15.08.2013
New Rector Appointed to Raheny and Coolock
The appointment of a new rector for the Parishes of Raheny and Coolock has been announced this morning. The Revd Norman McCausland is to be the new incumbant of the north Dublin parishes.
A native of Omagh in County Tyrone, Norman has a background in town and country planning. However, during a time volunteering at the Church of Ireland Chaplaincy at Queen’s University, Belfast, he explored a sence of vocation to ordained ministry. He went on to train at the Church of Ireland Theological College and Trinity College, Dublin and was ordained in 1989. He served his first curacy in St Columba’s Church in Portadown and a second curacy as Bishop’s Curate of Clonmel Union in County Cork.
Visits to development projects in Kenya and Uganda and a study of church growth in Singapore, led Norman to serve in the wider World Church. Following training with CMS UK at Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham, Norman became Assistant Chaplain to the English Speaking Congregation at All Saints’ Cathedral, Cairo in 1994. He was also Priest in Charge of St John’s Church, Maadi, Cairo, with a congregation of expatriates, mainly from the USA and the UK.
On returning home, Norman was appointed Bishop’s Curate at St Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny, before joining the staff of the Church of Ireland Theological College as the Chaplain–Tutor. At the end of his contract with the College, he worked again with CMS Ireland, this time as a Mission Development Officer.
From 2001 until 2012 Norman took a break from ministry to develop a long–time interest in theatre. Throughout this period, Norman maintained his connection with the Church of Ireland in the role of Sexton at Holy Trinity Church, Killiney. With the support of the Archbishop of Dublin, Norman returned to ordained ministry in July 2012. Initially assigned to the Rural Deaneries of Monkstown North and South, Norman has, in the past year, provided pastoral and liturgical cover for the parishes of Celbridge, Straffan and Newcastle and for a number of vacancies in the Diocese of Dublin.
He is delighted to have been appointed as the new Rector of Raheny and Coolock. “I am looking forward with great excitement to working with the parishioners of Raheny and Coolock, meeting the challenges of being Church in an ever–changing culture and finding new ways to ‘earth’ the Gospel in the local community,” he says.