Tribute: David Ashdown 1950-2021
(Staff) THE SASKATCHEWAN farm boy who, as an archbishop, was instrumental in the creation of the first Anglican Indigenous diocese, has died.
On June 9 Archbishop David Ashdown passed away peacefully in Regina with his wife Penny and their family by his side.
In 2015, while he was Bishop of Keewatin and Metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province of Rupert’s Land, Ashdown oversaw the transfer of First Nations parishes in northern Ontario and Manitoba that had been part of the diocese of Keewatin to the newly-formed Indigenous Spiritual Ministry of Mishamikoweesh.
Bishop Lydia Mamakwa from the Kingfisher First Nation, an Oji-Cree community, became its first bishop and the diocese of Keewatin ceased operation. With the transfer successfully completed, Ashdown retired.
Bp Mamakwa told The Anglican Planet: “We are forever grateful that Abp. Ashdown decided to support the dream and aspirations of the elders to have their Indigenous Diocese with a native Bishop.” When asked if that dream had existed for many years, she said: “Yes, even before Abp. David came to the Diocese of Keewatin.”
National Indigenous Archbishop Mark MacDonald said that along with Bp Mamakwa, her clergy, and elders, “Archbishop David was an essential and vital part of one of the first concrete expressions of Indigenous self-determination.” He continued: “There were so many more aspects of his leadership, but this one will reverberate and bless for generations to come.”
In the early 1970s Ashdown had served as a dorm supervisor for four years in an Indian Residential school in the Northwest Territories. The Anglican Journal reported in 2009 after his election as metropolitan that Ashdown “said he has since come to believe that the residential school system was wrong, despite the fact that many good people worked in it.”
Ordained as a priest in 1978, Ashdown pastored parishes in the dioceses of Qu’Appelle (in southern Saskatchewan), Athabasca (in northern Alberta) and Keewatin. Elected bishop of Keewatin in 2001, he was also Metropolitan of Rupert’s Land for the last 6 years of his episcopate.
In his retirement Ashdown returned to the small community of Craik, Saskatchewan where he had once been a parish priest, and served instead as mayor until last year.
Michael Hawkins, Bishop of Saskatchewan, wrote that Ashdown “brought colour and passion to everything he did. I am grateful for his work in the Province of Rupert’s Land and the Council of the North as well as for his friendship and support.” TAP
