A modest crowd braved the cold night to attend a benefit concert for Centre 454 performed by the Paul Weber Band, and they were rewarded with great music and songs full of stories and the local history of eastern Ontario.

Mary Martha Hale, a retired former executive director of Centre 454, welcomed the audience and thanked the band for their generosity in doing the concert.

Shauna-marie Young, the current executive director of Belong Ottawa, thanked everyone for coming. “Your presence is an act of solidarity, and it means more now than you may ever know and more than ever before.” Centre 454 faces opposition from businesses and residents in the area who want it closed or relocated. “This evening would not be possible without the ongoing support of St. Albans, and the leadership of the Rev. Michael Garner, and the legacy of Mary Martha Hale,” Young said.

“Every day, the people who walk through the doors of Centre 454 and all of the sites for Belong Ottawa face bitter cold, hunger, loneliness, and the uncertainty of simply making it to tomorrow. In fact, today, on King Edward Street, three of my team who work at 454 offered lifesaving overdose support and revived a gentleman who had stopped breathing and had turned blue overdosing.” By the time paramedics arrived, the man was up walking and refused the ambulance.

“The work we do saves lives,” Young said. Since June 2025, “our team has responded to more 2 ,000 incidents on the streets in this neighbourhood, and with today’s intervention, 27 lives have been saved from overdose,” she reported.

“For more than 70 years, Centre 454 has been a place of refuge, offering warmth, nourishment, dignity, and human connection, said Young. “And the need continues to grow…. Since June of 2025, Belong Ottawa has served more than 56,000 meals from this site here, and 110 ,000 meals at all three drop -in day programs. …Beyond meals, we offer warm, clean, and safe places to rest, along with showers, laundry services, and a real sense of connection. Centre 454 is a doorway to support, and for many, a pathway to recovery. to healing, to employment, to income, and ultimately, it is sanctuary to all.

“Some of our participants recently shared with me at a town hall meeting what 454 means to them: ‘It’s like a second home.’ And another young man said, ‘I feel human again when I’m here.’ Another person responded, “You save lives.”

Young thanked everyone “for believing in Centre 454 and Belong Ottawa, and most importantly, for believing in the people who rely on us. Everyone deserves safety, care, and belonging.”

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The Rev. Bob Albert, warden of lay readers, told Perspective that in the past, medallions were worn by lay readers in the diocese of Ottawa, but in more recent years they have been wearing a blue scarf with their white albs (robes).

Albert had been working with Bishop Shane Parker (prior to his election as Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada) to streamline the information and documents about training and becoming a lay reader, and in the process, they also discussed what lay readers wear. The bishop thought the blue scarves were too similar to the stoles that clergy wear with their robes and it might be confusing. He suggested that medallions would be more distinctive.

Albert started working on the concept and initial designs. The bishop had suggested that the design should incorporate the diocesan colours and ray logo, so Albert consulted with Carole Breton, diocesan director of communications, on ways to incorporate diocesan branding. Breton enlisted the help of Marcela Hurtado, who is the diocesan donor relations officer but also has a background as a graphic designer. She recently created the logo for the new diocesan Hearts of Compassion Fund.

The result of their collaboration is now realized in medallions that Albert is distributing to incumbents to present to the lay readers. The design incorporates symbolic elements associated with lay ministry, including an open book and cross, representing scripture, proclamation, and service. These elements are framed by a laurel wreath, a traditional symbol of honour, dedication, and faithful service, reflecting the commitment entrusted to lay readers.

There are about 60 Licensed Lay Readers in the diocese. Albert explained the process of becoming a lay reader begins when an incumbent identifies a parish need for additional services that are not necessarily clergy-led and sends a request to the bishop for one or more lay readers.

Historically, the next step would require a few years of training, but Albert says that people who are interested in becoming licensed lay readers have often already done quite a lot of educational work such as the Education for Ministry program or taken courses at theological schools, so there is now more flexibility for an incumbent to assess what training the individual still requires.

Albert created training modules and checklists to help incumbents assess a person’s readiness to become a lay reader.

The lay readers have gatherings every six months with a focus on supporting and learning from one another, he said.

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How diverse are the faiths represented in the chaplaincy?

