Belong Ottawa’s executive director Shauna-marie Young rallied and thanked all the teams who turned out and had been raising funds in support of Belong’s Centre 454 location, which has been asked by the City of Ottawa to move out from its longtime home at St. Albans Anglican Church by January 31, 2027.

Young said Belong Ottawa is “working with the City of Ottawa, the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa (which we are a branch of), partners and community to seek additional time for a thoughtful, evidence-based transition to a new location.” No new location has been found yet, and Belong Ottawa has formally asked the City for an extension of the January deadline.

“We have shared a feasibility study with the mayor and councillors, and thanks to many of you and many more, we now have over 1,200 letters of support for an extension to the timeline for 454,” Young said. “Our message is simple: we want tot protect the services, preserve the relationships, and ensure that any transition is done thoughtfully—with the people who rely on Centre 454 at the centre of the conversation.”

The staff and volunteers want to avoid interruptions of the essential services Centre 454 provides to people who are precariously housed or experiencing homelessness, including meals, access to showers and laundry facilities, as well as help navigating the social support and healthcare systems.

Young shared a few striking facts that illustrate the vital role Belong Ottawa serves in downtown Ottawa:

Since June 2025, Belong Ottawa had served more than 250,000 meals [about 15,000 each month] with about 125,000 of those being served at Centre 454.

Following the closure of the Consumption and Treatment Services (CTS) in Sandy Hill and the Byward Market, Belong Ottawa is seeing double the need for the harm reduction supplies they distribute

Since August 2025, when Belong Ottawa staff started work to support people in the evenings outside of the centre, the staff have engaged in 13,000 crisis interventions on the streets.

Young thanked the Rev. Rosemary Parker and the St. Aidan’s parish for hosting Belong Ottawa’s Ride for Refuge for a second year, as well as HUB International and David McNamara for sponsoring the event again. She also offered special thanks to the Rev. Michael Garner, his family and the St. Albans parish community “for their steadfast partnership of Belong Ottawa, particularly to-Centre 454 and its day-to-day work.”

The Rev. Victoria Scott, director general of the Anglican Community Ministries, thanked everyone whose work and contributions made the event possible. Before the bikers and walkers set off, she offered a prayer of thanksgiving for the day and “for all whose generosity, creativity and care have brought us together. Bless these bicycles, these riders, these walkers and all who cheer them on. Keep them safe, give them joy in the journey and remind us that resilient communities are built when people show up for one another.”

Belong Ottawa’s Ride for Refuge webpage showed that all the teams’ collective efforts had helped them raise about 60 percent of their fundraising goal of $25,000, with the St. Bart’s movers team led by Darlene Holden coming in as the top fundraisers with $3,145 dollars raised on the day of the event.

Donations are still being accepted on Belong Ottawa’s Ride for Refuge page until Oct. 31, however, so online the race is still on. By Oct. 15, the Belong Ottawa team, led by India Bedson, manager of communications, development and community engagement, had nudged their way into the lead.

Participating in the letter-writing campaign to support Belong Ottawa’s request for an extension for the transition time for Centre 454 is another vital way to help.

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Several Anglicans were honoured to be among volunteers selected to help carry the Memorial Cloth at the ceremony on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Sept. 30.

The Memorial Cloth is a 60-metre long banner of red fabric that bears the names of more than 4,000 children who were taken away from their Indigenous families and communities to attend Indian Residential Schools across Canada and who did not return home. Some died, often of diseases such as tuberculosis related to poor health conditions in the schools. Some tried to run away and were lost or died trying. This year, organizers said that the original cloth had been reprinted anew to include more names of children who had been identified as lost since the cloth was originally printed.

Algonquin Elder Claudette Commanda, the first Indigenous chancellor of the University of Ottawa, opened the ceremony with a prayer, thanking the Creator for the survivors of the schools and sending love to all the children who attended the schools. She prayed that September 30 would be a day of love and that all Canadians would carry that love in their hearts every day.

During the ceremony, survivors and dignitaries spoke interspersed with poetry and musical offerings from Indigenous artists. Partway into the program, volunteers gently brought the Memorial Cloth unfolded to its full length through the crowd to the stage where it was carefully folded and displayed prominently on the stage.

