CMS Ireland names new regional officer In Dublin

The Church Mission Society Ireland has appointed the Rev Patrick Comerford as its new Regional Officer based in Dublin. CMS Ireland – the principal mission and development agency in the Church of Ireland – has a vision of every parish in mission and playing a meaningful role in the World Church by 2010.

As regional officer, Patrick will help carry forward this vision for a fast-growing programme of churches in mission. He will be part of a dynamic team responsible for promoting and developing the work of CMS Ireland, both in Ireland in partnership with dioceses overseas.

He expects to visit churches throughout Ireland, preaching, speaking and organising mission events and building a support network of parishes and people.

Patrick Comerford is a priest in the Church of Ireland and has worked for 30 years as a journalist with leading provincial and national newspapers. For the past eight years he has been Foreign Desk Editor of The Irish Times and has travelled throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia reporting on international affairs.

Born in 1952, Patrick has a B.D. in theology from Maynooth, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Ecumenics from Trinity College Dublin and carried out post-graduate research in mission history at NUI Maynooth. He has a strong commitment to Muslim-Christian dialogue and chairs the board of the Church of Ireland Gazette. He has contributed to a number of books on church history and theology, including Christianity (ed. Patsy McGarry) and the forthcoming history of the laity in the Church of Ireland, All Sorts and Conditions.

He is married to Barbara, a social worker and they have two sons, Jamie and Joe. They enjoy holidays in Greece and Wexford and he includes poetry and the classics among his many other interests.

Patrick hopes to take up his new post with CMS Ireland on Monday 29 July 2002.

This press release was issued by the Church of Ireland Press Office on 24 June 2002