Now, more than 50 years later, she’s gratified to see how many women are leading parishes, dioceses and provinces—and the Anglican Communion itself.

“It all happened a lot faster than I think we would have realized 50 years ago. I remember there were jokes going around at the time—at the next Lambeth Conference there’ll be women bishops, and the one after that they’ll bring their husbands, and the one after that there’ll be an Archbishop of Canterbury. That was a joke, but it’s true,” she says.

The Anglican Church of Canada celebrates a major milestone in November: the 50^th anniversary of the ordination of women as priests. The first women priests were ordained in 1976, following the approval by General Synod of a resolution authorizing the ordination of women in 1975.

The women who entered ordained ministry over the next five decades experienced that change in very different ways, both personal and profound.

Being called

In the early 1970s, ordination to the priesthood wasn’t yet something women could seriously contemplate.

Canon Barnett-Cowan’s path to the priesthood wasn’t straightforward. She had attended Trinity College as an undergraduate and felt called to study theology, even if priestly ministry wasn’t available to her.

It was the Rev. Canon Howard Buchner, Dean of Divinity at the time, who insisted she pursue a Master of Divinity, a degree focused on practical ministry, rather than an academic Master of Theology.

“It really blew me away that he would suggest that at that point,” she says.

She faced a lot of misogyny from her male classmates. “They said, ‘What are you doing here? You should be a nun. You should marry a priest.’ I said, ‘Well, I’m not going to marry you.’ And it was kind of a negative rebellion in me that said, ‘Wait a minute, why not? Why not offer myself as a deacon?”

The question of her right to be ordained was a frequent subject of discussion and debate even as she continued to study and discern her vocation.

“About 700 people, many of whom I knew, had signed a petition against the ordination of women. So that hurt. I looked at the names on the list and thought, these are my friends. These are the people I studied with,” she says.

She was ordained a deacon for the Diocese of Nova Scotia in 1975, just before General Synod voted to allow the ordination of women to the priesthood. She met and married her husband, the Rev. Bruce Barnett-Cowan, who was also ordained a deacon while at Trinity, and they moved to northern Quebec to serve in a parish together.

When the Bishop of Quebec told Bruce that he would soon be ordaining him as a priest, Bruce insisted that he wouldn’t be ordained without Alyson. They were ordained together at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Quebec City in 1978.

“It was clear by that point that the work I was doing in the congregation was priestly ministry,” says Canon Barnett-Cowan. “I was grateful that there was already a woman ordained in the Diocese of Quebec. Mercifully, there were no objections at my ordination.”

Growing up in Jamaica, the Ven. Cheryl Palmer loved the church, which was the centre of community life. By age 14 she knew she wanted to work in the Church, but she didn’t know what that might look like.

“I never knew that I could be a part of this until both a deaconess and a nun came to our church, and I thought, wow, there are places for women in the Church,” she says. “I was always interested, but it really sparked the possibility of being involved in the life of the Church.”

When her family moved to Hamilton in the mid-1970s, she immediately found an Anglican church, hoping to discover the same kind of joyful community she had known in Jamaica.

“It was extremely disappointing,” she says. “I remember just weeping my first Good Friday there, and it wasn’t because of the crucifixion at all. It was because there was hardly anybody there.”

When she went to Queen’s University, she found a church that more closely resembled the vibrant community she missed, and when she returned to Hamilton, she decided to try Christ’s Church Cathedral.

“I took three buses every Sunday morning to get to the cathedral. Joe Fricker was the dean, and Peter Elliot was there as the curate. And I found the church that I had left in Jamaica,” she says.

It was at the cathedral that her call to the priesthood began to take shape and be affirmed.

“There was no lightning strike for me. This was just always a part of my life—I cannot think of a time when the Church wasn’t critical in my life,” she says. “But I definitely knew that that was my call, and it was affirmed at the cathedral.”

She studied divinity at Trinity College and was ordained deacon in 1985 and priest in 1986 in the Diocese of Niagara. She celebrated her first Eucharist the next day at St. John, Ancaster, surrounded by members of her parish community.

“Presiding over the Eucharist was this huge honor for me, to know that this crowd out there will feel watered and fed by this act that I am doing,” she says. “That had the weight of responsibility, but also, and to me more importantly, the joy of communion, in the biggest sense of that word.”

While women’s ordination was becoming more commonplace in the Anglican Church of Canada, ordained ministry wasn’t something that women who grew up in other denominations could consider seriously.

In her early 20s, the Rev. Canon Stephanie Douglas was studying biblical translation and searching for a way to live out the call she felt to serve God full-time. When she joined the Anglican Church and decided to pursue graduate studies at Wycliffe College, that call started to take shape as a priestly vocation.

