Three new Bishops
By Sue Careless
THREE NEW BISHOPS have been elected in the Anglican Church of Canada this Fall, one on the East coast and two on the West. Here is a brief profile of each and of the diocese each will serve.
Nova Scotia & PEI
On Sept. 12th, the Rev’d Sandra Fyfe was elected the next Anglican Bishop of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Owing to Covid-19 restrictions, the 149th Session of the Diocese met in eleven locations throughout the two provinces to conduct the election. She was one of three candidates and won on the third ballot.
She succeeds the Most Rev’d Ron Cutler who had served as Diocesan bishop since 2014.
In a video posted after her election, Fyfe said she considers it a “privilege to accompany people through the joys and challenges of their lives” and approaches being a bishop with some “trepidation” but describes her leadership style as “collaborative.” She wants to address systemic racism and “walk in reconciliation with Indigenous members of our communities.” She plans to spend the first few months “listening and learning and asking lots of questions.” While she is sad to leave her parish, Fyfe hopes to “lead in a new way.”
Fyfe was born and raised in the diocese and is currently the Rector of the Parish of Horton, St. John’s Church, Wolfville, where she has served since 2009.
The bishop-elect graduated from Queen’s Theological College in St. John’s, NL with her Masters of Divinity, and was ordained deacon in 2000 and priest in 2001 in the Diocese of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador.
She served first as Curate at St. Thomas, known as the “Garrison” church in St. John’s, NL; was Rector at Christ Church, Shelburne; and, Priest-in-Charge of the parishes of St. James Church, Kentville, and Lockeport-Barrington. She was Archdeacon of the South Shore Region until 2009 and Archdeacon of the Annapolis Valley Region until 2017.
She has been married to Jim for 23 years and they have two children, a daughter studying at Dalhousie and a son in grade 11.
The diocese is the oldest in the ACC, founded in 1787 and is unusual in that it has not one but two cathedrals, All Saints in Halifax, N.S., and St Peter’s in Charlottetown, PEI. Stretching over the two civil provinces the diocese has 95 parishes and 224 congregations. Nine of the parishes are in PEI. Currently both civil provinces are in the same COVID-19 bubble.
The bishop-elect’s consecration is set for Nov. 30th in Halifax. Attendance will be limited due to COVID-19 restrictions but the service will be recorded and available via livestream.
British Columbia
On Sept. 26 the Rev’d Anna Greenwood-Lee was elected to be the next diocesan bishop of British Columbia. The Calgary priest was one of seven candidates and was elected on the seventh ballot. She succeeds Bishop Logan McMenamie, who served since 2014 and retired this May.
Greenwood-Lee, has been incumbent of St. Laurence in Calgary since 2006. In 2016 she was reprimanded and removed from her position as regional dean for participating in a same-sex wedding.
She has served on the board of the Calgary Homeless Foundation and as chair of the Community Action Committee (an umbrella group of agencies serving the homeless in Calgary). She currently serves as chair of the Calgary Alliance for the Common Good and is a member of the Calgary Interfaith Council.
“Systemic racism must be dealt with at the policy level and the church needs to be active in the work of creating more just and compassionate structures and systems,” the bishop-elect wrote in her profile for synod delegates. “More and more in my leadership, I find myself asking those around me, ‘What am I not seeing?’ and ‘What are you hearing?’ I seek to listen and consult in order to take definitive action when necessary.”
She and her husband, James, have two children: a son, 12 and a daughter, 16.
Greenwood-Lee has an undergraduate degree in Religious Studies from Mt Allison University in NB and her Master of Divinity from Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She has also studied business administration and clinical pastoral care.
She was ordained deacon in 2000 and priest in 2001 in the Diocese of Calgary and served first as Curate then Assistant Priest at Christ Church in Calgary from 2000–2002. Next, she was Associate Priest at Grace Church on-the-Hill in Toronto from 2003–2006.
Greenwood-Lee’s consecration has been set for Jan. 30th in Christ Church Cathedral in Victoria.
The Diocese of British Columbia is on the traditional lands of the Coast Salish, Nuu-’chah’nulth and Kwakwaka’wakw peoples and “seeks healing and reconciliation with the First Peoples of Canada.” Established in 1892, the diocese originally covered the entire civil province of British Columbia. As the population of the province grew, four new dioceses and one territory formed. The current Diocese of British Columbia has 6,000 members in 46 worshipping communities on Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands of the Salish Sea (Strait of Georgia), Broughton Archipelago and Kingcome Inlet.
New Westminster
On Oct. 3, the Rev’d John Stephens was elected Coadjutor Bishop of the Diocese of New Westminster. He was one of five candidates and won on the third ballot. The Electoral Synod voted electronically. Stephens will be consecrated on Jan. 23 at Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver.
Stephens will succeed Archbishop Melissa Skelton as diocesan bishop when she retires on Feb. 28. By then, Skelton will have served as diocesan bishop for seven years. A co-adjutor bishop allows for a smoother period of orientation and transition.
Stephens is currently Rector of St. John’s, Shaughnessy.
In 2002 St. John’s Shaughnessy was by far the largest congregation in the Anglican Church of Canada with over 800 members. However, that year, when the synod of New Westminster authorized its bishop Michael Ingham to produce a service for blessing same-sex unions, the delegates from St. John’s Shaughnessy, and several other conservative parishes, walked out in protest. Then in February 2008, the St. John’s Shaughnessy congregation voted overwhelmingly to leave the ACC altogether and realign with the newly-formed Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC).
The original congregation lost a lawsuit to retain their property on Nanton Avenue and in 2011 moved out of the building with 98% of the parishioners and are now known as simply St John’s, Vancouver.
Under Stephens, St. John’s Shaughnessy is now, according to its website “a small, new, and growing congregation.” The building also now houses the diocesan offices and archives.
Stephens studied Zoology at UBC and earned his Master of Divinity at the College of Emmanuel and St Chad, University of Saskatchewan. He was ordained deacon in May 1991 and then priest in November of the same year.
He served as Deacon-in-Charge and then Rector of a three-point rural parish in the Diocese of Huron in southern Ontario. All his subsequent ministry was in New Westminster: Rector of St. John’s Squamish, 1995-2001; Rector of St. Philip’s, Dunbar, Vancouver, 2001-2016; Priest-in-Charge of St. John’s Shaughnessy, 2011-2012 (while this parish was in transition back into the Diocese of New Westminster and while also Rector of St. Philip’s) and Interim Priest-in-Charge of St. Mary’s Kerrisdale 2017-2018 (while he was also Rector of St. John’s Shaughnessy).
Currently Stephens is Chair of the Board of Management of the West-Side Anglican Neighbourhood Ministry serving those living on the streets or at the margins, and is a member of the Diocesan Sub-Committee on Climate Emergency.
“I continue to have wonder for this world and places of splendour,” Stephens wrote in his candidate profile. He and his wife Ruth have two adult children. “The work of ministry continues to keep me humble and grateful while the ability to create with my hands keeps me grounded.”
The Diocese of New Westminster stretches along the Sunshine Coast, Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley of British Columbia and consists of 66 parishes and 3 worshipping communities on the ancestral lands of the Coast Salish First Nations. TAP