In fact, we have people of no faith in our chaplaincy … humanist chaplains, Christians of all stripes, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, traditional Indigenous spirituality, and we are working on a training program for a Sikh chaplain and additional humanist chaplains.

How closely do they work together?

We have diverse teams and our motto is ‘Called to serve.’ The idea is that whatever the need is of the person in front of us, it could be expressed to any chaplain and that chaplain would be responsible for facilitating what that person requires. If they were asking for a particular religious service that was not the chaplains’ that they were speaking to, then either they ask a colleague on their team or they have relationships with those in the community to make sure that that spiritual need is provided for.

What are some of the challenges and rewards of working together in this way?

We’re really a model in the worldwide chaplaincies….This idea of chaplains of varying faiths and belief systems working so closely together is quite anomalous for other chaplaincies who are quite focused on the care of their own religious tradition. It’s really enriched all of us in ways that we couldn’t imagine. Starting just even from ecumenical relationships with other Christians. Our Protestant chapels … are an ecumenical group of all the Protestants, whether they be Pentecostal or Baptist or Anglican. It’s a joy and a challenge to work with people of diverse perspectives — finding common ground, finding a place of respect, being open to others’ joys and spirituality and how they express that…St. George’s Chapel in Petawawa is a really active chapel and a really great example of this ecumenical model.

…All of our chaplains are really guided, directed to stay firmly rooted in the tradition that they come from and represent. … So even as you are working closely with other people, you’re not there to lose yourself. You are there to continue to represent who you truly are in that group of people.

When did you feel called to ministry and to the military?

I grew up in Calgary…and in university I discerned a call to certainly greater theological studies. I wasn’t quite sure where it was going to take me, because I grew up Roman Catholic… but I wanted to study theology in a more in-depth way, and so I went straight over to Toronto School of Theology, University of St. Michael’s College after I finished my undergrad. I did a Master of Divinity where, again, as a Roman Catholic layperson, I wasn’t sure what the ministry opportunities were. I did placement work in prison and hospital settings.  I felt that institutional chaplaincy was something that I would be drawn to and would be very interested in, as opposed to just regular church work.

And then I saw a poster for Cadet Camp Chaplaincy [as it was called then], which is our cadet and junior rangers program….They were asking for theological students to go and spend summers on these training centres and … offer spiritual care…. I did that for two summers… the second of which was on a working military base where I talked to military chaplains… I really felt that this was a place where I felt called…. I was bilingual. I was adventurous, younger, and felt that having this take-the-church-to-the-people model, bringing the spiritual care to the people, which is kind of what chaplaincy is… was something that I felt really drawn to.

I was hired as a Roman Catholic lay pastoral associate. It’s almost a diaconal role. Pastoral associates had a kind of mandate from the bishop to provide care, help out at churches, bring communion, and do baptisms and weddings where they were required, but in doing that, I felt drawn to greater leadership and felt and saw myself in an ordained ministry position.

I had always dropped in and out of Anglican churches to experience the spirituality and the openness of the Anglican church. In 2008, I discerned that … I had to make the step towards being ordained in the Anglican Church of Canada and found great support from the Anglican Military Ordinariate of the time and Bishop Peter Coffin. Bishop John Chapman was the one who facilitated my training and my eventual reception into the ordination into the Anglican Church of Canada.

What does being the first woman to be appointed Chaplain General mean to you?

It’s always hard to answer because I spent 25 years in the chaplaincy…. You are conscious, as a woman, that you are in the minority. But there was always this growing number of women and a growing recognition that that’s part of our diversity that we really need to continue to foster. Our CAF is made up of men and women and diverse gender identities. Everybody needs somebody to be able to talk to. So, to be the first woman, in a way, you almost feel like it’s a bit late in coming…. But I’m really humbled. I’m really honoured just to be named Chaplain General…. Our motto is Called to Serve and I feel very much called to serve those who serve, and to do that in a way that represents a gender minority in our CAF as an example to all women, especially women of faith. We’ve often been in the minority in our faith communities as well, not recognized as spiritual leaders. So for me, it is a special recognition that women can be spiritual leaders and military leaders. And people have told me that it’s important for them to have that example, and so I honor that.

