THE new Church of Ireland Bishop of Meath and Kildare, Dr Richard Clarke, was consecrated in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin on Saturday. Dr Clarke (47) is the church's youngest bishop.
The chief consecrator was the Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Rev Walton Empey, who led 12 other bishops in laying hands on the bishop elect. The preacher at the service was the Archbishop of York, Dr David Hope.
In his sermon Dr Hope recalled St Augustine as describing the work of a bishop as "to rebuke agitators, to comfort the faint hearted, to take care of the weak, to take heed of snares, to teach the uneducated, to waken the sluggish, to hold back the quarrelsome, to put the conceited in their place, to appease the militant, to give help to the poor, to liberate the oppressed, to encourage the good and - oh - to love them all".