Press Releases14 Nov 08

Lady Sheil to be Installed as Lay Canon of St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh

Lady Brenda Sheil is to be installed by the Dean of Armagh, the Very Revd Patrick Rooke, as a Lay Canon of Armagh Cathedral at a service of Choral Evensong on Sunday 16 November 2008 at 3.15pm. Lady Sheil was appointed to the Lay Canonry, which became vacant upon the death of Mr Robin Lewis-Crosby earlier this year, by the Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Revd Alan Harper, who will be present at the service. The former Archbishop of Armagh, the Rt Revd Lord Eames, has been invited to give the address.

Lady Sheil has given distinguished service to the Church of Ireland and the wider Anglican Communion over the past two decades. She is one of the two lay Honorary Secretaries of the Standing Committee of the Church of Ireland’s General Synod, having been elected to the position in 1999, the first woman to have held the post. Armagh Cathedral has six Lay Canons – the first were appointed in 1997 and Lady Sheil will be the tenth to take up office.

In welcoming Lady Sheil, Dean Rooke said, ‘Lady Sheil has made an enormous contribution to the Church of Ireland and to St Patrick’s Cathedral – we feel she is “one of our own”. Her father, the Revd Forde Patterson, was a Rector in Armagh Diocese and as a “child of the Rectory” she has always maintained close links with Armagh. Lady Sheil has been an active member of the committee of the Friends of the Cathedral and served on the Board of the Royal School in Armagh.’

In anticipation of Sunday’s installation, Lady Sheil commented, ‘I am humbled by this appointment. Without belittling anything else, it is one of the greatest honours I have ever received. I was married in Armagh Cathedral by my father, who was a priest in the Armagh Diocese for fifty years, so the installation will be a very poignant occasion. As a “child of the Rectory”, I have always looked to Armagh Cathedral so it is wonderful that this is taking place there.’

Lady Brenda Sheil has a legal background. She has chaired the Church of Ireland Pensions Board and been a member of that Board for over twenty years. She says that this aspect of her work is, ‘what I value most in my life – working for the provision of pensions for clergy and clergy widows who have given their lives to the service of God and who must be valued for their service in later life’.

Lady Sheil has drafted considerable amounts of legislation for the Church of Ireland and has served as the Northern Lay Honorary Secretary of the Standing Committee of the General Synod since 1999, having been appointed during Lord Eames’s primacy. She has also been a member of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), having served on it for the maximum three full terms.

Lady Sheil is a member of Killinchy Parish, Co. Down and has also been active in her own Diocese of Down and Dromore. The installation service on Sunday 16th November will include readings taken by the Rector of Killinchy, the Revd Allen Delamere, and by Lady Sheil’s brother-in-law, Fr Michael Sheil S.J., formerly Headmaster of Clongowes Wood College.