“My sense of vocation really came from other people seeing a vocation in me,” she says.

Dr. Alan Hayes, her thesis advisor, suggested that she speak to Bishop Victoria Matthews, a suffragan bishop of Toronto and the first woman elected bishop in the Anglican Church of Canada.

“We talked about vocation and calling and women in ministry specifically, and with her encouragement, I began the conversation with the diocese,” says Canon Douglas. “It was through listening to those voices, and my own longing to do the work of a priest, that I discovered a willingness to take on the actual mantle of priesthood, despite some of my questions from my childhood.”

She was ordained a deacon in 1998 and a priest in 1999, serving as an assistant curate at St. Paul, Bloor Street. When she remembers her first experiences behind the altar as a priest, she recalls feeling “gratitude with some trepidation.”

“What I remember is, first of all, being overwhelmed by all the hardware,” she says. “And a sense of my smallness. Not just because of the physical space and because of the size of everything spread out in front of me, but metaphorically speaking. And of gratitude to be called and set apart for the Church for this ministry.”

Years later, the Rev. Shelly Pollard had a similar experience. She first felt a call to ministry during high school, but she, too, grew up in a church that didn’t allow for ordained ministry by women.

“I just kind of pushed that away and thought, I’ll go to seminary and learn about that stuff when I’m older,” she says.

As her faith journey brought her to the Anglican Church, a few different clergy told her she should think about ordained ministry. At first, she rebuffed them.

“I thought, no, I’m focusing on my career,” she says. “It was hearing that call affirmed in other people, both male and female priests, once I found my way into the Anglican Church that made me think, OK, maybe I should actually think about this.”

Pollard was ordained a deacon in 2018 and a priest in 2019, and she remembers her first time standing behind the altar as a priest very clearly.

“I couldn’t stop smiling,” she says. “I remember putting on the chasuble and just being thrilled. I’m sure I probably made a couple of mistakes here and there because it’s your first time celebrating. But the whole entire time, I had the biggest smile on my face. It was just wonderful.”

Serving as priest

After ordination, beginning ministry as a female priest wasn’t without its challenges, especially in the early years. Beyond outright hostility, there were practical considerations.

“I remember on the fifth anniversary of the ordination of women, we had a gathering in Winnipeg, and one of the sessions was Dress and Address,” recalls Canon Barnett-Cowan. “People tried to share with each other how they named themselves, what they wore. Do you wear a collar like a man? How do you get a shirt that fits? All that kind of stuff.”

In the early 2000s, Canon Douglas still faced opposition to her vocation. She served in several parishes as an associate priest during the first years of her ministry.

“There were always people who left the church because I was coming. There were people who wouldn’t receive communion from me, who would come and talk to me about why they disagreed with the ordination of women,” she says.

She also faced more subtle resistance and even confusion. “There were some people who had a hard time calling me ‘Reverend.’ My male colleagues were talking about the authority and deference they were given. They were called ‘Father This’ and ‘Father That,’ and I was just Stephanie.”

She soon realized that she would have to earn her congregations’ trust in a way that wasn’t required of her male colleagues.

“I wasn’t given the same trust by virtue of the collar that my male colleagues were, or that I think I am now. But I decided that that wasn’t such a bad thing, because once you’ve done the work of earning people’s trust, it’s harder to lose it,” she says.

Across the years, the four agree that being a woman has shaped their ministry in particular ways.

Canon Barnett-Cowan says her role as a mother helped form her ministry as a priest. “Being a mother to people, I think, teaches empathy, teaches driving you crazy in situations, being adaptable to different people,” she says.

Archdeacon Palmer says that being a woman has shaped her ministry entirely. “I’m responding to people as a woman. And whether I recognize it or not, whoever I’m ministering to and with experience me as a woman, and specifically as a Black woman,” she says.

Canon Douglas has noticed that she’s been able to offer pastoral care to people who may find her less threatening because she’s a woman. “With women suffering from domestic violence, I get a lot of calls, and I’ve had people walk up off the street, coming to our church for prayer,” she says.

For her part, Pollard says her experience as a racialized woman has given her a perspective on the lives of some of her parishioners.

“I can speak to that in a way that maybe not everyone can, just recognizing what that lived experience of being a racialized woman is. It has helped me to give language to what some of our parishioners might face,” she says.

Archdeacon Palmer also identifies that her presence as a leader in the Church lets other women consider opportunities they otherwise might never have dreamed of.