Janet Allingham, a member of the diocesan All My Relations Episcopal Panel and a parishioner at St. Barnabas, helped co-ordinate applications from the small group of Anglican women who volunteered to help carry the memorial cloth. “I could not help but notice the extreme care and respect with which organizers handled the Memorial Cloth during rehearsals: actions that made the children present to volunteers. Later, during practices, organizers encouraged us to walk in formation to prevent wrinkles from obscuring names,” she said. “As we walked, I thought about those names. I also remembered survivors and descendants many of whom still feel profound sorrow and loss on this and many other days…. The Memorial Cloth will lengthen over time. May this and other acts of remembrance inspire even more journeys of reconciliation in our own day and beyond.”

“The Memorial Cloth is both a visible and emotional reminder of the past, and it is part of the truth-telling,” said Jennifer Parr, a parishioner at St. Albans. “The first time I watched the memorial cloth go past me, it had more of an impact than anything I had read or heard. As you watch over 4,000 names go by you, and it wasn’t just hearing about the impact of residential schools. It’s seeing the names and imagining the people whose names are being carried on that cloth. So that, to me, to be able to carry the cloth and to carry those people in my heart as I carry the cloth, is very powerful.”

As she was waiting for the ceremony to begin, Julie Cross, a parishioner at St. Barnabas, told Perspective that she wanted to “challenge myself to remember what actually happened at the schools. I want to hold the Memorial Cloth and think about the names of the people that are right in front of me and think about what it meant to their families to lose them and not know where they were. And I want to listen and make a couple of new friends, so that I can participate better in the spirit of my country.”

During the ceremony, Governor-General Louise Arbour told the large crowd gathered that, “Honouring the truth is much more than remembering the past. It is how we begin to shape a different future. The right to truth is fundamental in any society seeking to come to terms with a painful past and to move forward on the path of reconciliation. But remembering is only one step. It must be accompanied by a commitment to ensure that injustices are never, ever repeated. We must build institutions, relationships, and attitudes that foster an environment where every person is treated with dignity, with equality, and respect. And we must also confront the forms of denialism, that persist despite extensive historical records and an undisputable body of evidence, including first-hand survivor testimony. …We need to stand together to face the future with strength.”

Marni Crossley, who is a parishioner at Christ Church Bells Corners, said that helping to carry the Memorial Cloth was a very emotional experience as she thought about the children that were lost, but she still felt privileged to be able to participate, listen and learn more about the trauma Indigenous people experiences to help her be a stronger ally.

Valerie Maier, a parishioner from Church of the Epiphany who also helped to carry the Memorial Cloth, said she was struck by “the size of the banner and how many people it took to hold it. And then moving with the banner made me think about how we need to work together. …There were corners, we had to go around, so there’s not an easy trail. We worked together, and that’s what we have to do in the future. ….Remembering the past is really important, but we’re moving forward as well together… people from all walks of life, and generations, as well working together to do this.”

Karen Luyendyk, from St. Paul’s in Almonte, shared her thoughts on a similar theme. “As I arrived on the Hill early on the morning of Sept 30, I walked by drummers practicing on the big drum…I immediately thought, “I’m home.” I pondered why I’d had this thought as a non-Indigenous person… perhaps ‘the heartbeat’?  Yes, perhaps, but I also thought of the myriad ways colonialism suppressed Indigenous ceremony and practices and how all Canadians lost so very much as a result. Later in the day, Elder Claudette Commanda invited everyone to join a dancing circle as those same drummers closed the Ceremony of Remembrance, and I heard Niigaan Sinclair say, “This is how Canada was always meant to be.”  So … as I joined in the dance, holding the hands of people I was meeting in that moment … I was HOME!”

Seeing so many Canadians from all generations and walks of life joining in a Round Dance together offered a hopeful coda to the solemn and sombre ceremony and reflections of the day..

Anglican parishes observe the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

St. John the Evangelist, Ottawa

St. Thomas the Apostle, Ottawa

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MAID remains a controversial subject for many, and after welcoming everyone to the session, van der Meer acknowledged that those attending probably had different views and perspectives. “We are not here to persuade you in any direction,” he assured them. “We are here to respect where each other is coming from and to give enough information, so you have some insight about Medical Assistance in Dying,” and to provide a setting where people felt comfortable asking questions.

He introduced the two guest speakers:

• Dr. Justine Amaro, an emergency medicine and MAID physician at the Ottawa Hospital, and assistant professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa
• Dr. James Downar is the head and professor of the Division of Palliative Care in the Department of Medicine at the University of Ottawa; Clinical Research Chair in Palliative and End of Life Care for the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa; staff physician, department of Critical Care at the Ottawa Hospital, and investigator for the Bruyere Research Institute.

The discussion provided an overview of MAID, including some of its history and its path to being legalized, who is using it, ethical concerns or legal constraints, as well as practical details about what happens with a MAID procedure, who qualifies and how MAID is accessed.

