In 1878, Chelsea was served from Ottawa by the Rev. F.R. Smith. From 1879 to 1885, the mission was vacant and served only in summer in 1882 and 1883 by Mr. N.A.F. Bourne, a student from Montreal. By 1886, the mission consisted of one church, Saint Mary Magdalene, Chelsea and two outstations—schoolhouses at Templeton and Ironsides. In 1900, services were held every week at Chelsea and Ironsides and on alternate Sundays at Kingsmere and Kirk’s Ferry. At Kingsmere, the congregation met at the country house of a Mr. Bryson.

By 1910, Chelsea consisted of one church, Saint Mary Magdalene, Chelsea, and five outstations: a house chapel at Ironsides; the Union Mission Hall at Kirk’s Ferry; a schoolhouse at Cascades; another schoolhouse at Meech’s Lake (as it was then called) and cottages at Kingsmere. By 1924, the mission consisted of one church and outstations of Union Church, Kirk’s Ferry; Union Church, Cascades; and a house at Ironsides. The 1926 Synod Journal noted the effect of the Gatineau Valley power developments on local congregations.  The old settlement at Kirk’s Ferry was swept away by the flooding; however, there were hopes for a strong summer settlement to develop there, requiring priestly services.

In 1928, the mission included Saint Mary Magdalene’s, Chelsea; Saint George’s, Gatineau, a Union church at Cascades and a Union church at Kirk’s Ferry.  In 1929, controversy arose over whether the reopened church at Kirk’s Ferry would be a Union Hall or an Anglican Church. From 1935 to 1940, the Mission of Chelsea was a three-point mission consisting of Chelsea, Gatineau and Kirk’s Ferry, served from Ottawa by the Rev. W.B. Morgan. In 1935, the Union church at Cascades was transferred to Wakefield. In 1940, the mission of Chelsea consisted of Chelsea and Gatineau and an arrangement began where Chelsea was served from Hull, and Gatineau was served from Buckingham.

In the autumn of 1943, old Saint Mary Magdalene Church was demolished, partly because an error caused the old church to be built on two feet of land sold along with the rectory.  The congregation met in the school. In 1944, Gatineau was served from Aylmer. In 1947, Kirk’s Ferry became an outstation of Gatineau, also served from Aylmer. From 1950 to 1956, the congregation of Saint Mary Magdalene met in the United Church at Chelsea. On 24 May 1957, the cornerstone for a new church at Chelsea built of ashlar concrete blocks was laid by Bishop John H. Dixon of Montreal. From 1963 to 1965, the Mission of Chelsea & Portland was established, until Clarendon Deanery was transferred from Montreal’s oversight to the Diocese of Ottawa. In 1971, the mission became vacant, and Chelsea was separated from Portland.

The Diocesan Archives collects parish registers, vestry reports, service registers, minutes of groups and committees, financial documents, property records (including cemeteries and architectural plans), insurance policies, letters, pew bulletins, photographs and paintings, scrapbooks, parish newsletters and unusual documents.

Brian Glenn fonds CL06 E100

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Most of us can recall a moment in our own past when something that gave meaning and happiness to life seemed suddenly to have been taken away. Matthew’s Easter Gospel tells us, however, that early on that morning, the discovery was made that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, and that this incredible, miraculous, life-changing news would turn that empty tomb into a profound sign of God’s love and transforming power to heal and restore and make all things new.

In the weeks that follow Easter Sunday, we hear in scripture how the appearances of Jesus after his death gave his followers a new confidence and conviction that the leader who they had placed all their hopes and dreams in would never be separated from them again. Their minds had been confused and their hearts broken. They had been devastated and paralyzed with grief and abandonment. Now, however, they were full of courage and faith. They were ready for the difficult task of sharing their Easter joy with others. Christ’s resurrection would change these men and women forever, and this miraculous and profound event would propel them forward in the days ahead.

My wife and I have been watching a British television program called “Long Lost Family” where family members are reunited after many years of separation and disconnection. In one episode, a man who had been adopted from birth, sat in a room waiting to be reunited with a mother he had never known and a family he had no idea he had belonged to. When they came through the door the expression on the man’s face was one of being reborn right on that very spot! It was an incredible scene as he learned that he had never been forgotten after all these years, never been unloved or unwanted, and now he was embraced and surrounded by a group of relatives that up until a few days before he didn’t know existed. You can tell that at that moment it was almost too much to take in. His heart was bursting with new life and a new sense of who he was and who he belonged to. It was clear that his life would never be the same again.

When I sat there and watched this moment unfold, it occurred to me that this is part of the joy and the overwhelming sense of love and transformation that comes to us at Easter. It is the glorious news that we have never been alone, that we will never be abandoned, unwanted, that we have always and will always be loved far more than we can ever imagine.

When I think about that family reunion on that television show, I also think about our congregations and our parishes as we gather each week as a family around the altar of the Lord. It is in these sacred gatherings that we are filled with the courage and love of Jesus and are empowered to bear witness to the presence of the risen Christ to those who experience the same situations of fear and doubt and abandonment wherever they may be.

In Matthew’s Gospel, the angel asked those who had gathered at the tomb to remember that Jesus had told them that he would rise again on the third day and soon the thoughts of abandonment and fear would turn to resurrection joy.

In this blessed Easter season, let us seek to express something of this joy and the transforming power of the resurrection, in prayer, song, sacrament and in our common life together. May we carry this good news with us and in us and through us as we journey together with our new bishop in the days and years to come.

