Tribute: Brent Stiller 1963-2023
A saint is a believer who has gone before us
By Sue Careless
WHILE sadly our small publication does not have the space to recognize every faithful Canadian Anglican who dies, we would like to acknowledge the passing of Canon Brent Stiller, and offer our sincere condolences to his wife Karen Stiller, a fellow Anglican journalist and the co-editor of Faith Today. In 2020 her fine memoir The Minister’s Wife was dedicated to Brent.
In early November Canon Stiller’s parish of St Peter and St Paul in downtown Ottawa hosted the annual synod of the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC). Shortly afterwards the rector was diagnosed with lymphoma and died just weeks later on Jan. 13 at 59.
At his funeral his three children told how their father could easily engage both friend and stranger. He taught his offspring that “trusting in God’s faithfulness does not side-step suffering” and that “A saint is a believer who has gone before us.”
Stiller was Canon of Clergy Care for ANiC and had also just accepted an appointment as an adjunct professor at the denomination’s new seminary, Packer College in Newfoundland.
In a letter on behalf of ANiC’s House of Bishops, Bp Charlie Masters wrote:
“I have known few with such a mix of gifts and skills: real, feet-on-the-ground, calling things what they are, tender and approachable as a pastor, incredibly competent in all he did, extremely funny, desperately leaning on the Holy Spirit, fully confident in the promises of God. And he was someone who loved the Anglican tradition, loved to see things done well to the glory of God (decently and in order), and through it all remained humbly approachable and ministered as a servant.”
Stiller served as rector of St Peter & St Paul’s for the past six years. Prior to that he was rector at New Song Church in Port Perry (2011-2016).
Before joining ANiC in 2011, Stiller served in the Anglican Church of Canada as rector of Church of the Ascension, Port Perry (2002-2011) and in other ACC parishes across the country, from Vancouver to Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan to Halifax, including at St. Paul’s Bloor Street, Toronto.
He was a graduate of Regent College in Vancouver (MDiv), and Gordon Conwell Seminary in Boston, with a Doctorate in Preaching. He served as adjunct faculty at Wycliffe College in Toronto and taught in Uganda, as well as helping to launch a satellite seminary in Honduras to help equip lay leaders from various denominations to serve their churches more effectively.
Stiller had an undergraduate degree in International Development from Dalhousie and was a news junkie who loved reading, music, fishing and wilderness camping.
He is survived by his wife Karen and their three adult children: Erik (wife Nicoli), Holly and Thomas, his brother Rod and his parents but is predeceased by his sister Jill who died when Brent was only in his twenties.
The family invites donations in Brent’s honour to the newly created Brent Stiller Clergy Care Fund: www.anglicannetwork.ca/clergy-care-brent-stiller or to St. Peter & St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Ottawa by mail: 152 Metcalfe Street, Ottawa, ON, K2P 1N9. TAP
