On Saturday, 18th April 2026, the Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, the Right Reverend Dr Paul Colton, will preside at a Diocesan Service for the last time as bishop of the diocese. The Service will be a Diocesan Celebration of Easter called ‘The Glory of Easter’ and St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork will be full to capacity with representatives from all parishes, chaplaincies, schools, charities and organisations in the Diocese, with diocesan clergy and commissioned lay church workers led by the Dean of Cork and the Cathedral Chapter. They will be joined by Paul and Susan Colton’s family and friends, as well as many guests from the Church at home and from overseas.

The city and county of Cork will be represented by the Lord Mayor of Cork, Councillor Fergal Dennehy accompanied by the Lady Mayoress, Karen Brennan, and by the Mayor of Cork County, Councillor Mary Linehan Foley.

Mrs Dorothy Verplancke, one of the lay honorary secretaries of the Diocesan Synod and Diocesan Council said:

This is a significant moment in the life of the Church of Ireland in Cork as Bishop Colton has been the longest serving Church of Ireland Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross since 1617 and, of the serving bishops in the Church of Ireland, was the last to be consecrated in the Twentieth Century.

To mark this historic day, the Cathedral bellringers, led by Tower Captain, Guy St Leger, will ring a full quarter peal on six of the cathedral’s 13 bells starting at 2.30 p.m.  A quarter peal is a performance that is one-quarter the length of a full peal. A quarter peal typically consists of between 1,250 and 1,440 changes and lasts about 45 to 50 minutes.

At the start of the Service the heaviest of the cathedral bells (1,372 kg) named ‘Peter’ and bearing the inscription ‘Come at my call and serve God all’ will be rung 27 times (once for each full year of the Bishop’s episcopate) by bellringer Marcus Calvert who has been friends with the Bishop since they were scouts together in 2nd Cork (St Fin Barre’s Cathedral scouts) in the early 1970s.

Bishop Colton explains why he chose Easter time for his farewell:

While I will continue to serve as a bishop in ways that I have not yet prayerfully discerned, the decision to retire from this particular office as Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross has been a big step to take. I gave it a lot of prayerful thought and ultimately settled on a date in the Easter season – a time of confidence, hope, and joy at the heart of our faith. This way I thought that I could go into my retirement with a spring in my step and the people of the Diocese can move on confidently to what God hopes for them in the years to come inspired by the Easter good news.

The preacher at the Service will be Bishop and Mrs Susan Colton’s friend of many years, the Very Reverend Dr Mark Oakley, Dean of Southwark, a renowned writer, preacher, speaker with a strong commitment to human rights.

At the end of the Easter Celebration there will be speeches to mark the bishop’s retirement. Then, having blessed the congregation and sent them out to continue in a life of discipleship and service, the Bishop will return his crozier to the Diocese for safe-keeping for a new bishop who will be elected in the coming months.

In a symbolic moment, while the choir sings Laudate Dominum by Mozart, Bishop Paul will hand his crozier (pastoral staff) to two young people from the Diocese he confirmed: John and Niamh. They will bring the crozier and pass it to Elizabeth Gleasure and Darragh Coombes who are two youth leaders from the Diocese. They in turn will bring it to the Diocesan Treasurers – Helen Arnopp and Melvin Beamish. Finally, the Canon Treasurer, Canon Paul Willoughby will be entrusted with it at the West Door of the Cathedral for deposit in the Cathedral Treasury until it is needed at the consecration of a new bishop in the future.

The Bishop and Mrs Susan Colton will then depart from the Cathedral.

While all seats for the Service in St Fin Barre’s Cathedral have been allocated (and people should not arrive unless they have a ticket), there is the opportunity to join in the Service online on the Cathedral website from 3.45 p.m. by clicking HERE.

You can access the online flip book version of the service sheet here: The Glory of Easter – A Diocesan Celebration of Easter with the Farewell to the Bishop

The congregation of nearly 500 people from the Diocese, and all the serving clergy and commissioned lay workers of the Diocese, will be joined by eleven bishops including Bishop Fintan Gavin (Cork and Ross), Bishop John Buckley (Bishop Emeritus) and Bishop William Crean (Cloyne).  Bishop Colton’s fellow Diocesan bishops from the Southern Province will attend:  Bishop Patricia Storey (Meath and Kildare); Bishop Michael Burrows (Tuam, Limerick and Killaloe) and Bishop Adrian Wilkinson (Cashel, Ferns and Ossory).  Bishop Michael Ipgrave ( Lichfield, England), Bishop Johan Dalman (Strängnäs, Sweden) and Bishop Bo-Göran Åstrand (Porvoo, Finland), all places that this Diocese and Bishop Colton has associations with, will be present, along with the former Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Richard Clarke. The Right Rev. Dr Sahr Yambasu, former President of the Methodist Church in Ireland and originally from Sierra Leone to which Cork, Cloyne and Ross is currently linked in a diocesan project – Liloma – through Christian Aid and the Bishops’ Appeal, will also attend.

The St Fin Barre’s Cathedral choir, under the direction of Mr Peter Stobart, with Assistant Director of Music, Matthew Breen, playing the organ have been working exceptionally hard preparing for the Service. The choir will be joined by timpanists and trumpeters, as well as by soprano soloist Saoirse Daly.

‘All that hard work for the musicians is my fault.’ admitted Bishop Colton ‘I am immensely grateful to them.’

Bishop Colton said:

Music has been a huge part of my life. When I started piano lessons at the age of 6 in Cork, my first music teacher said ‘whatever you end up doing in life you will never be happy without music’. She was right. As a student myself I sang in this Cathedral’s choir and I’ve been very fortunate that, throughout my years in ministry, I have always been places where music has been of a high standard and central to the worship of the Church with opportunities to take part myself.

I chose all the music for this Service and each choice has a particular significance for me, or for Susan and me in our life together; but that story is for another day.