“I’m still in shock. It’s only now starting to settle in,” he says. “I’ve been receiving an amazing amount of support and calls of encouragement from all the bishops across Canada and even internationally.”

Bishop-elect Harper will begin his new duties in the Diocese of Saskatoon on Oct. 1. He will be ordained a bishop on Nov. 17 at St. John’s cathedral. He will succeed Bishop David Irving, who is retiring.

As diocesan bishop, Bishop-elect Harper will be the chief pastor of the Diocese of Saskatoon, which has 18 parishes and 32 congregations. The diocese spans the central agricultural area of Saskatchewan, from the Manitoba border to Alberta. The largest city is Saskatoon, with a population of 261,000.

Bishop-elect Harper says one of his priorities as bishop will be to carry on the work he has been doing in the Diocese of Toronto. “I will continue to be a bridge-builder and at the same time be an invitation to healing, peace, understanding and an acknowledgment of who we are as children of God. I will continue to try to bring everyone together as we are meant to be.”

As the diocese’s Indigenous Native Priest since 2016, Bishop-elect Harper ministered to the diocese’s Indigenous population and worked towards healing and reconciliation. He visited 38 parishes and spoke about Indigenous spirituality, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Canada’s missing and murdered Indigenous women, the Sixties Scoop and other issues. Before coming to Toronto, he was the rector of a parish in Thunder Bay.

He says he will miss the Diocese of Toronto. “Here I have been allowed to be who and what I am. I’ve experienced love and support from the clergy and the congregations I’ve been incredibly blessed to visit. Even though I didn’t have my own parish, I was part of every parish in the diocese. I gained so many friends – I now count them as family.”

Bishop-elect Harper says moving to the Diocese of Saskatoon will be like returning home for him and his wife. “Saskatchewan and Alberta have always been our old stomping grounds and we grew up there. Wherever we’ve placed our pillow is home, but now we’re going to be surrounded by family and people we’ve known for many years.”

As he prepares for the next stage of his life and ministry, he thanks Archbishop Colin Johnson and the area bishops for their leadership and support. “With amazing grace, trust and faith, they allowed me to form and shape what I was doing in my ministry here. They allowed me to reach out and respond to the Church, which means they had faith. To me, that was paramount.”

Archbishop Johnson said he was delighted with the election. “Chris Harper’s election as Bishop of Saskatoon increases the voice of our Indigenous sisters and brothers in the leadership of our Church to historic levels, in itself an effective route to alter the ongoing relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Anglicans. He has been an articulate and effective advocate for healing and reconciliation during his short ministry in the Diocese of Toronto. He builds bridges of understanding and support. He will be hard to replace!”

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“The colour orange has always reminded me of that, and how my feelings didn’t matter, how no one cared and how I felt I was worth nothing,” says Ms. Webstad. It took her 40 years to find a way to re-frame her experience to fight racism and bullying.

On Sept. 30, 2013, Ms. Webstad organized the first Orange Shirt Day in Williams Lake to acknowledge the harm that Canada’s residential school system has left in generations of Indigenous families and their communities. Every year on Sept. 30, Canadians are asked to wear orange as a sign of support. A growing number of people have responded each year.

On Sept. 30, the town of Uxbridge will mark Orange Shirt Day. St. Andrew’s-Chalmers Presbyterian Church, St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Mamawi Collective and the Uxbridge Library are planning activities to mark the date. Everyone is welcome. The day will begin with a community church service at 10:30 a.m. at St. Andrew’s, followed by lunch at Elgin Park. At 2 p.m., Jacob Charles and the Ashunyung Singers will lead a program of education and entertainment. They will bring Indigenous artifacts and drums and tell the story of their history through singing and dancing. At the same time, children will be able to take part in a program of crafts, stories and games.

At 6 p.m., there will be a dinner at St. Paul’s. Tickets are $25 (limited to 100) and are available at the Uxbridge Library. After dinner, Matthew Stevens, the cultural coordinator of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation, will speak. The Hon. Jane Philpott, the federal minister for Indigenous Services, will also speak. A limited number of Orange Shirt Day t-shirts will be available for purchase ($15) at the library. For more information about the day, visit www.stpauls-uxbridge.ca.