Downar began the discussion with a brief history of MAID including landmark legal cases such as Sue Rodgriuez’s, when her fight to have a physician help end her life as her condition of ALS advanced lost in a Supreme Court of Canada decision by one vote in 1993. Many cases followed, but none succeeded until a case brought forward by two women — one with ALS, the other with spinal stenosis—won their case in BC Supreme Court, BC Court of Appeal, and ultimately the Supreme Court of Canada in the early 2015. This ruling struck down the law that made medical assistance in dying illegal for people with “a grievous and irremediable medical condition, ..[defined] as serious and incurable, advanced state of irreversible decline in capability, and somebody who’s experiencing intolerable suffering or suffering that was intolerable to them,” he explained.

When the federal government passed Bill C-14, they added the criteria that a natural death must be reasonably foreseeable, but that was soon challenged in court by two people with disabilities but not terminal conditions. Downar explained that the governments of Quebec and Canada amended the law, so there are now two tracks, one if there is a reasonably foreseeable death, and another if the person does not have a terminal condition but they find their suffering intolerable.

He noted that Quebec has gone one step further, passing a bill allowing advanced requests for people who have a condition where they know they will lose their ability to make decisions in the future.

So far, that is not allowed in the rest of the country, and it touches on one of the difficult complications of MAID that Dr. Amaro discussed. A safeguard in the process is that the person who has applied for MAID must be capable of understanding what is happening and giving their consent on the chosen day. “If on the day of the procedure, I arrive and say, ‘Would you still like to go ahead today?’ and the patient is unexpectedly confused, delirious, they don’t know why I’m there, they don’t understand what’s happening, we can’t go ahead,” she explained.

That concern causes some people to ask for MAID sooner than they might otherwise. Although Amaro says that an amendment to the law has been made that allows for a waiver of final consent, a signed agreement with the doctor specifying conditions in which the person wants the procedure to go ahead if they have lost capacity. Nevertheless, Amaro explained that any sign of refusal on the designated day still ends the process entirely. “We can’t ask later. We’re finished,” she said. “Whereas if you have capacity, you always have the right to change your mind…. “If you say, ‘Dr. Amaro, I’m actually feeling pretty good today. I don’t think I do want MAID yet. Can we put this off?’ 100%. No problem. No one’s going to be upset with you. We can put it off till any future date if capacity is maintained.”

Amaro’s description of how patients are assessed highlighted some of the other safeguards in place. As opposed to the time pressures in much of health care these days, Amaro says assessing physicians visit people who have applied for MAID in their homes, which she says gives her the opportunity to listen to people and understand their situations. “Some patients … want to just get the questions answered and go through it in 20, 25 minutes and we’re done. And sometimes I have the pleasure of sitting over a cup of tea for an hour or two.” A second physician does a follow-up visit, going over all of the same questions again.

She added that part of the assessment process is ensuring that patients know that MAID is not their only option. “There’s almost always a long discussion about the fact that palliative care is a spectrum. And it is an expertise in medicine where you can be provided with care to help … optimize and improve your quality of life throughout the trajectory of your disease…. It’s a wide scope, but part of MAID eligibility is you must be made aware that palliative care exists, and you have to demonstrate that you understand that and you can weigh it out.”

Downar also provided some numbers on who is applying for MAID. The majority of people applying for MAID are people who have a terminal condition, mostly cancer or ALS, as well as some heart and lung diseases. People in the second track whose death is not reasonably foreseeable make up about four percent of MAID in Canada, and most commonly they are suffering with neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s.

Some of the questions asked by those who attended related to clergy and the church. One person said a Roman Catholic friend was wondering if she could be buried in a consecrated cemetery if she chose MAID.

Canon van der Meer, who is the diocesan interfaith officer, said: “I can’t speak for all churches, but we have a friendship among our neighbourhood churches: Baptist, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic and Anglican churches. We had a conversation about this leading up to this event. The Catholic Church does have an official teaching about the sanctity of life, which they interpret to mean that MAID is not possible. However, the Catholic priest has said he would not hesitate to pray with people for any reason. He would do a funeral in the church and a person could be buried in the way anyone else would be.”

As an Anglican priest, he added, “Our church also holds to the sanctity of life, but it does not have an official teaching on MAID…. There is a range of comfort level among my clergy colleagues. Clergy are encouraged to bring their conscience into pastoral matters; they may choose to be pastorally available or if they’re not comfortable, they would invite another clergy person to provide pastoral care. I (and most clergy that I know) would all say that ‘I respect the medical profession, and I will accompany any person pastorally.’ …My intention as a pastor is to be supportive and to trust that the person has made a considered and mature decision and offer whatever spiritual support is needed.”

