Bishop Announces Appointments
- May 02, 2006

Bishop Raymond Lahey of the Diocese of Antigonish today announced the following pastoral appointments:

Father Duaine Devereaux and Father Gary MacPherson will lead a pastoral team to care for the newly formed Pastoral Grouping of Isle Madame and Louisdale. This grouping will consist of the parishes of Our Lady of the Assumption, Arichat, Immaculate Conception, West Arichat, St. Joseph, Petit-de-Grat, St. Hyacinth, D’Escousse, and St. Louis, Louisdale.  This new arrangement will take effect June 30, 2006, when the priests of the Fils-de-Marie will no longer serve the area.

Father Devereaux is presently a member of the pastoral team in the New Glasgow and Area pastoral grouping, and Father MacPherson is Pastor of St. Louis Parish, Louisdale. Father MacPherson is also Diocesan Vocations Director, an appointment he will continue to hold.  Under this new arrangement, Father Devereaux will have primary responsibility for Our Lady of the Assumption, Immaculate Conception and St. Joseph parishes, and Father MacPherson will have particular responsibility for St. Louis and St. Hyacinth parishes.  Mr. Brad Sweet, a seminarian studying at the Grand Seminaire de Montreal who will be on pastoral internship during 2006-2007 will also form part of this pastoral team, and it is anticipated that this team will also include other lay persons, or religious, with particular responsibilities.

Bishop Lahey also expressed his thanks to the three priests of the Fils-de-Marie who had served Isle Madame until now, and the other Fils-de-Marie priests who had served there earlier, for the devoted pastoral service they had provided to the people of that area.

The Bishop said that an announcement would be made in due course regarding a replacement for Father Devereaux in the New Glasgow and Area pastoral grouping.

Bishop Lahey further announced that Father John Morrison, until now Parish Priest of St. Anthony Parish, Glace Bay; St. Mary’s, Port Morien; and St. Gregory, Donkin was appointed Chaplain to the Sisters of St. Martha, Bethany, on a temporary basis, effective this month and that Father William Rankin would serve the three parishes mentioned until a further arrangement is made at the end of June.