As Bishop Mary is preparing to step down from her role as the Bishop of the Diocese of Montreal, I want to take the opportunity to publicly thank her. To thank her for her service and leadership of this Diocese over her tenure, but also, on a more personal note, to say a word of thank you for receiving me into this Diocese and into the Anglican Church of Canada.
I am still relatively new to the Diocese of Montreal, even though I am not new to Montreal. I was born and raised here, baptized here, started going to church here, discipled here, and even ordained in this city. But I was ordained in the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC). ANiC was my home Diocese for more than 10 years, but in the early summer of 2021 I started sensing a call to the Anglican Church of Canada.
I began to feel a growing conviction that I was wrong for aligning myself with ANiC. That conviction came through a growing sense that I had not heeded Jesus’ command to pursue unity, and that I was wrong for my stance on same sex marriage.
As that sense of conviction grew, I knew that I needed to repent and leave ANiC, and so I reached out to Bishop Mary to see if there might be a place for me in her Diocese.
Bishop Mary didn’t immediately say yes, she very wisely invited me to meet with her, pray with her, and discern together if God was calling me to the Diocese of Montreal.
After about a year of meeting, sharing and praying together, Bishop Mary said that she had a place for me in her Diocese and appointed me St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Greenfield Park as the Interim Priest-in-Charge.
Bishop Mary specifically placed me in Greenfield Park as the Interim for three reasons; 1) Placing me in an interim capacity would give me time to orient myself to this new Diocese without as much pressure on me; 2) Placing me in Greenfield Park would give me space from my previous congregation, which was in downtown Montreal; 3) Placing me in Greenfield Park would also give my previous congregation space from me so that they would have time to reorient themselves after my departure.
The wisdom and grace of all of those reasons impressed me greatly, but none more so than the third reason – wanting to give my previous congregation space to reorient themselves.
Most of the other Bishops that I have known wouldn’t have been thinking about caring for a congregation that wasn’t their own, but Bishop Mary did.
Bishop Mary didn’t want to sow further division or dissent among Anglican brothers and sisters, she wanted to exercise as much grace as possible for everyone involved, even people who had previously left her Diocese!
That graciousness will be the thing that I carry with me most from my time under Bishop Mary’s leadership. She has done many wonderful things in my short time in the Diocese, and has impressed me in many ways, but her concern for a congregation that was not her own and taking the opportunity to care for them in a way that even their own Bishop wasn’t doing, will forever be a lesson in godly leadership to me.
Wherever Bishop Mary ends up, and however she continues to serve the Lord after she steps down from her role as the Bishop of Montreal, her legacy of wisdom and grace will forever be something that I will hold onto, and that I will try to emulate in my own ministry.
And at the end of the day, what is a Bishop if not an example to their flock? Thank you, Bishop Mary, for the example of gracious and godly leadership that you have shown us all.
