School, Holywood, Co. Down. He is a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin. He was ordained in 1972 and served as curate in Magheralin (1972-75) and Dundonald (1975-78). From 1979 to 1981 he served with the South American Missionary Society (SAMS) in Chile before becoming Chaplain to Crinken Church, Dublin, in 1982. He was appointed Incumbent of Coleraine in 1986 and made a Canon of Lisburn Cathedral for the Prebendary of Kilroot in 1996. He is married to Helen and they have four children.