A full transcript of this very informative discussion was posted in a link in one of St. John’s weekly newsletters: https://files.constantcontact.com/3730ca79501/e5ef67a0-6716-41bd-99b1-402f751a334d.pdf

The post Learning more about Medical Assistance in Dying appeared first on Perspective.

The Bishop Ordinary of the Anglican Military Ordinariate reports directly to the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, and Archbishop Shane Parker was the presiding celebrant at the service on Holy Cross Day.

Bishops from across the Anglican Church in Canada attended the service and joined the Primate to lay hands on Gosse-Vingerhoeds to pray for her as she was consecrated. She is the first woman to serve as Bishop Ordinary.

In his sermon, Bishop Samuel Rose of the Diocese of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador said that Gosse-Vingerhoeds began her ordained ministry in 1997 in the Diocese of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador. “It was my privilege some 25 years ago to succeed her as an incumbent in the parish of Cartwright in Labrador.” He noted that she also served as the Archdeacon of Labrador, serving as rector in the parishes of Lake Melville and Happy Valley-Goose Bay.

“For those who know that vast and beautiful place that is Labrador, serving in ministry there demands resilience and a deep respect for the people who call it home. There are things that we did not learn about in seminary — navigating snowmobile trails across frozen seas in the winter and black flies in the summer, chopping wood to heat the rectory,” Bishop Rose said.

“In Labrador, you learn quickly to adapt to your surroundings by honouring the rhythms of life and death and to walk gently with people who live close to the land and to the sea. That kind of formation — practical, humble, and rooted in authentic community — is, I believe and can attest, excellent preparation for the episcopacy,” he said.  “Jennifer, Labrador, shaped you with a bishop’s heart long before today’s laying on of hands. For you are already resilient, practical, and closely attuned to the lives of those you serve.”

Gosse-Vingerhoeds served in parish ministry until she joined the Canadian Forces in 2007 as a chaplain, a role she continued until just before her consecration as bishop.

Bishop Rose described the ministry she is embarking on: “As Bishop Ordinary, you will walk alongside chaplains wherever they serve, whether on bases here in Canada, or deployed far from home. You will oversee chaplains who serve in hierarchical, multifaith, and often operational environments, supporting them as they minister amid the unique pressures of military life. You will comfort those who grieve, walk with those whose faith has been tested, and encourage those who are tired. You will also teach the faith with clarity and guard the integrity of Anglican ministry among those whom you serve. You will remind every service member and their families that the cross is not a sign of abandonment, but of God drawing near to them in the darkest of valleys. And in a world that prizes strength, you will show the kind of strength that God makes perfect in our weakness. That same adaptability, resilience, and deep respect for people that served you well in Labrador, will serve you now in this new calling.”

In a subsequent interview with Perspective, Gosse-Vingerhoeds was asked how she was feeling about beginning her new ministry. “It’s exciting and it’s humbling,” she said. “I get to look after the people who were my colleagues up until 10 days ago, and I know how important it is as a chaplain to have the support your bishop, of your chief pastor. And so, the fact that I get to do and be that for the chaplains who are still serving is amazing.”

She was taking her position as the first woman to serve as the Bishop Ordinary in stride. “It’s a first for the Anglican Military Ordinariate, but we have had female bishops for so long now [in the Anglican Church of Canada] that it just kind of seems commonplace.” She added, however, that she was delighted that Bishop Victoria Matthews led her pre-consecration retreat. “She was a real pioneer for women because she was the very first female bishop in all of Canada and at a time when there were very, few outside of Canada as well. So, it was absolutely fantastic to have her lead my retreat and just hear a little bit about what her, ministry was like.”

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And so it happened this spring when All My Relations (AMR) Episcopal Panel co-chair Kathryn Fournier visited the Archives to entrust a number of AMR books and resources, such as a copy of the Indigenous Peoples’ Atlas of Canada, to the Archives so they would be available and accessible to people in the diocese.

On the subject of such resources, Lockwood mentioned that all the churches that operated Indian Residential Schools on behalf of the Canadian government agreed to send all of their documents related to the schools to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation in Winnipeg as a part of the Indian Residential Schools settlement. Here in the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa, that required copying and sending about 14,000 documents. It was a three-year project (2013 – 2015) for volunteers Mary Barker, Lynn Glenn and Caroline Herbert who searched the collections for references to the schools. Then archivist Meg Stewart compiled an index of those 14,000 documents copied and shipped to Winnipeg.