Submitted by St. Paul, Uxbridge.

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She has since learned that’s not the case. “It’s very, very hard and emotionally draining, and it’s uncomfortable and involves a lot of suffering,” she says. “But in the end, to not strive for the kingdom of heaven on earth would be a complete shame.”

Ms. Yu, a member of St. Timothy, Agincourt, is co-chair of the group along with André Lyn, a member of St. Joseph of Nazareth, Bramalea. Together with seven other people in the group, both clergy and lay, they’ve been raising awareness about racism and inequity in the diocese and developing ways to address them. They will be making a presentation at the diocese’s upcoming Synod in November.

In 2015-16, the group held two anti-racism workshops led by Brother Reginald Crenshaw, OHC, and Esther Wesley, coordinator of the national church’s Anglican Healing Fund. The first workshop was attended by about 25 people from the dioceses of Toronto, Niagara and Montreal. Brother Crenshaw and Ms. Wesley also led discussion groups about the histories of black, Chinese and Indigenous people in Canada.

On radar screens

Since 2017, the group has been providing anti-racism training at Momentum, the diocese’s professional development program for newly ordained clergy. Ms. Yu says it’s important that new clergy learn about racism early in their ministry. “It’s a way of putting it on their radar screens, that this is something they have to deal with and it does affect their congregations.”

Last spring, the group attended the White Privilege Conference in Toronto, along with some other people from the diocese. The gathering examined concepts of privilege and oppression and offered solutions and team-building strategies. Ms. Yu found the event inspiring.

“In some ways I was relieved to hear these topics that I have wrestled with more and more as I’ve grown up in the Church and spoken about with frankness and emotional honesty,” she says. “I found it refreshing that even though everyone expressed a lot of passion and, in some cases, anger, at no time did I feel as though it descended into hate. I think the anger was very motivational at boosting each other up and fighting for change.”

She hopes the group’s anti-racism training will become part of other diocesan programs as well, such as Fresh Start, a resource for clergy and congregations in transition. Ideally, she’d like to see the training become mandatory for all clergy, staff, committee chairs and volunteers.

She says the Church needs to start doing this now. “Our worshippers are becoming more diverse but our leadership is not. We can’t ignore the different ways in which structural racism in our Church turns off people who are racialized or makes the Anglican Church an unpalatable choice to them.”

The group’s work is not new. For the past three decades, Anglicans in the diocese have been seeking ways for the Church to embrace others and to be transformed by their diversity. The group was created in 2014 to implement the recommendations contained in the report “Being Multicultural: Becoming Intercultural,” issued by the Ethnic Ministry Consultation Committee in 2011. Prior to that was the report, “Multicultural Mission and Ministry: Recommendations for Multicultural Mission and Ministry in the Diocese of Toronto,” completed in 2002. The diocese also created a staff position to assist with this work.

Afraid to talk

Mr. Lyn, who will be the keynote speaker at the diocese’s Outreach and Advocacy conference on Oct. 27, says inequity in the Church is often the “elephant in the room” that people are afraid to talk about.

He points out that equity is different from equality. “Equality is about sameness; equity is about fairness,” he says. “We know there are disproportionalities and disparities, so the question is, how do we address those from an equity perspective as opposed to an equality perspective?”

He suggests the answer may be to work with specific groups that have experienced inequity due to racism, colonialism or other forms of injustice. “We don’t all start at the same place and have the same resources, so it may require us to single out certain groups and populations and work differently with them to achieve equity. If we’re able to create equity for one group, then all groups will benefit.”

He is hopeful that can be achieved. “If I weren’t, I wouldn’t be a person of faith,” he says. “It may take longer than my lifetime, but I’m hopeful. If we are deliberate and intentional about addressing inequity and not assigning blame, we can do it. It’s about recognizing that it exists and working collectively to address it.”

