New rector for Fermoy Union of Parishes
Reverend Clodagh Yambasu has been appointed the next rector of Fermoy Union of Parishes. News of the appointment was announced this week by Church of Ireland Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, the Right Reverend Dr Paul Colton.
Currently serving in Fivemiletown on the border between counties Fermanagh and Tyrone, Reverend Clodagh Yambasu’s 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.
“As it happens, I was chairing the meeting of the General Synod in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin on May 8th and 10th, 2014 when Canon 10A was passed and greeted with a standing ovation,” Bishop Colton said.
“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”.
Clodagh’s parents were both from farming families. Her father Edwin McCormack, from Longford was deputy principal of Longford Vocational School. Her mother was Nancy Giles from Bandon and Clodagh still has first cousins in Cork.
“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,” Bishop Colton added.
At University College Dublin, Clodagh studied Irish and French and for four years taught at Desertserges National School in Enniskeane, 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 from 2021 to 2022 and 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.
“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 said.
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.”