The wife of a Church of Ireland bishop has converted to Catholicism in a move unprecedented in modern Irish church history.<\/p>\n
The close-knit Anglican community in the west has been stunned by the shock conversion of the wife of Richard Henderson, Bishop of the United Diocese of Tuam, Killala and Achonry.<\/p>\n
African-born Anita Henderson — who is also the daughter of a Church of Ireland clergyman in Cork — was received into the Catholic Church at a Sunday evening prayer service in the private chapel of the Catholic Bishop of Killala, John Fleming.<\/p>\n
Mrs Henderson’s devoted husband, their two teenage daughters and their schoolboy son attended the service in Bishop Fleming’s palace overlooking the River Moy in the market town of Ballina.<\/p>\n
Mrs Henderson said her decision was “the combination of a long journey of spiritual searching.<\/p>\n
“I feel under God that is what I am being called to do,” she said.<\/p>\n