“Our churches have always been packed with women, but they never saw themselves in the leadership,” she says. “I think that one of the things that women did was allow other women to see themselves in the leadership—and as a Black woman, even more so that other young Black women could see themselves in the leadership.”

Looking ahead

Archdeacon Palmer doesn’t look back at her own ministry for wisdom, instead focusing on what’s happening in the Church now.

“In my 40 years as a priest, it’s been so different from the start to now that anything I would have to tell some young person coming in would only be about the now. The rest is nostalgia,” she says. “The Anglican tendency to appeal to a time long past may not be what will keep us going. Think long and hard about being conventional.”

Canon Douglas recalls the advice from a postulancy supervisor not to sacrifice her family and relationships for the sake of the Church.

“It reminded me of the importance of all the vocations that are ours,” she says. “The ministry of priest is important, but God cares about all the roles that we form, as wives, husbands, daughters, sons, aunts, uncles, mothers and fathers.”

She would also remind her younger self that there is more generosity from people in the pews than she might expect.

“Despite a few experiences in parishes where my being a woman was an obvious obstacle to some people, I have found colleagues and parishioners to be very generous in allowing me to be a priest named Stephanie,” she says.

As a more recently ordained priest, Pollard says she’s grateful for the women who came before her.

“I know that I came into ordination after a lot of work has been done, in terms of both gender and race. It’s not something that I take for granted,” she says. “It’d be wrong of me to say that there is equality when there isn’t. But I recognize that I stand on the shoulders of those who’ve come before me, and that is something that I try to honour.”

Canon Barnett-Cowan is grateful that women being ordained priests in Canada today are much less likely to experience overt misogyny.

“Just be yourself, don’t try to fit a mold. That, of course, is a great freeing thing, because women coming into training now have a vast array of role models that they can follow. They don’t have to make it up at the beginning,” she says. “The doors are wide open for women in ministry now to do whatever they feel called to do. Just be brave.”

The diocese will mark the anniversary with a Eucharist on Oct. 15 and a service of Choral Evensong on Oct. 18 at St. James Cathedral. Bishop Riscylla Shaw will preach, and women priests are invited to vest (choir dress: cassock, surplice, tippet and hood). After the service, everyone is invited to a wine and cheese reception.

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That gap between aspiration and capacity isn’t a sign of weakness; it’s a familiar season in the life of almost every faithful congregation. And it’s the gap that the Anglican Diocese of Toronto Foundation has moved to close. The foundation’s new Parish Fundraising Toolkit arrives at a pivotal moment – equipping congregations to raise money not as an end in itself, but as an act of faithful discipleship.

A diocese discerning its future

The timing isn’t accidental. The toolkit emerges from one of the most significant seasons of collective discernment the Diocese of Toronto has undertaken in years. Through Cast the Net, a visioning process that engaged more than 1,000 clergy and lay leaders, parishes surfaced a shared longing to embrace God’s future together with courage, creativity and concrete action. That process yielded 20 Calls to Action, a living map of how the diocese intends to grow, serve and plant in the years ahead.

Following Cast the Net, the diocese launched a diocesan-wide Planning Feasibility Study in 2025, inviting all Anglicans to offer feedback on a preliminary case for support. The study asked a profound and practical question: are we, as a community of faith, ready to resource the mission God has placed before us? The response revealed parishes brimming with vision and hungry for the tools to make that vision financially sustainable. The toolkit is the foundation’s answer to that hunger.

A practical companion

The Parish Fundraising Toolkit is a pastoral resource as much as a practical one. It was designed to meet congregations wherever they find themselves – whether a small church preparing its first capital appeal, a suburban parish seeking to deepen its annual giving culture, or a large congregation cultivating relationships with legacy donors in anticipation of a major gifts campaign.

The foundation deliberately avoided the language and logic of the corporate fundraising world. Instead, the toolkit frames every act of giving as an expression of faith – a response to grace, a participation in something larger than any single congregation. It draws on the deep Anglican tradition of stewardship as spiritual formation, and it speaks directly to the clergy, churchwardens, council members and lay leaders who carry the practical weight of sustaining parish life.

“Parishes are not lacking in vision. They are lacking in practical companions for the journey. This toolkit walks alongside them, from the first conversation about a campaign to the final word of thanks to a legacy donor,” says Mary Lynne Stewart, the foundation’s executive director.

The toolkit is comprehensive without being overwhelming. Its six components work together to support a complete fundraising ministry.

The campaign planning guide provides a step-by-step framework for launching and managing a parish fundraising campaign from beginning to end, opening with vision-casting and prayer, moving through donor cultivation and solicitation, and closing with the kind of thoughtful stewardship that builds lasting relationships. Parishes don’t need prior campaign experience to use it; the guide assumes nothing and explains everything.

