Retired Archbishop of Moosonee
Former Metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario
Nanaimo, British Columbia
In 1961 I was a teenager and spent the next two summers helping communities build a church and mission house in the Diocese of the Arctic. Later, while a priest in that diocese I first learned of the Anglican Foundation from a founding member who was a member with me on the Primate’s Council of the North.
Later, when I began episcopal ministry in the Diocese of Moosonee, we were swept up in the Anglicans in Mission programme to raise, in part, additional funds for clergy in assisted dioceses. But with that funding secured, the needs for infrastructure upgrades were very real and the costs for isolated communities prohibitive. It was at that point that we turned to the Anglican Foundation. Year after year, loans and grants enabled new buildings and upgrades in almost every parish, with strong local support and building on the available local resources. In thanksgiving almost all recipients of aid took out memberships in the Foundation.
More recently, the work of the Foundation broadened. Scholarships helped provide language training and orientation for candidates for northern ministry. First Nations communities are recovering their languages and cultures while regaining pride and self-assurance. The Anglican Foundation is part of all this, and I am witness to it. I am proud to be a Primate’s Circle member of the Anglican Foundation.
