The Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, the Right Reverend Dr Paul Colton, has announced that he has appointed the Reverend Clodagh Yambasu to be the next rector of Fermoy Union of Parishes.
The Reverend Clodagh Yambasu
The Reverend Clodagh Yambasu currently serves in Fivemiletown on the border between Counties Fermanagh and Tyrone. Her transfer to ministry in the Church of Ireland early in 2024 is possible because of the Covenant which the Church of Ireland and the Methodist Church in Ireland agreed in 2001, and as a result of amendments the Church of Ireland made to its Canons in 2014.
Bishop Colton said
As it happens, I was chairing the meeting of the General Synod in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin on 8th and 10th May 2014 when Canon 10A was passed and greeted with a standing ovation. That Covenant and that new Canon, which had been worked on for many years by many people in both churches, made an appointment like this possible. I am very grateful also to Clodagh's current colleagues in the Methodist Church who have been so supportive of her and us at this time.
I am pleased, therefore, to make this announcement and to appoint the Reverend Clodagh Yambasu as incumbent of Fermoy Union. She brings a wealth of life experience, many gifts, strong faith and a pastoral instinct to this pioneering step of discipleship. We all assure her of a warm and supportive welcome in her ministry with and alongside us here We will be greatly enriched by her partnership in the Gospel with us in Cork, Cloyne and Ross.
Clodagh's parents were both from farming families. Her father Edwin McCormack, from Longford was deputy principal of Longford Vocational School. And, as often happens, there's a Cork connection, Clodagh's mother was Nancy Giles from Bandon. Clodagh still has first cousins in Cork.
Clodagh studied Irish and French at University College Dublin and for four years taught at Desertserges National School in Enniskean before sensing a call to ordained ministry. She spent a year on the Youth Evangelism Team. Soon after arriving in Belfast, she met her husband, the Reverend Dr Sahr Yambasu who is from Sierra Leone, West Africa. Sahr served as President of the Methodist Church in Ireland in from 2021 to 2022. He is the Minister of Saint Patrick's Methodist Church, Waterford. While studying for ministry in Belfast, Clodagh also did a placement in Cote d'Ivoire. She and Sahr have three adult children: Abbie, Fayia and Sahr.
Clodagh was ordained in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1992. Clodagh takes up the story of her journey:
After Sahr (junior) was born, we went to live in Sierra Leone. I did a little church work and taught New Testament Greek. The existing rebel war got so serious we had to leave in 1995. Since Sierra Leone was devastated. We could not return.
Clodagh has ministered alongside Sahr in Wicklow, Arklow, Avoca and Galway, but alone in Bray, Birr, Athlone, Tullamore, Portlaoise, Athy, and Mountmellick, in addition to Fivemiletown where she is now.
Speaking about her move in late January 2024, Clodagh says:
I look forward very much to getting to know everyone and to seeing that the Lord will do in and through us all.
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