The case for support templates give parishes customizable frameworks for articulating their unique mission, community need and anticipated impact. A well-crafted case for support is the heart of any campaign, and these templates help parish leaders find their own language – local, specific and compelling.

The donor communications kit removes one of the most common barriers parishes face: knowing what to say and when to say it. Ready-to-use letters, bulletin inserts, email templates and pulpit scripts accompany every stage of a campaign, each written in a way that is warm, honest and worthy of the Anglican tradition. The legacy and planned giving resources add seasonal materials and pastoral framing designed to normalize legacy conversations, inviting donors to see a bequest not as a transaction but as a final act of faith and love for the community they have served.

The stewardship program guide takes a longer view, offering year-round practices for cultivating a culture of generosity that doesn’t begin and end with a campaign. And the training and workshop modules give clergy and churchwardens facilitated session materials they can deploy directly in their communities, grounding the whole effort in shared learning and shared commitment.

Rooted in a 25-year mandate

The Parish Fundraising Toolkit reflects something the foundation has been doing since its incorporation in 1999: resourcing the diocese and its parishes as they plant and grow bold strategic initiatives for the future of God’s Church. In the past five years, the foundation has distributed more than $3 million across its key funds, supporting clergy formation, Indigenous ministry, liturgical music, lay education and the work of FaithWorks. Today, the foundation stewards more than $14.8 million in assets in service of that mission.

The Rev. Adrienne Clements, the foundation’s board chair, has spoken of the toolkit as a natural extension of what the foundation exists to do: not merely to hold and distribute funds, but to actively build the capacity of parishes to be financially healthy and mission-focused.

The toolkit also positions parishes well for the conversations ahead. Parishes that have already begun cultivating a culture of generosity – and that have the language and structures to support a major campaign – will be far better prepared to participate meaningfully in whatever the diocese discerns together as its next steps.

An invitation to begin

No parish is too small, too stretched or too uncertain to begin. The Parish Fundraising Toolkit asks only that a congregation bring its honest sense of calling and its willingness to have the conversation. Whether a parish is wondering how to make payroll or dreaming of a building that serves the whole neighbourhood for another century, the foundation wants to walk alongside that discernment.

Mary Lynne Stewart and the foundation team warmly welcome enquiries from clergy, churchwardens and lay leaders across the diocese. Reach out to learn more, request access to the toolkit or explore how the foundation can support your parish’s fundraising journey. Together, parishes and the foundation are sowing seeds for a future that belongs, first and always, to God.

The Anglican Diocese of Toronto Foundation is the key charitable arm of the Diocese of Toronto. Connect with the foundation at adtf@toronto.anglican.ca or visit www.toronto.anglican.ca/foundation.

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During the opening ceremony, I had the honour of welcoming the 235 participants. I recalled that the conference was first initiated by St. Elizabeth, Mississauga in 2006. As ethnic congregations, we face many similar challenges, including adapting to a new environment, ministering to the second generation and reaching out to our communities. With the support of the other three congregations, the first joint conference was held in 2007 at Appleby College in Oakville.

We were delighted to have Bishop Andrew Asbil as our featured speaker this year. He delivered three keynote talks over the weekend. In the first, “Spiritual Renewal – Building Up Disciples,” Bishop Asbil illustrated how sharing our faith stories with the next generation inspires us to continue proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus often shared the faith over meals, including at the Last Supper, during breakfast by the Sea of Galilee and in the breaking of bread on the road to Emmaus.

Likewise, the history of our four Chinese parishes is filled with testimonies that should be passed on to new generations of believers. This includes the story of St. John, Willowdale, which began in 1973 as a fellowship at St. Paul, Bloor Street, before becoming an official congregation at the Church of the Redeemer, Bloor St. In 1984, the Rev. Canon Kenneth Fung and his team planted All Saints, first in Scarborough and later relocated to Markham. In 1991, the Rev. Canon Edmund Der and his team planted St. Christopher-on-the-Heights in Downsview. St. Christopher later established St. Christopher Centre at Leslie and Finch in 1994. The outreach centre became St. Christopher, North York in 2007. The mother church moved from Downsview to Richmond Hill in 2008, becoming St. Christopher, Richmond Hill. Meanwhile, in 1992, the Rev. James Chu planted St. Elizabeth in Etobicoke. Following a fire in 1999, the parish relocated to Mississauga in 2000.