Fournier said she was flabbergasted that there were so many since there were no residential schools located in the diocese, so people here may have felt “one-step removed” from that history. Information from Lockwood and her initial perusal of the documents, however, revealed that Woman’s Auxillary groups from many parishes were very involved in sending bales of goods to the schools right across Canada from the early 1900s, often to particular students who they knew by name. It’s all there in hand-written minutes of their meetings., Fournier said. “Shipping them all over Canada and up to the Arctic over so many years. That to me, indicate a, a fairly high degree of engagement.”

The women certainly did this charitable work with the aim to support the children and their education and likely viewed the schools’ aim to provide Indigenous children with education in a positive light, without knowing about the suffering and abuse many endured while they were students. And yet, present-day Anglicans could read a report of bales sent to students in the years between the early 1900s and the 1920s knowing that it was during that time that Dr. Peter Bryce wrote and published reports on terrible conditions in the schools that he warned were contributing to the deaths of children. Dr. Bryce’s reports were disregarded by the federal government of the time, which suspended funding for his research, blocked presentations of his findings and eventually forced him out of public service and into retirement.

Fournier thought that Anglicans in the diocese would be interested to explore the files and learn how people in their parishes or families, perhaps a great-grandmother, were engaged in trying to support the children in the schools.

Editor’s note: Details about Dr. Peter Bryce’s reports have been added to this version of our original story to be published in the October print edition of Perspective.

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St. Margaret’s was full for her final service on June 28 with extra chairs brought in and standing room only at the back of the church. Parishioners from both the Inuit and non-Inuit congregations as well as family and friends wanted to honour and thank her, not only for her work, care and leadership in the church, but also in the Inuit community in Ottawa.

Ottawa has the largest population of Inuit people outside of the Arctic. People often come to Ottawa for medical care, education and employment. Attagutsiak has been an important support for Inuit who often have not travelled outside the Arctic before. She visits Inuit in hospital. She helped establish an Inuit sewing group and is one of the key organizers of a large annual Inuit gathering and celebration at Christmas time when people enjoy traditional foods such as Arctic char and caribou. St. Margaret’s also hosts a community meal after Sunday services.

In her sermon, Attagutisak reflected on her faith journey. She grew up in Arctic Bay in a family of 14. They lived on the land in traditional Inuit way, hunting and fishing. She previously told Perspective that her mother loved going to church and all 14 children studied the Bible at Sunday School. Her older brother was a priest in Arctic Bay.

She told those gathered how others saw that God was calling her to be a priest before she did. After she moved to Ottawa in 1998, she began attending services at St. Margaret’s where the Very Rev. Roger Briggs, who had served in the Diocese of the Arctic, presided at St. Margaret’s Inuktitut-language service. She became a lay reader, and Briggs asked if she would like to train for the ministry. So did the Rev. Jason Pollick when he served at St. Margaret’s.

And when Bishop Andrew Atagotaaluk visited St. Margaret’s, he too told her he felt that she would one day become a priest. She again said no, she couldn’t.  He asked why.  “I thought all about the ways that I have made mistakes, so I told him, ‘I’m a sinner. You’re too late to choose me.’” But the bishop answered her, “The more you talk about yourself, about how you’re a sinner, the more I like you.”

Eventually, she came to believe that it was not the other priests calling her, it was God.

After studying with Briggs, attending annual courses at Wycliffe College in Toronto, she was ordained as a deacon in 2014 and as a priest in 2015, but even then, she struggled. When she first was appointed as a full-time priest at St. Margaret’s, the Rev. Canon Rhondda MacKay asked her if she wanted to preach the sermon on the National Indigenous Day of Prayer on June 21. She reluctantly agreed but recounted how she ended up crying in the bathroom before the service.

“I was talking to God. ‘You chose the wrong person. Why don’t you choose one of those people who know everything, who are not afraid to speak, who have wisdom about the Bible? I know nothing, Lord. Nothing. I don’t know how to speak English.’”

But she knew everyone was waiting for her, so she washed her face to hide her tears and went into the church. To her surprise, a parishioner named Derek Hamilton came and sat beside her. “He said, ‘I’m here to say, ‘Aigah, you’re in the Holy Spirit. You are with the Holy Spirit.’”

“That shocked me a little bit,” she said. “I thought to myself, ‘He doesn’t know me. I was telling God that he chose the wrong person.’” And I said, ‘Even when I try to argue, am I still in the Holy Spirit?’

