Anglican Communion News Service - Digest News

Bishop Trevor Williams will tonight (24^th October 2012) install the Revd Sandra Pragnell as Dean of Limerick and Rector of Limerick City Parish. The preacher will be the Rt Revd Alan Harper, recently retired Archbishop of Armagh.

There have been 61 Deans of Limerick since the building of St Mary’s Cathedral in 1168. Sandra is the first woman in the history of the Cathedral to be appointed dean.

Sandra has been Rector of the Dundalk Group of parishes since 2005. Since her ordination in 2001 she has gained an MA (1st Class) in Pastoral Leadership specialising on ‘Spirituality and the Older Person: an ecumenical case study of two west Dublin parishes’. At present she is studying for a Doctorate in Ministry at Milltown Institute in Dublin.

Sandra serves on the Liturgical Advisory Committee; led pastoral training in Theological Reflection for NSM ordinands at the Church of Ireland Training College (now the Church of Ireland Theological Institute), from 2004 to 2008. She chaired the Archbishop of Dublin’s Working Group on combating racisim and co-authored the report ‘Welcoming Angels’. She is a member of the General Synod, and (from 2011) the Inter-Faith Affairs Working Group of the General Synod’s Commission for Christian Unity and Dialogue.

Sandra notes her special areas of interest in ministry as Collaborative Ministry, Liturgy and Music, Ecumenism, Mission and Justice. She has been involved in supporting asylum seekers and was a founder member of Friends of Sabeel (Ireland), an ecumenical grassroots, biblically-based theology movement among Palestinian Christians in East Jerusalem.

Sandra loves animals, walking in the countryside and entertaining friends. She will be moving to Limerick in October. Sandra installation and institution service will be in St Mary’s Cathedral at 7.30pm on Wednesday 24^th October 2012.

The Rt Revd Trevor R Williams
Church of Ireland Bishop of Limerick and Killaloe

ENDS