After the first talk, we divided into 21 small groups in Cantonese, English and Mandarin. Each group consisted of members from three or four congregations within the same age group. As we discussed what we had heard and shared our own faith stories, the bishop’s message sank more deeply into our hearts. We also spent time praying for one another. It was a wonderful time of Christian fellowship, as we experienced God’s presence, joy and peace.

On Saturday afternoon, we offered seven workshops led by our pastoral staff on various topics, from youth ministry and small group ministry to spiritual renewal and contextual bible study.

Each workshop attracted between 20 and 50 participants, and many shared how much they appreciated the opportunity to learn and grow.

Bishop Asbil’s second talk, “Spiritual Renewal – Commitment to Ministry,” began by sharing stories from his family’s farming background. The rocks on the family farm reminded him of generations of family history and the values they had inherited. One lesson was the importance of living for others. Jesus taught his disciples the same lesson in the feeding of the five thousand. Rather than telling his disciples to look after themselves, Jesus challenged them to care for the hungry crowd. In a world that often tells us to put ourselves first, Jesus calls us to serve others.

Bishop Asbil illustrated this through the story of Monica from Redeemer, Bloor St., who began by preparing peanut butter sandwiches for people experiencing homelessness. Over time, the parish grew this ministry into serving more than 30,000 meals each year. Commitment to ministry requires time, sacrifice and perseverance. Yet it all begins with Jesus’ question to Peter: “Do you love me?” Jesus asks him three times, moving from friendship love (philia*) to unconditional love (agape).

In the evening, we enjoyed a 45-minute “Dialogue with Bishop” session. It provided an opportunity to ask questions ranging from theology to practical ministry. The conversation brought us closer to Bishop Asbil as he thoughtfully addressed the issues that concerned us. Afterwards,the Rev. Andrew Johnson and the Rev. Carol Shih from St. John, Willowdale led us in Evening Prayer to conclude the day.

On the second day of the conference, All Saints, Markham prepared the Eucharist, which Bishop Asbil presided over. During the children’s message, Bishop Asbil told a story about a puppy that was deeply loved by a farmer, even though all the other animals in the barn believed they were the most important. In the same way, every child is precious in God’s sight.

Bishop Asbil delivered his third talk, “Spiritual Renewal – Equipping Tomorrow’s Leaders.” He introduced three key words: “Listen, show and tell.” He recalled meeting a parishioner at a subway station whom he had been thinking about for some time. The parishioner shared that he had prayed for Bishop Asbil the previous night. This was an example of listening to God’s prompting. We all learned “show and tell” during our school years, but Bishop Asbil reminded us that we must also learn to listen to God.

Using Genesis 22:1-14, the account of Abraham offering Isaac, Bishop Asbil acknowledged that many preachers avoid this difficult passage. Yet the story reveals that, unlike the gods of many ancient Near Eastern religions, the Lord did not require child sacrifice. Rather, it demonstrates the intimate relationship between God, Abraham and Isaac. Abraham listens to God. Isaac listens to his father. Abraham demonstrates unwavering faith, while Isaac willingly carries the wood up the mountain. In the same way, Jesus carries His own cross to Golgotha. Throughout the journey, Abraham trusts God, quietly believing, “God will provide.” And indeed, the Lord provides a lamb. Throughout Scripture – from Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Mary and Peter – we see the same pattern of listening, showing and telling.

Bishop Asbil also shared his own experience during a major capital campaign. He, then a curate, and a ministry partner met with a parishioner named Jim to invite him to make a significant gift. After presenting the diocesan vision, Bishop Asbil nervously suggested the possibility of a $100,000 donation. Jim immediately replied, “I’d be happy to do that.” Three months later, Bishop Asbil asked Jim how he had been able to make such a generous commitment. Jim answered, “When you believe in something so much, it is a joy to give.” Bishop Asbil reflected on the phrase, “Give until it feels good, not until it hurts.” Indeed, as Paul reminds us, “God loves a cheerful giver.”

Before the conference concluded, each parish gathered separately to reflect on what we had learned and what we hoped to bring back to our own congregations. We were inspired by Bishop Asbil’s messages in many ways, including strengthening our online ministry, embracing the principles of “listen, show, and tell,” reaching out to youth and young adults, offering workshops on sharing personal testimonies, encouraging parents to share their faith journeys with their children and inviting senior members to pass on their faith stories to the younger generation.

During the closing ceremony, our co-chairs, Violet Sae and Stephen Ho, presented Bishop Asbil with a token of appreciation. I thanked the Rev. Canon Simon Li for his clear and concise interpretation from English to Cantonese. We also greatly appreciated the organizing committee and all the volunteers for their hard work in making the conference possible. Finally, members of St. Christopher passed our new 3D conference logo to the host of the 2029 conference, All Saints, Markham.