“He said, ‘Yes, the first day I saw you, I saw that you were in the Holy Spirit. You’re with the Holy Spirit…. That’s all I have to say.” And he left.

Attagutsiak said she wondered about that many times later and questioned herself, “What does that mean?” Later, the answer came to her. “I’m with God. If you don’t know anything, ask God. It says in the Bible, whenever you ask, God will give it to you.”

And indeed, Attagutsiak went on to serve God and the community faithfully and with great devotion. In 2022, then-Bishop Shane Parker appointed her to the Cathedral Canonry of Saint Mary Magdalene.

“So,” she said to everyone in the church at her retirement service, “I’m giving those words to you. … God used Derek to speak to me, and I pass it on to you. The more we can be in the Holy Spirit to help people, to help one another… Jesus will come again.”

The emotional service included drumming by Timothy Erkloo, and ‘Amazing Grace’ sung in Inuktitut. After the Eucharist, the service ended with many tears and hugs and gifts of appreciation for Attagutsiak. Then everyone was invited into the parish hall to enjoy lunch with delicious caribou stew and cake.

The post The Rev. Canon Aigah Attagutsiak retires appeared first on Perspective.

The day began with Elder Larry Langlois offering a smudge and prayers outside the church.

Then everyone moved into the parish hall where Belle Bailey and Charmaine Leonard, who came to the event from Mādahòkì Farm, demonstrated two beautiful traditional dances. Bailey performed a Fancy Shawl Dance, and Leonard performed a Jingle Dress Dance. Afterward, they spoke and offered some insights from their Indigenous cultures and advice on how non-Indigenous people can learn more and work to contribute to reconciliation.

Archdeacon Monique Stone invited Everyone attending to participate in a collaborative art project, adding their own designs to rocks that had been painted red, white, yellow and black. Then all the rocks were carried out into the parish garden to be arranged into the four quadrants of a medicine wheel, an important symbol in many First Nations cultures, which represents the interconnectedness of all life, the cycles of nature, and a path to personal balance.

The parish offered bannock with strawberry jam and strawberry water as refreshments for all.

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The most immediate concern is the January 2027 deadline to move the centre when a new location has yet been found.

Mary Martha Hale is a parishioner at St. Albans, but she was also the long-time executive director of the centre before she retired in 2014. “January is impossible,” she said, having overseen the only time the centre moved away from St. Albans (to a former office building on Murray Street). She said it took about 18 months to find a place, to go through community consultations to fit up the building, to plan and renovate, and also help the community adapt to the idea of the centre moving.

“But that’s if you can find a place. Twenty-seven years ago, when we found the place on Murray, we had to go before the Committee of Adjustment at the City. We had to go before the Lower Town Community Association and give them information about what we were planning, what kind of services we offer, and actually, we were able to engage one of the members of the community association to sit on our board.” In 2011, as that location was becoming too small to meet their needs, Bishop John Chapman, bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa at the time, invited them to come back to St. Albans, this time to occupy the whole basement not just half, and not as tenants of the parish but as a one of two ministries of the Diocese that would be partners in the building.

Considering the current situation, Hale asked, “Are they truly going to close a service for the homeless in downtown Ottawa in January? It would be extremely shameful for the City to close the centre in January with no alternative identified and prepared,” she said. “If that if that is going to go ahead. I’m going to be picketing at the City,” she vowed.

Belong Ottawa has sent a formal, written request to the City to extend its transition time at St. Albans.

St. Albans’ rector, the Rev. Michael Garner is concerned that finding a new location will be difficult. He asks if the City will provide funding for a new location, the move, as well for renovations to adapt a building for Centre 454’s needs.

But even if all of that comes together, he fears that many of the people Centre 454 currently serves won’t be able travel to its new location if it is to be outside of the municipal Ward 12. “A lot of the people who go to the centre are pretty significantly challenged through drug addiction, through homelessness through physical infirmities…. The crux of St. Albans’ concern is those people aren’t going to follow the centre because they live the shelters in that neighbourhood, on the streets in Sandy Hill/Lowertown.

“If those people aren’t able … to go to where the centre goes, who’s going to care for them? Who’s going to feed them? Who’s going to provide them with showers? Garner asked. “Even just the pragmatic issue of public washrooms in the downtown core. There aren’t many. One of the main public washrooms, especially now that the safe injection sites are closed, is Centre 454. Where are people going to go to the bathroom?”