What proportion of chaplains are women?

About 10 to 15 % of our chaplaincy are women. We would love to have more. I would love to have more because to me that is still clearly not representative of Canadian society, and it is not representative of all of the richness of our faith traditions and their leadership either. And so that is continually [a goal], as we work on recruiting, maintaining a representative face of Canada. It’s really important to me, whether that be spiritual and faith tradition diversity, and certainly gender diversity as well.

Aside from deployments abroad, the CAF often helps with wildfire and floods here at home. Those situations must also be challenging for chaplains.

We’re spiritual first responders when we walk alongside a lot of these other first responders who are going into those disasters when the sensible people are leaving. And it’s a very particular calling to stand alongside people who are doing this difficult work for Canada at home and abroad.

What else would you like readers to know about the work of CAF chaplains?

The chaplains are there in the small times of life, and post COVID, I think we’ve realized that people look for and need connection. …The world is unstable, and so people are looking for grounding and meaning and purpose. I’m really proud that the chaplaincy serves in the Canadian Armed Forces to be that source of hope and inspiration and meaning for people. And as we’re sharing this with [a readership in] the Anglican Church, it’s a place where I think many of our clergy would flourish [serving] either on a part -time or a full -time basis. It’s a very meaningful ministry.

It’s challenging… This is the church that has been sent into this difficult setting… in different parts of Canada and around the world. So, I invite the prayers of our readers because I think our chaplains need prayer and spiritual support and really welcome that. When our chaplains show up in Anglican churches, they’re probably looking for a little bit of nourishment themselves. And so, [I] invite everyone to welcome them and hear their stories, because it’s a very powerful witness to spirit of goodness and hope in the world.

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The election took place on Feb. 28 at Christ Church Cathedral Ottawa. Otley was one of three archdeacons nominated, with the Ven. Brian Kauk and the Ven. Monique Stone, from among clergy in the diocese. She was elected on the second ballot with 53.62 percent of the vote from clergy members of the electoral Synod and 50.39 percent of the vote from lay members. Election requires a majority (more than 50 percent) in both orders.

Archbishop Anne Germond, metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario who offered the homily at a Eucharist worship service prior to the election and chaired the election proceedings, thanked all of the nominees for allowing their names to stand in the election process and for their faithful service in the church.

In a brief word to the Synod after her election was announced, the bishop-elect said she was honoured that “among such gifted colleagues you have elected me to be your bishop, leading our Diocese at a time that is full of challenges, but I believe challenges that we can transform into opportunities together. We do that by calling on the sure and certain hope of our faith. And so, I just want to close with the words of Paul in Romans: ‘May the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing that we may overflow with hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.’ Amen.”

Otley has been a territorial archdeacon in the Diocese for eight years. She currently serves as incumbent at All Saints’ Westboro in Ottawa, and prior to that was incumbent at Christ Church in Bells Corners for 10 years, incumbent for the Parish of Fitzroy Harbour for five years, and served as associate curate at Saint John the Evangelist on Elgin Street. She was first ordained as a deacon in 2006 and as a priest in 2008 after earning her Bachelor of Theology and Master of Pastoral Theology at Saint Paul University.

Serving the diocesan church, Otley has worked on governance committees, clergy wellness and development ministries, been a member of the All My Relations episcopal panel. She has served the Anglican Community Ministries as a chaplain to the Well, board member of the Ottawa Pastoral Counselling Centre and served on the Community Ministries Committee. She is a member of the Bishop’s Panel on Housing Justice. At the Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario, she served as diocesan representative for 15 years – chairing the Homelessness and Affordable Housing working group in that time. At the national church level, she now chairs the Public Witness for Social and Ecological Justice Coordinating Committee.

Otley is the first woman to be elected as bishop in the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa and joins 12 other women currently serving as bishops in the Anglican Church of Canada. The Rt. Rev. Victoria Matthews was the first woman elected as a bishop in the Anglican Church of Canada in 1994.

Otley said that she is honoured to be the first woman elected as bishop of Ottawa and to join the ranks of women bishops. She added that she stands “in solidarity with and builds on the strong foundation of leadership of all genders.”

