THE Church of Ireland has appointed its first female canon of St Columb’s Cathedral in Derry.
Rev Katie McAteer will become the first woman to hold the position in the cathedral’s 400-year history following her appointment by Bishop of Derry and Raphoe Andrew Forster yesterday.
Rev McAteer is currently pastoral director of the Christ Church, Culmore, Muff and St Peter’s group of parishes.
She is also following in her own father’s footsteps after he was a canon of Chester Cathedral in England.
Rev McAteer said she was “humbled and honoured” by her appointment but also “sort of excited”.
She said: “When Bishop Andrew first asked me, I was totally taken aback. It was never on my radar, never in a million years – or even 400 years – would I have expected the bishop to ask me to accept this appointment.”
The Derry clergywoman said she kept thinking her appointment couldn’t be true.
“St Columb’s Cathedral, probably more than any other cathedral, has been a history-maker; the first cathedral built in these islands after the Reformation; playing a leading role as a place of reconciliation, and now another brick is being laid in its rich history,” she said.
Rev McAteer was one of two senior church appointments announced yesterday.
Bishop Forster also announced the appointment of Rev Robert Boyd, former canon of St Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh, as a canon in the Derry and Donegal diocese.