Even though the bathrooms and showers would still exist in the church basement, Garner explained that serving that high acuity population requires professional staff to run and supervise the facility. “As a parish, we don’t have the capacity to run Centre 454 by ourselves…. But there’s still going to be a need for laundry… for food …for showers and all the amazing things the centre does… It’s the concern for the people who are literally our neighbours who we’ve been caring for.”

Both Hale and Garner thought that moving the centre would have negative consequences for residents in the broader area as well. As someone who attends St. Albans, Hale said, ”Every time I go to the church or by the church, I see people leaning up against the gate, and people are using or they’re helping each other, or they’re just sitting there. And then if the centre’s open, there’s fewer people on the street. Those numbers, I think, are going to climb,” she said.

Parishioners hope to meet with Bishop Kathryn Otley in the early fall for a collective discussion of the news of the move. Centre 454 has been an important part of the current parish’s identity since it returned in 2012. As the opioid crisis escalated, some parishioners even took training offered by Centre 454 since 2022, learning how to reverse overdoses with Naxolone kits and carry them with them. Garner says that parishioners have participated in reversing at least 10 overdoses, many of them on Sunday mornings.

“It’s part of the role of the church to be ministering to the vulnerable,’ said Hale. “These are human beings, and the people who I have been in relationship with at the centre are just like you and me, but they’ve just had horrible circumstances in their lives that have pushed them into homelessness.” She noted that being homeless makes people more vulnerable to predators in the drug trade.

“I always felt my work was my faith in action. And the relationships that are built, the lives that are supported, it flows in both directions. My life was enriched by my experiences at the centre. Just as I hope my being at the centre enriched others’ lives,” Hale said.

“The City has benefitted from the centre offering these services at a lower cost than if they had to provide them themselves,” Hale added, mentioning that Mayor Mark Sutcliffe praised Belong Ottawa’s work two years ago when he attended its 70^th anniversary celebration.

Garner said there is a moral question at the heart of the situation. “’Housing first is a great tagline, and obviously, housing is great, but the road to have everyone housed is long. So even if the City has a 100% foolproof plan that is going to work, it probably takes 10 years, and in the meanwhile, we still have to take care of these populations.”

Related reading: 

Belong Ottawa’s Centre 454 asks City for an extension of its time at St. Albans

Ride for Refuge supports Centre 454 on Oct. 3.

The post St. Albans concerned about Centre 454 transition appeared first on Perspective.

As an Anglican Community Ministry, Centre 454 has offered care and essential services to adults experiencing homelessness, poverty, mental health challenges, substance use related harms and social isolation for 72 years. St. Albans Anglican Church at the corner of King Edward and Daly Avenue has housed this ministry for most of that time. The City of Ottawa, which provides core funding for the program, has advised Belong Ottawa that Centre 454 will need to relocate, with a current deadline of end of January 2027.

Belong Ottawa has sent a formal written request for an extension of the transition timeline to ensure its “essential service continues without interruption for everyone who depends on it.”

The prospect of any move of this kind is daunting. Belong Ottawa welcomes 600 to 700 people to its three locations every day, with about 45 percent of them at Centre 454. In addition to meals and other essential services, Belong Ottawa provides referrals to help participants access income, housing, newcomer supports, addiction and mental health treatment services, education, employment, health, legal and other supports.

In recent years, Center 454 has upgraded its kitchen and laundry appliances. The centre provides access to showers, laundry and lockers where people experiencing homelessness can temporarily store their possessions, and cots with clean linens where they may rest in a safe space. Moving locations in the dead of winter would add another level of complexity at a time when the City requires warming centres and safe places people can seek shelter from the cold.

Belong Ottawa is a low barrier drop-in day program. Everyone is welcome, and for the safety of everyone involved, open use of drugs or alcohol has always been prohibited inside the program and on other Community Ministry properties. As the opioid crisis intensified over the past several years, however, the increasing prevalence of public drug use created new challenges for participants, staff, volunteers, and the surrounding neighbourhood. It also intensified pressure from some nearby residents who had long called for Centre 454 to relocate. Belong Ottawa staff have been trained in the use of Naloxone to reverse overdoses, and they regularly save lives. The recent closure of Consumption and Treatment Sites (CTS) in Ottawa, including two in the Sandy Hill neighbourhood near Centre 454, have increased pressure on the city’s health and social service system.

Kale Brown, director of Housing and Homelessness for the City of Ottawa, acknowledged that “Centre 454 is an important part of Ottawa’s social support network and has supported some of the community’s most at-risk residents for decades.” He attributed the need to find a more suitable location to “the needs of program participants and the surrounding community” evolving. “As a primary funder, the City is working closely with Belong Ottawa to review location options and support the transition. As planning continues, our focus remains on maintaining service continuity and supporting community well-being,” and helping “ensure day programs, like Centre 454, remain a welcoming community resource.”