The bishop-elect will be consecrated and installed as Bishop of Ottawa on Saturday, May 9, 2026, at Christ Church Cathedral Otawa. All are welcome to attend the service, which will also be livestreamed.

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Janet Currie-Kelk, All Saints’ children and youth ministry leader, told Perspective that it was difficult to organize a traditional confirmation program that accommodated kids’ busy schedules of school and extra-curricular sports and activities. “It would be so much nicer to have a longer time frame for young people and have more flexibility,” she recalls wishing.

“The biggest thing about confirmation is that the young people feel supported by their community of faith, and [recognize] that this isn’t a graduation. This is a start of a new journey, in the sense that they’re taking their own responsibility for their own faith development.”

Currie-Kelk had been reading a lot about intergenerational ministry that suggests that keeping children and youth programming separate from the rest of the community “isn’t necessarily in the best interest of anyone’s faith development.” She and the clergy team asked, “How could we offer something to these young people that surrounds them in the community and provide them with the knowledge, the skills, and the experiences of living one’s faith?”

One of the ways of doing that is giving them a confirmation partner or mentor, which All Saints’ does.

And they found a program with the flexibility they were looking for — the passport idea — from an Episcopalian church in the U.S., which has been working with the concept for about 10 years and even offers customized adaptations for different denominations.

They consulted with parishioner Patricia Bays, who has had a long involvement in Christian education and is the author of This Anglican Church of Ours, who was impressed, and so they decided to adapt it for the local context in the diocese of Ottawa.

The passport concept allows a user to prepare for confirmation or simply engage in Christian education programming at any age at their own pace. And it takes confirmation beyond books into experiential learning with lots of room for questioning and reflecting.

There are three broad categories of learning — Foundation, Spiritual Practice and Community in Action. All Saints’ held its first foundational session in the fall — a group discussion of the question “Is doubt okay?”, which drew about 25 people and included parishioners who weren’t involved in confirmation but were just interested in the topic There are four more sessions:

• What do you believe?
• Scripture Mad Dash
• One Church, Many Expressions
• Circle of the Church Year

They intend to hold these core sessions each year, so anyone who wasn’t able to attend won’t have to wait too long for the next one.

The passport includes room for the participants and make notes and record their reflections.

The Spiritual Practice category includes three core requirements:

• Anglican traditions
• Holy Week – (participants must join for at least one day)
• Attending worship service at All Saints’ Westboro at least once a month.

Then participants can choose three of these:

• Prayer and practice
• Praying with Psalms
• Indigenous Spiritualities
• Bible Story-telling
• World Religions
• Labyrinth Spiritual Practice
• Forest Church
• Humanics Santuary and Sculpture Park
• Sacred space
• Lectio Divina
• Vespers
• Crafting circle

Community in Action — How can we love and serve our neighbour?

• Holy Troublemaking
• Suffering — Where is God?
• The Ministry of the Rest of Us
• All Saints’ Westboro Community Space Volunteer

Currie-Kelk says this is a draw for the youth. They talk about Jesus as the ultimate Holy Troublemaker or an activist for Black rights such as Viola Desmond. These issues “tend to also have a very large impact on their faith development. So, faith isn’t just Sunday morning, it’s living it. Whether that’s helping in a food bank, or going on a mission project, or volunteering within other community events.”

Once participants have completed all the requirements, they can be confirmed.

The program is just launching, but Currie-Kelk says that the response so far has been enthusiastic. “We printed 50 passports to start with and we gave them all away.”

All Saints’ is happy to share the templates and their experiences with other parishes that are interested. Incumbent Archdeacon Kathryn Otley has shared information about the program with other diocesan clergy.

Above— Pages from the passport with room for notes and personal reflections.

L— Janet Currie-Kelk is All Saints’ children and youth ministry leader.

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Snowstorms made it impossible for Watson to travel to Ottawa as planned, so St. Bart’s parishioners and others in attendance gathered in the church hall to listen online.

Watson’s morning session was on historical friendships that have advanced ecumenism.

He began by mentioning some famous friendships such as the ones between St. Francis of Assisi and St. Clare; St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross; and Trappist priest Thomas Merton and social justice and anti-war activist Dorothy Day.