He says the Church can do that in ways that secular institutions cannot. “We have the opportunity to do it differently because we come from a faith position and we can do it with love, compassion and prayer. Other big institutions don’t have that same kind of opportunity.”

The other members of the group are the Rev. Adrienne Clements of St. Hilary, Cooksville, the Rev. Maurice Francois of Parroquia San Esteban, Toronto, Karen Turner of the Church of the Redeemer, Bloor Street, Lance Wilson, ODT, of St. John the Divine, Scarborough, the Rev. Leonard Leader of St. George on Yonge, Toronto, Bishop Riscylla Shaw, the area bishop of Trent-Durham and the Rev. Susan McKim of Trinity-St. Paul, Port Credit.

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According to the resolution, the Synod will meet only if called upon to do so by a certain number of bishops and delegates, Archbishop Ron Cutler, metropolitan, wrote in an article about the Synod, which met in Halifax June 8-10. Since the resolution concerns a change to the province’s constitution, it will have to be passed again before it can take effect, he wrote.

Another resolution passed by the Synod specifies that it will meet electronically unless at least one-third of the body’s elected members request an in-person meeting. In another change, the line dedicated to costs for ministry in the province’s three-year budget was removed, reducing the amount that dioceses must contribute to the province. This change, Archbishop Cutler wrote, “recognizes that ministry and mission is best undertaken at the local (diocesan and parish) or national level.”

Commented Dale Keats, a member from the Diocese of Quebec, “It seems as if we are in the process of eliminating what we know of as provincial Synod.”

The Ecclesiastical Province of Canada includes the dioceses of Central Newfoundland; Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador; Western Newfoundland; Fredericton; Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island; Montreal; and Quebec.
Quebec Diocesan Gazette

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Both her position and the residence are funded by Canterbury Foundation, a charity formed in 1972 by members of two local Anglican parishes. Ms. Webster works one-on-one with residents and collaborates with clergy from the two parishes to provide the residents with Anglican and non-denominational services, Bible study groups, communion and support in prayer. She is also planning a special worship service for residents in the home’s dementia unit.

“If we can be healthy in spirit, the journey of body and mind can be less painful,” she says. “I hope to be able to bring comfort and a sense of peace to residents who are grieving the loss of things they have no control over and who may be wondering ‘Where is God?’ and ‘Has God forgotten me?’”

Canterbury Foundation, meanwhile, is planning to expand the residence, adding a hospice and enlarging its dementia wing.

The Messenger

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“If I have one big, single regret, it is that in my time as Primate we have spent so much time on human sexuality that we haven’t given other important matters the kind of attention that is due,” Archbishop Hiltz said in an interview. “I’m always reminded of that when I go to an international gathering where the picture is big, and the world is huge and complex. Some of the stuff we think is so important, so crucial to the life of the Church, to the unity of the Church – all of a sudden you see them in a different perspective.”

Archbishop Hiltz was elected Primate in 2007, at the same General Synod that declared that blessing rites for same-sex couples are not in conflict with core doctrine. In 2013, General Synod approved a resolution to bring the issue of same-sex marriage to a vote. A resolution to amend the marriage canon to allow for same-sex marriages passed its first reading at General Synod in 2016, and its second reading is slated for the synod’s next meeting in July 2019.

Archbishop Hiltz also reflected on other issues, including his decision to resign, the advice he would have for his successor and what the Canadian church might learn from other Anglican churches around the world.

Huron Church News

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As the assistant curate, I am trying to learn as much as I can about the parish’s life and the roles and responsibilities of a priest. I am involved in several of the Redeemer’s ministries, including outreach, liturgical planning, pastoral care, discipleship and parish administration. My position also has a particular focus on “Redeemer Kids” and their families. This gives me the privilege of walking alongside these individuals and groups on their faith journeys and nurturing their presence in the parish. I am involved in church school planning, times of fellowship and learning for families, baptism preparation and more. No day is ever the same!

