Kearon was
ordained in the
Church of Ireland as a
deacon in 1981 and as a
priest in 1982. He served in the parishes of St. John's, Coolock, All Saints, Raheny, and as Rector of Tullow, from 1991 until 1999. In recent years he has served as Canon in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. Kearon became Director of the
Irish School of Ecumenics serving from 1999 until 2005. He was
Secretary General of the Anglican Consultative Council, from his commissioning on 18 January 2005 until late 2014. During this time he courted controversy by suggesting in an email that he believed Archbishop
Rowan Williams was 'fostering schism'.
Episcopal ministry In September 2014, it was announced that Kearon had been elected as the next
Bishop of Limerick and Killaloe. On 24 January 2015, he was
consecrated a
bishop during a service at
Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. The
principal consecrator was
Michael Jackson, Archbishop of Dublin, and the co-consecrators were
Pat Storey, Bishop of Meath and Kildare, and
Patrick Rooke, Bishop of Tuam, Killala and Achonry. During the Irish
referendum campaign on abortion in 2018, Kearon expressed support for the removal of the constitutional ban on abortion, arguing that modern biology supports the contention of early church fathers such as
Augustine and
Thomas Aquinas that life does not begin at conception. Later the same year, he also supported the removal of references to blasphemy in the constitution. Kearon retired as Bishop of Limerick and Killaloe on 31 October 2021. ==Personal life==