The first woman to serve as a bishop in the Church of Ireland, the Most Revd Pat Storey, has joined the Board of Trustees at Clergy Support Trust.
Elected by the charity’s Governors alongside the Bishop of Meath and Kildare were two other new trustees: Dr Mayowa Jolaoso, a GP based in Northamptonshire, and The Revd Ruth Newton, a priest serving in a rural benefice in the Diocese of Leeds.
Their appointments were announced at the 343rd Annual General Meeting of the Trust, held at Lambeth Palace. They follow a comprehensive audit of existing trustees’ skills, expertise and experience, and an open search process which saw an excellent and diverse group of applicants from across the UK and Ireland.
About the new trustees
Dr Mayowa Jolaoso
Northamptonshire
Mayo is a General Practitioner. Educated at the Universities of Lagos and London, she has worked in healthcare in Nigeria and the UK, and is a Member of the Royal College of General Practitioners.
A practicing Anglican since childhood, Mayo has held a number of charitable and church-related positions, including as a member of the wellbeing and return working group for the Diocese of Leicester.
For the past year, she has served as an expert adviser to Clergy Support Trust’s Grants & Partnerships Committee, and is therefore well-known to the staff and Court already for her many excellent contributions to the Trust’s work.
The Revd Ruth Newton
North Yorkshire
Ruth is a priest serving in the Diocese of Leeds, where she combines parish ministry with her post as Tutor at St Hild College. A graduate of Central Lancashire and Huddersfield Universities, Ruth was ordained in 2002 following study at St John’s College Nottingham.
She has since served in the Dioceses of Carlisle, York and Leeds; her particular expertise in rural ministry has been acknowledged and strengthened by roles as Trustee of the Arthur Rank Centre and member of General Synod’s Rural Affairs Group.
Previously both an Area Dean and a Residentiary Canon of Ripon, Ruth is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
The Most Revd Pat Storey
County Kildare
On her appointment as Bishop of Meath & Kildare in 2013, Pat became the first female bishop in the UK and Ireland; she remains the only female member of the Church of Ireland’s House of Bishops.
Educated at Trinity College Dublin and ordained in 1997, Pat served as a parish priest in Glenavy and Londonderry, the latter of which involved a major city-centre initiative attracting over 15,000 people as part of the 2013 UK City of Culture programme.
Pat chairs MindMatters (the Church of Ireland’s mental health promotion project) and the Church of Ireland’s Central Communications Board; she is also President of the Church’s Youth Department.
The Revd Canon Simon Butler, Chair of Trustees, welcomed the appointments:
“I’m delighted that these three outstanding individuals have joined the Trust’s Court of Assistants. They bring great understanding of the challenges facing clergy. Pat has unique experience of being the first and only woman bishop in the Church of Ireland, and the first on the Court of Assistants of Clergy Support Trust, while Mayo and Ruth also have fantastic experience from the Dioceses of Leicester and Leeds, and the varied and crucial roles they have held.
The work of the Trust providing confidential and impartial support to clergy and their families has never been more needed, and we are looking forward to benefitting from our new colleagues’ great wealth of ministry and professional experience.
It is an exciting time to join the charity: we are helping more people than ever before and continuing to expand our range of preventative and support services, including in areas like counselling, insomnia help and debt support.”
The 343rd Annual General Meeting took place on Thursday 18 November 2020. Mayo, Pat, and Ruth join twelve continuing members of the Board. Information on all Trustees, and on the charity’s governance and strategy, can be found on this website.
Note: The Bishop of Meath & Kildare, although not a primate or metropolitan, has historically been titled ‘The Most Reverend’ instead of the more usual ‘The Right Reverend’.