Outside of the Redeemer, I have been invited to become a member of the executive of the Trinity Divinity Associates, an association for alumni of Trinity College’s faculty of divinity. This group works to bring together current students, graduates, faculty members and friends. My time at Trinity College was so formative, as I was able to learn, ask questions, and get great experiences in ministry. I look forward to contributing to the Trinity College community in this new way.

One of the main things I have been working on over the summer and am excited for is the launch of Redeemer’s church school program. Although the program has existed for a long time, this year myself and the leadership team are very focussed on exploring new approaches to learning to connect with the young people in our midst. The program has us teaching in new and innovative ways and working to involve Redeemer’s kids more in our Sunday celebrations as they find their place in the larger community. It’s a very exciting time as we are learning and preparing for the future of Redeemer’s children’s ministry.

The best part of my job is working with such a faithful, dedicated and talented team of people. I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to learn from each one of them as they share their gifts and talents with me. The staff and the lay leadership at Redeemer have taught me, encouraged me, and given me times of joy and laughter that truly make me love being part of our community.

The hardest part of my job right now is the sheer volume of information I am trying to take in. Working full time in a parish is still a bit of a shock to my system, as I learn more and more about budgets, building maintenance, and all of the ministries at Redeemer. It can be a bit overwhelming at times! Luckily, everyone has been so welcoming and patient as I learn the ins and outs of my role. Even on my hardest days I wouldn’t trade where I am for anything else.

I was born and raised in Mississauga and continue to love living there. My parents, both from Sri Lanka, taught my sister and I a lot about religious diversity growing up, as they are an interfaith couple. My mom is Christian, my dad Buddhist, and my grandmother, who also lived with us, is Hindu. We certainly learned a lot! My family’s faithful and open attitude towards religion was the norm for me. Today it is also a perspective that I am so grateful for, especially as my fiancé, Farhaz, and I prepare for our own interfaith marriage.

I completed my undergraduate degree at Wilfrid Laurier University, with a double major in communications and political science, and a minor in women and gender studies. I went on to complete a post graduate certificate at Humber College in event management and worked in corporate event management before pursuing my Master of Divinity. It was during my time at Trinity College that I finally responded to my call to ordination, one that I think had been there for a while. It has been a bit of a winding journey, but I continue to tell my parents that my event management degree and experience will never go to waste in the Church!

I grew up as a chorister at St. Peter, Erindale, and this really began my faith formation and helped me to feel a sense of belonging in my church community. My spiritual journey went through trials in my teen years, and I briefly left the Church as I was challenged in my faith and questioned the type of God that existed. Despite these challenges, I always continued to pray and reflect on the scriptures, and eventually came back to the Church with a faithfulness that was deeper and truly my own.

An important moment as I discerned my call towards ordination was the encouragement and affirmation of my community. In times where I struggled to believe I was called, or was enough to fulfill my call, my community and mentors encouraged me that God called me as I was, not as a new and improved version. It was largely this affirmation that gave me the confidence to listen and respond to my call to ordained ministry. Many people and events along my spiritual journey have taught me about myself and helped me to grow in life and faith. I still struggle in my spiritual journey from time to time, but my journey thus far has taught me to have trust in God’s plan, and the self-confidence to follow it.

Five years from now I hope to be getting more involved and connected with our diocese’s interfaith work. My interfaith background and reality is one that shapes me and has deepened my understanding of God. Consequently, I hope that one day I can help foster and deepen interfaith conversations and connections our diocese has in the community.

My favourite passage from scripture is 1 Corinthians 13:13. This verse is part of a passage that is usually read at weddings, but I started reflecting on it as I discerned ordination. In those moments, I didn’t understand this passage as describing the love between a couple. I thought to myself: If this is what the Christian life is about, what my ministry could be about and come out of, I could do this. I felt called to faith, hope and love. In this passage, Paul is discussing the meaning, purpose and necessity of love within the Corinth Christian community. It is a love that is not necessarily about a couple, but rather radical communal love that unites differences. It is the words faith, hope and love that I work to abide by. It is these three words that I work to ground my ministry in and help me to embrace and know that I am God’s child, and I am called to lead in God’s church, united with all of God’s people.