Watson then shared the inspiring story of how a friendship helped heal a deep schism between the Eastern and Western Churches (later known as the Orthodox and Catholic churches). A dispute led to the leaders of the two branches of the church excommunicating one another in 1054 and a “deep freeze” of alienation that lasted for 900 years.

A shift happened when Pope Paul VI was elected in 1963 in the midst of the Second Vatican Council (which included a goal of fostering greater Christian unity.)  In the Orthodox Church, Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople was aware of the beginning of a “thaw” in Catholic attitudes towards other churches. He began a correspondence with Vatican leaders and eventually with Pope Paul himself.

In 1964, Pope Paul made a surprising pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He and Patriarch Athenagoras met, embraced and prayed together on the Mount of Olives in January 1964.

Later that year, Pope Paul returned a relic — the skull of St. Andrew — that had been in Rome to the Orthodox Church. (Andrew is the traditional patron of the Eastern Orthodox).

In December 1965, the Pope and Patriarch made an announcement that they were lifting and cancelling the excommunications imposed by their predecessors in 1054.

Patriarch Athenagoras commissioned this icon which depicts the embrace of the holy brothers — Andrew and Peter — as a gift for the Pope.

In 1975, Pope Paul met with Orthodox Archbishop Meliton. The pope knelt and kissed the Archbishop’s feet, in a gesture that was inspired by Christ washing the feet of his disciples.

Watson noted Jesus’s words to the apostle in John 15:14-15

“You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends.”

He concluded: “With friendship, ecumenism becomes something we long for and desire.”

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This year’s prayers and reflections were prepared by the Armenian Apostolic Church, along with their brothers and sisters of the Armenian Catholic and Evangelical Churches.

The Rev. Margo Whittaker, Anglican chaplain at the university, welcomed all those who gathered in the chapel, and the Rev. Canon Catherine Ascah, ecumenical officer for the diocese, offered prayers during the service.

The Rev. John Perkin of the First Baptist Church in Ottawa offered a homily drawing on the apostle Paul’s call for Christian unity in his letter to the Ephesians 4:1-13, begging the followers of Jesus to walk in a manner worthy of their calling “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love….There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling.”

Perkin said that during his four decades of ministry he had been privileged to preach in United, Anglican, Catholic, Presbyterian and Pentecostal churches among others and had always found that “hope to which we are called” in all of those communities.

“We really need that sense of hope these days in our increasingly disordered, fragmented and even chaotic world.” But he added, “Hope is not a longing for things to be better. It is a process or working to make things better. Hope is not a state of mind. It is an activity. It is what we do to ensure that we are a light in the darkness of the world.”

Christians gather for worship and come to church needing different things at different times, Perkin said. Sometimes we are weighed down and in need of a word of comfort or consolation, a little bit of hope. We sometimes need mending and restoring. … Other times we are comfortable and need “a little push to be engaged…. We come as those in touch as the Celtic people say with the thin places of life, so that we can encounter God in our weakness, our hurts, our sorrows, and our struggles, and to connect with others in the world who are weak, hurting, sorrowful, or struggling. We come to be mended, restored, prepared, so that we can take on the world once more and offering it the hope that we are given. In this sense, the church is a refuge for the world.”

Photos: LA Williams

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Just a few months into its operations, the Centre 440 team of volunteers reports that the average number of people coming for the meal has increased to 45 – 50 people each Saturday. The team noted that they are preparing and distributing additional meals because if someone who comes for lunch is homeless, they send that person out with a bag containing a couple of lunches-to-go with high protein items such as hard-boiled eggs, cheese, peanut butter — items they can keep in their vehicle for a few days. That brings the total number of meals prepared to about 70 each week.

Penny Kallio keeps up with statistics from the municipalities and shared these startling figures: In the United Counties of Prescott Russell for December there were 150 households considered homeless — 94 adults,34 families, and 18 youths between the ages of 16 – 25 were homeless. 50% men and 50% women. At 59%, the majority of the households across the UCPR experiencing homelessness were in the town of Hawkesbury. This represents an 80% increase compared to the same period in 2024.