We thank God for this opportunity for spiritual renewal, for the Christian fellowship shared among the four congregations, and for the opportunity to learn from one another. Let us bless the Lord!

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While I’m looking forward to the next phase of life when I’m rooted once again in a particular community, this season hasn’t been without its charms. And of course, as with all things, I’ve gained a few insights along the way.

1. Visiting new churches is life-giving. This has been the biggest blessing of the past many months. It didn’t surprise me, but it was nice to be reminded again of the many gifts congregations can offer – and we barely scratched the surface!

It’s a joy to belong to a community, and it’s a joy to see how other Anglicans worship. During this churchless year, my family has returned to congregations familiar to us where we were sure of a warm welcome, but we’ve also stepped through new doors, not always knowing what to expect. Rooted in a familiar liturgy, we’ve observed the different ways communities live out their call to worship God and serve the world.

Not everything was to our personal tastes; nor should it be. The congregation with unfamiliar music had the warmest welcome. The one with very few kids had the best activity bag. No congregation was perfect, no congregation was the same, and yet in every one we found a community of faithful people praising God.

Familiarity is good. It’s comfortable and comforting. It provides a safe space to ask questions, and companions with whom to learn to follow Jesus. But it’s also valuable beyond measure to get out of that bubble every now and then, to remind ourselves that our way is not the only way, and that we are part of something much more vast than our little corner of God’s kingdom.

2. It can be a gift to stay home. There are weeks in all our lives that are packed with activity, when we arrive at the weekend breathless and exhausted. And for families with kids, weekends can be just as busy, with swimming lessons, birthday parties, dance recitals and family gatherings. And then there’s a subway shutdown.

For several years, my daughter and I would walk down the street to church in-person every Sunday, come rain or shine or snowpocalypse, my husband having left home hours before to lead the early service. Interruptions to the pattern, usually caused by illness, were less breaks than long hours of pure survival mode.

So this past year we decided, on occasion, to give ourselves a real break. Often we tuned into livestreamed worship, a wonderful outcome of the pandemic that many congregations have continued to invest in. And sometimes we didn’t. Some weeks, we gave ourselves a slow morning to simply enjoy time at home with each other. We knew church would be there next Sunday.

The weekly rhythm of worship is important, and faith grows stronger in the context of a community. But the freedom to choose not to go to church, when exercised judiciously, is no bad thing.

3. Giving doesn’t have to stop. Despite not attending the same church every week, we’ve still been able to give to ministry we feel called to support. Tools like pre-authorized remittance and CanadaHelps make it easy to give even when we’re not physically in church, and to give to more than one congregation. Electronic giving also lets us support the communities we’re visiting when we don’t think to bring cash, which is almost always.

No doubt the amount and direction of our gifts will shift with the changes in our lives, but it’s a comfort to know that we can find easy and predictable ways to give no matter where we are.

4. Faith formation needs to happen at home. This also wasn’t a new thought, but it did become more real. During our churchless year, my daughter morphed from a kindergartener with rounded edges to a gangly first-grader, all sharp knees and elbows. Her curiosity and critical thinking have taken off, and she has started to appreciate that her Christian faith is something that most of her friends don’t share.

Relying solely on Sunday School to teach my daughter about God and Jesus was never the plan, still less so when we’re not visiting the same place every week. She’s at an age when she wants to learn from her parents and share her thoughts. For now, at least, we are the most important people in her life. And her faith won’t deepen if we don’t take the trouble to help deepen it. Just as we need to help her practice reading and writing, math and problem-solving, we need to help her practice her faith.

It’s not always comfortable, and there’s still part of me that feels unqualified to disciple anybody, but it’s much too important to neglect. We shouldn’t leave our faith behind at the church door on Sunday. It should follow us home, shape how we grow, the choices we make, the ways we live our lives. There’s no way to predict what decisions my daughter will make about faith as she grows up, but I can hope that providing a space where we ask questions, have tricky conversations and grow together will help nurture in her a faith that is curious and active.

This nomadic year wasn’t something I had planned, and I didn’t necessarily welcome it. And yet, there have been valuable experiences that I can’t regret having, and valuable insights that I can’t regret knowing. I may not have another year like this again in my life, but I hope to remember that faith is formed not only where we put down roots, but also whenever God invites us to look beyond them.