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Our cities, towns and communities have grown considerably over the years and there are many challenges facing them today. These challenges include issues such as mental health, addiction, family and societal violence, gender identity, disabilities, and racism. There must be a willingness to address these issues in a comprehensive manner.

One of the major challenges relates to the level of violence in the Greater Toronto Area; it is alarming and should be of concern to us all. It is very disturbing that at the time of writing this article, there were 74 reported homicides in the Toronto area for 2018. I am concerned that the frequency of violence in society can lead to an indifference on the part of many. We cannot and must not allow ourselves to become desensitized or feel hopeless in dealing with any form of violence.

Whenever a murder is committed, it means the lost of a life. It means that someone’s relative – father, husband, son, daughter, grandparent – a child of God – has been killed, and the community has been robbed of a member. The presumption that “gangs” alone are responsible for the violence in our communities is erroneous. Unfortunately, there is also the tragic loss of life at the hands of family members or others. The pointing of fingers or apportioning blame does not address the issue of gun violence and other acts of violence in our communities. Working together to find ways to quell and ultimately eradicate the violence would be beneficial.

This requires the cooperation of leadership in governments at all levels, service clubs, social organizations, religious communities, families directly affected by this violence, youth leadership and any others who can contribute to solutions to these concerns. Vigils, marches, and solidarity gatherings are important in supporting those affected by such tragedies. However, seeking meaningful solutions to violence in our communities is critical.

In a recent letter to Archbishop Johnson and the bishops, a retired cleric of our diocese shared some of his concerns about the violence plaguing our communities. He sighted that any response requires “joining together of community partners (including the Church) to address the serious issues of mental illness and lack of resources to help people. What should come out of this is a larger public discussion on the issue of isolation that starts early in children’s lives by bullying and stereotyping of the children who are ‘different’ in schools; the polite Canadian racism in overlooking the ‘different’ people for jobs, job promotion, housing; and the harassment of the ‘different’ young men by police for simply walking late on the streets or driving too expensive-looking cars.”

I share the cleric’s sentiments and believe that we must confront and address issues that negatively impact our communities. Like many who have made Canada our adopted home, I have witnessed significant differences and changes over the past 26 years. We are tempted to lament that Canada is not what it used to be 10, 20, 30 or more years ago. It is not. Nowhere is. Rather than lament, we need to face the realities of our times and take the action necessary to address the issues.

The cleric, like many of us, shares a view that the growing intolerance of new immigrants in some quarters should also be of great concern. The “us and them” mentality and, in some instances, the demonizing and stereotyping of particular ethnic or religious groups, must be rejected. I believe that the Church has a moral responsibility to call on its members, as well as society, to uphold the dignity of others, to affirm the equality of everyone and to respect those who differ from us.

In his response to the Danforth shooting, which was posted on our diocesan website, Archbishop Johnson stated, “Every act of violence, wherever it happens, is an abuse against the dignity of our common humanity and cannot be tolerated. The proliferation of guns, the blatant disregard for human life and the impulsive (and sometimes deliberate) resort to violent action and reaction are evils which we must address as a society. So, too, we must tackle together the underlying social issues of poverty, marginalization, mental health and hopelessness that afflict many in our city.”

I hope that we take to heart the Archbishop’s response and are willing to be contributors to the solutions needed. We pray for our communities, ourselves and the Church that we will commit to working even harder in our daily lives to treat each other with dignity and respect. I call on all of us to reclaim what the early Church modelled in being a community that cares for everyone, especially the vulnerable.

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The rise of abusive language and behaviour has been boosted by the online presence of trolls (a type of online bully who hangs out on the internet and spews venom at others they target for attack).  Unfortunately, this has been augmented by the example of some of the most powerful leaders in our world, giving “permission” for such nastiness by the unfiltered and immoderate language they use both in public speech and in Twitter blasts.  Muslims, Blacks, women, gays, immigrants, disabled, teachers, police, conservatives, liberals – anyone who is “other,” whether by race, gender, religion, profession or opinion, is a target.

