Ottawa Diocese: New Bishop-elect of Ottawa
(Staff) ON MARCH 14th The rector of Christ Church Cathedral in Ottawa was elected as the tenth Bishop of Ottawa. There were six candidates and the Very Rev. Shane Parker won on the fifth ballot. He received 69.9% of the clergy votes and 51.7% of the lay vote. Election requires 50 percent plus 1 vote in both houses.
Parker succeeds Bishop John Chapman who has held episcopal office for the past 13 years.
The election was held on the last day before all Anglican services in the diocese were suspended to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
After his election Parker told the synod: “I am very conscious that tomorrow morning we will not be gathering in our churches. We are called in this unusual time to be love in a world that is now filled with fear. This is our time. We are called to give the compassion and wisdom of God in Christ to care for those who are afflicted, who are isolated, who are terrified.”
Parker was born to Irish parents in Edmonton and grew up in western Canada. He worked as a labourer for several years before undergraduate and graduate studies in sociology at Carleton University, and was a professional sociologist prior to studies in theology at St Paul University. He was ordained priest in the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa in 1987 and was appointed Dean of Ottawa and Rector of Christ Church Cathedral in 1999. Prior to his appointment as dean, he served as a parish priest and as a diocesan archdeacon.
He has served as a sessional professor in pastoral theology at St Paul University and currently chairs its Anglican Studies Advisory Committee. He has been for many years a member of Carleton University’s Research Ethics Board. Following a long period of writing for the Ottawa Citizen’s “Ask the Religion Experts” column, a collection of his essays was published by Novalis in a book called Answering the Big Questions. In 2010 he was the recipient of the Interfaith Ottawa Award, for promoting interfaith dialogue and cooperation.
Parker is an associate member of the Ontario Association of Family Mediators. He has established close connections with Coventry Cathedral in England and its ministry of reconciliation known as the Community of the Cross of Nails, and with Saint George’s Anglican Cathedral in Jerusalem, which is committed to interfaith dialogue and reconciliation. He has led several pilgrimages to the Holy Land.
Parker is married to Katherine, who practices family law. They have three children and two grandchildren. On the cathedral website Parker is quoted as saying:
“We find our true nature when we locate God’s love within us and allow ourselves to be guided by it in all we endeavour to do. To grasp this, however tentatively, is to receive a sense of hope and purpose that is alluring, affirming and life-changing.”
If the social isolation measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 are lifted in time, Parker will be consecrated at the end of May.
The Diocese
The Diocese of Ottawa straddles the Ottawa River and spans 46,620 km. It sits on traditional Algonquin and Mohawk territories and since 2015, Parker has encouraged the Cathedral to host events that would build new and meaningful relationships with Indigenous People – especially with the local Algonquin Nation.
The diocese is comprised of 111 congregations with 19 churches in the national capital itself. Other urban centres include Cornwall, Perth, and Renfrew, as well as Aylmer in Quebec.
Many diocesan clergy serve in small farming and forestry communities and cottage country, as well as in towns through eastern Ontario and western Quebec. While church services are primarily in English, there is a French-speaking congregation at St. Alban’s near the University of Ottawa and an Inuktitut-speaking congregation at St. Margaret’s, Vanier. TAP