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The seafarers who work on cruise ships are very underserved. They work incredibly hard while on board – passenger service is 24/7, so someone is always on duty. Because their shore leave time is counted in minutes, not hours, any welfare centre has to be located as close to the ship as possible so seafarers don’t have to waste valuable time just getting to the centre. The space available to us, under a four-storey staircase, is in a bright, sunny spot located 25 seconds’ walk from the gangway. The seafarers are thrilled!

Their favourite things: the huge leather-covered sectional sofa, squishy and comfortable (donated from the Furniture Bank); the jar of tiny chocolate bars on top of the shelf unit; hot, freshly made microwave popcorn; and free Wi-Fi. But their favourite is the baskets of knitwear lovingly made by a battalion of amazing people in this diocese who spend all year knitting for them.

The Viking Polaris is an expedition class cruise ship, with a passenger complement of about 378, as opposed to the huge Caribbean cruise ships with 5,000 to 6,000 passengers. This class of ship can sail into the tiny bays and harbours in places like the Arctic, the Antarctic and South America, as well as some of the more inaccessible places on the Great Lakes. On July 5, Polaris, her passengers and crew set sail for Greenland. And the crew was in a flat panic! Most of them were from countries like the Philippines, Malaysia, Ecuador and India, with only a few of the officers being Norwegian and used to the cold.

When the young crew members told me their concerns, I pulled out the baskets from our shelf unit to show them the hats and scarves, and they went nuts. “Is this for us?” they kept asking. When I explained that it was, and also free, gifted to them by people who don’t know them but have been knitting for them all year, their next question was, “How can we meet a knitter?” In most of their cultures, only people who know you and love you would make you something by hand. That someone would devote their time and energy to making something for someone they don’t know is a huge gesture of love for them. They wanted to meet and thank one of the knitters directly.

So on Polaris’s next visit, I asked one of the battalion of knitters if she was able to visit with them. She was thrilled, as were the seafarers. It’s not often you get those full circle moments, where you can see God’s grace like a shining rope, wrapping itself around these young seafarers so far from home, and a woman who has devoted perhaps thousands of hours in more than 30 years to knitting for seafarers.

As the Viking Octantis, sister ship to the Polaris, was preparing to leave on July 13, one of the pursers gave us her thanks and said, “Now we have a home away from home in Toronto!” All that we hoped this centre would be is being realized: a safe, comfortable, quiet place, steps from their vessel. Your gifts of knitting are wrapping themselves around the necks of many seafarers, and your hats are keeping their heads warm in Arctic seas. We have been called the “ministry of small gestures,” and this tiny space under the stairs has confirmed that for me.

If anyone is interested in volunteering at the new station, email me at glutenfreepriest@me.com. Check out the cruise ship arrival schedule on the Toronto Port Authority website (under cruise ships). Come and join us under the stairs!

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Alongside Hope sent an initial solidarity grant of $10,000 to the Diocese of Jamaica and began accepting donations to a future response. Discussions with the diocese and other agencies of the Anglican Alliance continued to discern what longer-term supports were needed. With immediate humanitarian needs being met, the diocese’s Hurricane Melissa Relief and Response Task Force was able to identify shelter recovery as the most urgent unmet need among vulnerable families.

The large Caribbean diaspora in the Diocese of Toronto was keen to make an impact. The Rev. Canon Donald Butler is a member of Alongside Hope’s board and a retired priest in the Diocese of Toronto. Born in Antigua, he says that people of Caribbean origin have a track record of responding well to the needs in the wider region. “A couple of the churches I have been involved with in my ministry pushed me to talk to Alongside Hope,” he says, recalling he also helped initiate a response to Hurricane Irma in Barbuda in 2017.

On Feb. 27, Bishop Andrew Asbil called on churches in the Diocese of Toronto to designate their Lenten givings, with the goal of raising $50,000 for Alongside Hope’s Hurricane Melissa response.

The campaign surpassed Bishop Asbil’s challenge, raising $74,822. With a $50,000 matching grant from FaithWorks, the total allocated to Alongside Hope was $124,822.

“Alongside Hope is grateful for the generous support of the Diocese of Toronto,” says Will Postma, executive director of Alongside Hope. “The support allows us to grow the relationship with the Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands and strengthen the implementation with program staff, all with the shared commitment to respond to current needs and build community readiness to respond should there be other hurricanes. We are grateful for the financial supports from the Diocese of Toronto that make possible the carrying out of work and the strengthening of relationships. Truly, the Church in action.”

In March, staff from Alongside Hope and ERD met with the task force. In June, Alongside Hope and ERD staff travelled to Jamaica to visit affected areas. With the final funding allocation, the task force has proposed a project to support long-term recovery and community resilience.