Belong Ottawa’s executive director Shauna Young told Perspective it is vital that any new home be “meaningfully placed,” so it is accessible to the people Centre 454 serves. Launching a fundraising campaign to uphold critical services and fortify Centre 454 through this transition, Belong Ottawa confirmed its commitment “to continuing Centre 454’s compassionate, low barrier support for generations to come. As community needs grow, we are partnering with the City to strengthen this vital service.” A silver lining outcome would be finding a larger and purpose-built space to help meet increasing needs, Young said.

The Rev. Victoria Scott, director general of the Anglican Community Ministries, said: “As attention continues to focus on Centre 454’s relocation, our immediate priority remains advocating for an extension to the January 2027 timeline and helping people understand the impact this transition will have. As we navigate this moment together, we remain committed to holding with care the longstanding witness of this ministry, the people who rely on it, the realities facing the surrounding neighbourhood and the City of Ottawa, and the discernment required to find a new home where Centre 454 can continue offering dignity, stability, and compassionate support.”

The important role Belong Ottawa plays in the community was evident at a summer barbeque held in Dundonald Park on July 22 that was attended by more than 500 people, most of whom participate in programs at one or all three of its locations.

Rabeya Klein told Perspective that Belong Ottawa changed her life. She recalled being isolated in her home in the years before the pandemic. “I would find myself alone all the time, getting depressed and not feeling like I belonged anywhere,” she said. Fortunately, at that time, she lived next door to St. Luke’s Anglican Church on Somerset Street where the St. Luke’s Table program (now part of Belong Ottawa) served hot lunches and offered other assistance to anyone in need. When she walked in for the first time, the staff welcomed her warmly, and she decided to volunteer. She began helping to serve lunches and then moved to calling bingo numbers. Now she serves as a member of the Belong Ottawa Participant Advisory Committee, gathering and expressing feedback from participants and sharing ideas to improve the drop-in day programs. “I’ve made lifelong friends through volunteering at St. Luke’s,” she said, noting that the relationships and opportunities for social connection are one of the best aspects of Belong Ottawa programs.

Calley, told Perspective that she has visited all three locations of Belong Ottawa at various times, said she found the staff are patient and “are always there to listen to you…They helped me understand that there is help out there.” She added that they helped her find housing after she went through a difficult time. Calley also mentioned the importance of the friendships and social connections formed at Belong Ottawa.

The Rev. Victoria Scott reflected on the importance of the Community Ministries for Anglican Diocese of Ottawa. “As a church, we are called both to respond to immediate need and to name the injustices that create that need. Compassion requires us to meet people where they are. Justice requires us to ask why so many people continue to fall through the cracks and what must change so that people and communities can flourish.”

She added, “Too often these conversations become polarized, as though we must choose between supporting vulnerable people and acknowledging the strain that frontline ministries and neighbourhoods are experiencing. We can hold both realities and work toward solutions that serve everyone. We can affirm the dignity of every person while also saying clearly the current situation is failing many people, including those struggling with addiction, those working on the front lines, and the communities around them.  Held together, these truths invite us into a shared work of discernment—one that refuses false choices and seeks the common good by pursuing solutions that honour the dignity of every person and strengthen the well-being of the whole community.”

Anyone wanting to support Belong Ottawa’s request for an extension to the transition timeline will soon be able to participate in a letter-writing campaign through Belong Ottawa’s website. There will also be opportunities to support the ministry financially through an upcoming fundraising campaign.

Supporters and allies are also encouraged to participate in or sponsor a team in the Ride for Refuge on Oct. 3: Ottawa Elmvale Acres (Belong Ottawa) – Ride for Refuge 2026 In the meantime, donations to support Belong Ottawa’s work can be made through the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa’s online donation page.Donate Now – ANGLICAN DIOCESE OF OTTAWA

Belong Ottawa hosts a summer barbecue

Concerns about Centre 454’s transition did not dampen the spirits of the Belong Ottawa staff, volunteers and the more than 500 people who attended a summer barbecue on a hot and sunny day in Dundonald Park.

Related articles:

Ride for Refuge supports Centre 454 on Oct. 3

St. Albans concerned about Centre 454 transition

“Grow through what you go through” — Great, but how?

The post Belong Ottawa’s Centre 454 asks City for an extension of its time at St. Albans appeared first on Perspective.