Following the parish’s decision to disestablish, Bishop Shane shared these thoughts with parishioners when he announced that he was appointing the Rev. Tim Kehoe as Incumbent and the Rev. Michael Garner as Associate Incumbent at Saint Thomas, recommending that parish to them as a place where they would be welcomed with grace and sensitivity.
My personal history with the Church of the Resurrection goes back to its early days in 1969, when my family arrived in Ottawa under tragic circumstances. Your parish ministered to my family at the time of my father’s death in 1970. Your community provided my mother and her three young children with an important sense of continuity during a difficult period of change; and the ministry of one of your rectors, The Reverend George Bickley, was very influential in my faith journey. Your parish touched many lives over the last 50-plus years, and that is something to be proud of and thankful for. And so, I praise your courage and share your sorrow in coming to the point of disestablishing. We are people of the Resurrection, however, and with every passing we know there is indestructible hope.
Deanery of East Ontario — Church of the Nativity, L’Orignal