This is not right! This is not healthy debate about contested issues. This is not free public discourse. This is bullying. This is wounding.

We need to take a vocal and active stand against this. But we also need to check ourselves to see whether we not only tolerate it but repeat it in our own conversations in private, online and in public.

There is an alternative narrative to that of our world that informs us as Christians. Our baptismal vows include:

• Will you persevere in resisting evil?
• Will you proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Jesus Christ?
• Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbour as yourself?
• Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?

These are not easy promises to make. They impinge on every aspect of daily life.

St. Paul’s famous passage on love in 1 Corinthians, read so often at weddings, was actually written to a community deeply embroiled in conflict: anger about leadership; resentment about privilege; disparities between rich and poor; polarized factions.

Sound vaguely familiar?

St. Paul writes about the truly transformative and redemptive power of God’s love revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. Love that is kind, not envious or boastful. Not arrogant or rude. Not insisting in its own way. Not irritable or resentful. Does not keep score of wrongs but rejoices in the truth.

What would our world be like, what would it look like, how would it feel different, if we predicated all our actions and our communication on the basis of such love? What would Twitter feeds and Facebook posts and news cycles look like if such love undergirded our mutual relationships?

It is not that differences of opinion would cease but there would be a new tone of respectful engagement. A capacity to work together. The desire to make things different for the well-being of all, not just those in my camp.

Sir Jonathan Sacks has written that God has created all of us in God’s image. If we cannot recognize the image of God in another person who does not look and think and act like us, then we have surely reversed things and made God in our own image. That is the essence of idolatry.

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“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be coming on board,” says Ms. Marshall, a member of St. Timothy, North Toronto. “There’s so much potential for fresh vision and energy in the diocese.”

The Congregational Development department helps parishes become active, healthy communities of hope and faith. It provides consultation, facilitation, training and education through a variety of programs, including Natural Church Development and Fresh Start. Staff and volunteers help with parish reconfigurations and realignments, parish selection committees and missional church initiatives.

Ms. Marshall brings a wealth of experience to the job. Over the past 25 years, she has worked with the Anglican, United, Lutheran and Presbyterian churches. She is currently the director of the Centre for Church Development and Leadership, a program of the Toronto United Church Council.

Although she has worked at every level of the Church, she has spent most of her time helping parishes, a job she clearly enjoys. “I’ve spent countless number of hours and been able to get to know deeply what the heart of these places are, the challenges they’re feeling and facing, and with them finding ways to create new life, new hope and creative ways of reaching out and connecting with the world that we’re called to serve,” she says.

Ms. Marshall was on the staff of the diocese’s Program Resources department (now named Congregational Development) from 1991 to 2004 and is looking forward to returning to work for the diocese. “It feels like I’m coming home,” she says. “I chose to be an Anglican when I was in my early twenties, so the idea of being able to come home and work for and with my own people again is a really lovely thing.”

She says her first goal as director is to enhance the resources provided by Congregational Development. “I believe every leader, lay or ordained, should be supported in their skills and confidence for leadership for the changes the Church is facing these days.”

She is excited by the possibilities. “The diocese is blessed with tremendously gifted, innovative and wise people who have a real heart for creating a Church that can invite people to know Jesus and share God’s kingdom with others,” she says. “It’s going to be a time of fresh energy, fresh ideas. It’s an opportunity to look at what the diocese has been doing over the past number of years, learn from that and create the next generation.”

Angela Hantoumakos, the diocese’s executive director, says she is delighted with the appointment. “Janet brings to the diocese a wealth of subject matter expertise in facilitation, field-based research, training, strategic analysis and planning with diverse congregations, dioceses and presbyteries. It is with immense pleasure that I welcome Janet ‘home’ to the diocese and look so forward to working with her and supporting her in her ministry.”

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