Anglicans march in the revived Pride Parade

Anglicans in the diocese celebrated the return of the Ottawa Pride Parade on Aug. 28, marching again after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. 

Veteran organizer Ron Chaplin told Crosstalk that as the group waited for the parade to start a few people asked him about this history of Anglican participation, and he shared his memories with us. 

Chaplin began worshipping at St. John the Evangelist on Elgin Street in 1993, and he recalled that sometime soon after that, the parish decided to set up a table to serve lemonade and cookies to people as the Pride Parade passed by the church. “We did that at least once for Pride and at least once for the AIDS walk….It was kind of a tentative start.”

And then one year, he got a call from Alex Munter, who was a city councillor at the time. “Ron, do you know about those guys who picket the Pride parade every year?” he asked. Chaplin knew exactly the people Munter was referring to—three guys who “always had placards quoting some of those clobber passages from the Bible. 

 “Do you know someone who could organize a counter protest?” Munter asked. 

“I thought about it for about five seconds, and I said ‘I know just the person.’ He called Gillian Wallace, a fellow St. John’s parishioner at the time.

  “I put her and Alex in touch with each other and away she went. She got a small group that produced their own placards and their own Bible verses and they walked in the parade. And the minute they saw those guys…., they were on them like bugs to fly paper and just stood next to them. … That was the first St. John’s contingent in the parade, and it was kind of done for that purpose. And over the years they kept that up,” Chaplin said, noting that he didn’t see any protestors this year.

He was part of a core group that started a chapter of Integrity, a North American organization of LGBTQ+ Anglicans and allies. “We organized a monthly eucharist, and Integrity had a budget, and so it was decided that there would be an Integrity contingent in the Pride Parade. The chapter paid the registration fee and would send out an invitation via email to parishes to join in and identify themselves and march together in the parade.” That continued for several years until Chaplin says that Integrity wound down as more and more parishes became accepting of gay (LGBTQ+) participation in parish life. When the Ottawa chapter closed, Chaplin became a one-man organizing committee, registering the group in the parade each year.

Another big step came in 2015. After General Synod, when Bishop John Chapman announced that he had made the decision to authorize the marriage of same-sex couples in the diocese, Stephanie Boyd, the diocesan communications officer, called Chaplin with the suggestion that with the bishop’s decision, Anglicans should be marching as the Diocese of Ottawa. “I said that’s a great idea, and she produced the banner that we have been using. But I just kept on registering the group and organizing, showing up on the day of the parade with the banner. I would send out the invitation to parishes to join in, and over the years there were more and more parishes who would show up.”

Chaplin estimates there were a half dozen parishes participating in the parade this year. That’s less than in the past, but it is understandable after the two-year interruption of the parade. The committee only decided to go ahead with this year’s parade in May, which is much later than usual, he said.

Looking to the future, Chaplin said he is trying to create a succession plan for others to take on the responsibility of organizing the Anglican contingent. “All it requires is to go to the website, sign the group up, send a cheque and show up on the day of the event,” he explained. Individual parishes could sign up on their own, but this just makes it easy for everyone to show up, he said. “It’s a great way for parishes to demonstrate to the LGBTQ+ community that they are welcome in their churches.”

“I would send out the invitation to parishes to join in, and over the years there were more and more parishes who would show up.”

—Ron Chaplin