There is no visible encampment in the city, but the team meets people living in their cars, in the woods, under bridges and in storefronts.

Ron Kallio said that the centre extended the hours it was open during the times of extreme cold. Normally, they open the doors at about 10:30 am and close at about 1 pm, but they opened at 9 a.m. and stayed open during the afternoon to offer people a warm place to be.

Carolyn Coffin-Caputo said there is a steady stream of encouragement from people in Hawkesbury, making financial donations or wanting to volunteer their time to help. About half of the volunteers are members of the parish, but the other half are volunteers from the community.

The team also shared the good news that they now have a now have an ongoing arrangement with Second Harvest, an organization that redistributes surplus food from grocery stores and businesses that would otherwise be thrown out to people in need. The Foodland in Van Kleek Hill now automatically allocates food to Centre 440 twice a week.

They are also lifted up by individual acts of kindness. A couple living in their car came into the centre to charge a battery pack to try to revive a dead car battery. Carl Laliberté of Laliberté Auto in Hawkesbury went beyond helping them charge their old one and brought them a good used battery.

While Coffin-Caputo was visiting Centre 105 in Cornwall, Emma Weller came in to distribute the winter bundle bags she makes with her handmade hats, mitts, neck-warmers, socks, hand and toe warmer and treats. When she heard about Centre 440, she soon arrived with bundles for everyone, which Coffin-Caputo said delighted the recipients.

Another bit of serendipity happened when Anne Kirby visited from All Saints Anglican Church in Greely, where they weave recycled milk bags into waterproof mats to sit or sleep on. She brought some mats for participants and ended up explaining how they make the mats. “I did a simple video of Anne Kirby explaining the milk bag mats, posted it on our Facebook page,” said Ron Kallio.  He was shocked when the video got 800,000 views “I’m still answering questions.” — five or six a day from around the world asking how you make the mats and asking what milk bags are.”

The Rev Felix Longdon (kneeling) with Jane Longdon, Rob Guerrini and Emma Weller (winter bundles) and Carolyn Coffin-Caputo

Centre 440’s tribute to Marc Beaudet

It is with profound sadness that we share the passing of our dear friend and cook at Centre 440 Hawkesbury, Marc Beaudet.

Marc was with us from the very first day we opened our doors three months ago. In that short time, he became the heartbeat of our kitchen. He didn’t just bring his talent for cooking; he brought a huge smile that could brighten the toughest mornings and a laugh that echoed through the entire hall.

He believed in our mission from the start, and he made sure that every person who walked through our line felt seen, welcomed, and cared for. Our kitchen feels far too quiet without his energy, but we are so grateful that he was the one to help us start this journey.— Ron Kallio

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The parish used to host a Valentine’s Day dance every year that was very popular, but the numbers of people attending the church were down, with only 14 to 20 people, they couldn’t manage an event like that.

They decided to host a monthly community breakfast in the church hall, which has a full kitchen. They started off with pancakes, eggs and sausages and later added hash browns. In the beginning when they started the meals, they were pleased to welcome 15 to 20 people.

But word of a great hot breakfast spread, and now three years on, they usually expect to feed 50 to 60 people, says Alison Wark, one of the parishioners and organizers, who runs the program.

There are no restaurants in Clayton, so the monthly breakfasts are great time for people in the community to get together. Wark said that they always have a radio on while they are cooking and serving. Recently, she noticed that she couldn’t hear it anymore. Kathy Lowe, the other organizer, suggested turning the volume up, but Wark had just pointed it out as a good sign that the volume of visiting in the hall had completely drowned out the radio.

Aside from the social benefit to the community, the breakfasts have also benefitted community in other ways.

The program costs are quite low because much of the food, including the maple syrup, is donated by local farmers. (The farmer who supplies the eggs now helps cook them to order, so people can choose between scrambled and fried!)

There’s no charge for the breakfasts, but people can and do leave a free will offering. After the first six months, the fund had grown to $700, which they donated to school breakfast programs in the area. Last year, the fund was $4,000, which they used to donate to local food banks, school breakfast programs, and to help buy Christmas gifts for children in two families through local organizer Cyndi Porter’s Angel Tree fund.

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