Diocesan News05 Sep 11

Institution, rector of Clonallon and Warrenpoint with Kilbroney (Down & Dromore)

Bishop Harold Miller instituted the Revd Colin McCormack as rector of The Grouped Parishes of of Clonallon & Warrenpoint with Kilbroney, in the Diocese of Dromore, on Friday 2 September. The preacher at the service was Canon Charlie Leeke, rector of Dromara and Garvaghy.

Revd Leeke is a colleague from the Iveagh Area Deanery where Colin worked for a time looking after the vacancy in Magherally and Annaclone. This was also the last institution at which the Archdeacon of Dromore, Ven John Scott, officiated ahead of his retirement at the end of the month

Friends and family came from far and near to support Colin and his wife Marylyn, including two families who had made the journey from Spain.

Colin is a native of Lisburn and has many family members still living in its vicinity. He studied Electrical Engineering at Queen’s University and subsequently obtained an education diploma. Thereafter, he taught mathematics at “Inst” in Belfast, followed by a spell of teaching in England. It was at this point that he felt a call to ordination. This involved a 3 year training period at St. John’s College Nottingham and Nottingham University.

Marylyn, who sang a beautiful solo during the service, was born in England but raised in Kenya. After her boarding school education and training as a physiotherapist in England, she returned to live and work in Kenya.

”God called me subsequently to live and work in Jerusalem, she says, “and it was only after returning, years later, to Madeira, where my parents had retired to and died, that I met Colin in Portugal. After our marriage I joined him in the Costa Blanca, where he was ministering as Anglican Chaplain to the 6 churches of Torrevieja Chaplaincy south of Alicante, in Spain.” The couple returned to Northern Ireland from Spain in late 2008.

Speaking of their new task in the Mourne Area Deanery, Colin and Marylyn said, “We are looking forward to our time among the people of Clonallon, Warrenpoint and Rostrevor and getting to know them. We pray that this new period in which we are moving forward as a grouped parish will be a time of great blessing to us all.”