THE Most Revd Patricia Louise Storey is the first female bishop in Ireland and Britain. She was consecrated for the dioceses of Meath & Kildare on Saturday, in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.

The service of ordination and consecration was led by the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Michael Jackson, and the preacher was the Rector of St Comgall, Bangor, Co. Down, the Revd Nigel Parker. The service was relayed to those who could not get into the cathedral by video link with St Werburgh's, near by. It was also streamed live on the internet.

Mr Parker said of the new bishop: "It has been our privilege over the years to see you respond to our Father's love with love, trust, and obedience. You have given yourself wholeheartedly to him and his Church, serving his people as a deacon and priest, teaching the scriptures and pastoring with that disarming directness, which is your hallmark - a directness, which speaks the truth in love, with a ready laugh and delightful sense of humour. . . It is our privilege to pray for you, as the Lord Jesus calls you to a deeper life of sacrificial service - calls you to consecrate yourself to him, his Church, and his cause."

Bishop Storey's husband, the Revd Earl Storey, a priest in the Church of Ireland, read from the Old Testament.

The RC Bishop of Kildare & Leighlin, the Most Revd Denis Nulty, and Mgr Dermot Farrell, on behalf of the RC Bishop of Meath, Dr Michael Smith, represented the RC Church, as did the President of St Patrick's College, Maynooth, Mgr Hugh Connolly.

All of the main Protestant Churches in Ireland were also represented, as was the Islamic community, by Dr Ali Selim of the Dublin Islamic Cultural Centre.

Bishop Storey said that being elected to serve as Bishop in the dioceses of Meath & Kildare (the diocese of Meath is the only diocese whose bishop uses the episcopal title Most Revd, apart from the Archbishops) was a privilege, as was being the first woman to be ordained to the episcopate in these islands, but that her focus was "more on the fact that I'm a bishop, and trying to get used to that, never mind being the first woman bishop, or making history".