The Church of Ireland has announced that the Right Reverend John Neill, Bishop of Cashel and Ossory, is to succeed the Most Reverend Dr Walton Empey as Archbishop of Dublin.
The announcement was made at a meeting of the Church of Ireland Episcopal Electoral College in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin today.
Rev Neill has served as President of the Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland (1990-94) and as President of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (1999-2002) and was co-founder and chairman of the Church of Ireland/Methodist Church Joint Theological Working Party.
Ordained in 1969 for the curacy of St Paul’s Glenageary, Rev Neill was the fourth generation of his family to enter the ministry. He was Bishop of Tuam, Killala and Achonry from 1986 to 1997 before his consecration as Bishop of Cashel & Ossory in 1997.
Educated at Avoca School, Blackrock and Sandford Park, Ranelagh, he was a Foundation Scholar in Hebrew and Oriental Languages at Trinity College and was awarded an MA degree at Jesus College, Cambridge in 1972.
He has served on many central committees of the Church of Ireland and at the Lambeth conference in 1988 he proposed all the approved resolutions in respect of women in the Episcopate.
Rev Neill is married to Betty and they have three sons, Stephen who is Rector of Cloughjordan, Andrew a businessman in Clonmel and Peter, an IT manager.