Jackie Koster, director of Programs and Partnerships at Alongside Hope, reflected on her visit. “As we stood together, representing three Anglican provinces, there was a profound sense of solidarity and shared purpose. In moments of crisis, we are reminded of what it means to be part of a wider community. The immediate support of tarps, supplies and emergency assistance is invaluable, as is the commitment to long-term recovery. Equally important is the reassurance that distance does not diminish our connectedness. Even across great distances, we remain united in care, prayer and action.”

The task force found that many families were unable to pay for home repairs and therefore remain highly vulnerable to future weather-related events. Further, a significant number of these families continue to live in unsafe structures that were either destroyed or severely compromised by the hurricane.

Continued rainfall, deteriorating building conditions and ongoing exposure to future weather events have made vulnerable families even more vulnerable, particularly the elderly, people with disabilities and families headed by women, with young children or living in extreme poverty. Temporary measures, including tarpaulin coverings, provide short-term protection but are insufficient to restore long-term safety, dignity and resilience.

The project will restore safe and dignified living conditions for households most severely impacted by Hurricane Melissa while strengthening community resilience against future disasters. Through a combination of new construction and housing repairs, the project will provide secure shelter, improve living conditions, and enhance the resilience of vulnerable individuals and families who remain at risk from future climate-related disasters.

“This shows me that when you have a grass roots movement it can create possibilities,” says Canon Butler. “Alongside Hope was not active in Jamaica when the hurricane struck, but they rose to the occasion by encouraging people to give to a future response.”

The Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands remains committed to implementing this project with the highest standards of accountability, stewardship, transparency and community participation. Comprehensive selection procedures of participants, financial controls, monitoring mechanisms and project reporting systems will ensure that resources are directed to those most in need and that donor investments will result in measurable and sustainable recovery outcomes.

It will be of the utmost importance, says Canon Butler, who noted on a recent visit to Jamaica that buildings and houses need to be rebuilt to withstand hurricanes. “Conversations about resilience will continue to be important in the region. These disasters are going to become even more regular. We need to learn how to prepare effectively.”

–With files from the Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands

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As God’s people, we in the Church are called to participate in this work. Sometimes (all too often!) individual Christians and the Church itself have been captive to worldly systems and structures that “corrupt and destroy the creatures of God,” in the words of the baptismal liturgy. Yet at other times, the Church has also been at the forefront of challenging and overturning these structures, upholding the dignity and worth of God’s creatures and sharing the good news of her liberating and life-giving Lord.

This year’s diocesan Outreach & Advocacy Conference, to be held online on Saturday, Oct. 17, will explore ways in which the Church can be a catalyst for God’s liberation and new life. Our keynote speaker will be Dr. Dean Detloff, research and advocacy officer at Development and Peace – Caritas Canada. Dean is also a sessional faculty member at the Institute for Christian Studies and co-author, with Matt Bernico, of the recent book Enough is Enough: Degrowth, Capitalism, and Liberation Theology. An engaging speaker, Dean brings a fresh perspective to the intersection of Christianity and social justice.

A choice of workshops in the afternoon will feature people around our diocese engaged in bringing this message and practice of liberation to their different contexts. Going beyond performative messages to authentic reconciliation, the Rev. Leigh Kern will discuss the process of renewing the treaty relationships between our diocese and local First Nations communities. The Rev. Angie Hocking, with members of the Toronto Underhoused and Homeless Union, will look at best practices for street outreach from the perspective of those being served. Meeting people on the margins with love and dignity can be especially challenging in the face of dehumanizing rhetoric and policy, but it is even more necessary in such a context, as the Rev. Canon Simon Bell can attest from the experience of faith leaders in Barrie. The Rev. Michael Van Dusen, deacon at St. Aidan, Toronto, will explore how the advancing climate crisis demands a re-examination of our “business as usual” assumptions and practices.

For the seventh year in a row, this day of learning will be held online via Zoom. After last year’s conference, the Social Justice & Advocacy Committee sought feedback from past participants to see whether we should return to an in-person event. While some respondents favoured an in-person event, others felt that format would limit their ability to participate, whether because of travel distance, cost or conflict with caregiving obligations. What united respondents was a desire for more dialogue following the keynote address, as well as an opportunity for networking with other participants. The format of the conference has been adjusted accordingly, leaving only one session of concurrent workshops but offering facilitated breakout groups over the lunch period for participants from different parishes to engage in conversation. Parish “watch parties” are also welcome.

The conference is offered free of charge to participants, who are encouraged to register at www.toronto.anglican.ca/outreachconference. We look forward to spending the day with you!

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