Bishop Michael Bird is serving as diocesan administrator until the new bishop’s consecration on May 9.

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Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet.

They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”

She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.

Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?”

Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher).

Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'”

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
JOHN 20:1-18

Bishop Michael Bird, who is serving as our diocesan administrator until the service of consecration for Bishop-elect Kathryn Otley on May 9, shares an inspiring Easter reflection.

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Less than a generation after Canadians celebrated the centennial of Confederation, members of Christ Church Cathedral approached their 150th anniversary. They sought a meaningful way to commemorate the building of Christ’s Church, Bytown in 1832, the first Anglican church to be built in the future capital some 35 years before Confederation.

The answer soon became apparent. The west window dating from 1872 was beginning to show its age. Its large surface was filled with clear glass laid out in diamond-panes, with a thin band of gold and blue outlining the tracery. After 110 years of weathering, the lead holding glass panes in place and the larger wooden frame were greatly in need of renewing.

It was decided to commission a new west window. Its design would be a visual summary of the history of the parish within the region. A great fundraising campaign was carried out, and a design commissioned from Christopher Wallis of London, Ontario. Other startling proposals including stark modern abstract designs were also considered, but Wallis was entrusted with the commission based on memorial windows he designed for Trinity Church, Cornwall and Saint Bartholomew’s, Ottawa. We see him here assembling the cartoon for this composition, to form the basis for selecting and cutting stained glass for the new west window. This commission was a big deal, and Christopher Wallis did not disappoint.

As traditional stained-glass iconography goes, Christopher Wallis was attempting nothing less than a summary of the history of the parish and its place in the City of Ottawa within the larger setting of the Ottawa Valley and global Anglicanism. To take on such a commission must have made him feel like Michelangelo when he set out to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  It would take Naomi Jackson Groves, niece of Group of Seven artist A.Y. Jackson, 60 pages to explain all of the details that Wallis incorporated in his composition. In a future issue of Perspective we will summarize some of the major details, but for now we must confine ourselves to just a few parts of the larger composition of Wallis’s masterpiece.

The larger composition shows a Celtic cross. The cross, of course, is emblematic of Christianity, symbolizing our Saviour’s sacrifice to redeem mankind. The Celtic cross recognizes the huge Anglo-Irish population that constituted much of the Anglican population of the larger Ottawa region in the nineteenth century. In the first census of Canada (1871) that asked people what they considered their ethnic origin (as opposed to their country of birth) to be, in the five counties around Ottawa 42,000 more people claimed to be of Irish origin than did in the cities of Montreal and Toronto combined. At the centre circle of the cross is Christ, the agnus dei, from whom the parish took its name. At the apex of the window Christ the King is shown sitting on a rainbow, while a satellite is shown orbiting the heavens.

The cross arms of the cross represent the Ottawa River, the major east/west route of transportation for both Indigenous inhabitants and early French explorers. The upright of the cross shows the Gatineau River flowing from the north, and the Rideau River flowing from the south, while the tall silhouettes of pine trees across the window signify the huge economic impact of the timber industry in the larger Ottawa Valley over the course of six generations.

If you would like to help the Archives preserve the records of the Diocese and its parishes, why not become a Friend of the Archives?  Your $20 membership brings you three issues of the lively, informative Newsletter, and you will receive a tax receipt for further donations above that amount.  

The post Cathedral Deanery — Wallis sketching Christ Church Cathedral West Window Cartoon appeared first on Perspective.

Le mercredi des Cendres, juste après avoir reçu le signe des cendres sur notre front, nous prions : « Accomplis en nous, ô Dieu, l’œuvre de ton salut. » Le salut est l’un des mots que les chrétiens entendent et utilisent fréquemment. Qu’entendons-nous par là ?

Pour beaucoup de gens, le salut semble signifier une sorte d’état futur où l’on est heureux, où l’on est au ciel, où l’on ne souffre plus. C’est là une description du salut en termes largement négatifs, qui met l’accent sur ce qu’il n’est pas plutôt que sur ce qu’il est. Entrer au ciel est une sorte d’assurance contre l’incendie, un sursis aux souffrances de l’enfer. Ainsi, de nombreux chrétiens se réfugient au ciel. Ils sont tellement préoccupés par le fait de s’éloigner de l’enfer qu’ils finissent par trébucher en arrière et tomber au ciel.

On pense que pour obtenir son billet pour le paradis, il faut croire en quelques définitions obligatoires, se comporter d’une certaine manière et suivre les règles qui nous sont imposées. Nous avons tendance à comprendre le péché essentiellement comme une désobéissance, une transgression d’un commandement. Comme nous risquons d’être punis pour cela, nous devons l’éviter et le regretter. On est loin de comprendre la repentance comme un mode de vie.

Le salut que proclame l’Évangile, pour lequel les martyrs sont morts et que l’Église enseigne depuis ses débuts, n’est pas un moyen d’atteindre une fin, une façon d’éviter la souffrance. C’est la fin elle-même. C’est la vérité de ce que nous sommes vraiment et de ce que nous pouvons devenir. Le salut est un trésor inestimable, une perle pour laquelle nous sommes prêts à tout abandonner. C’est un don de vie.

Le salut nous rend aujourd’hui la vision de Dieu, le don de la présence de Dieu, dont nous sommes censés jouir à chaque instant de notre existence. Le salut est simplement la participation à la vie de Dieu.

Le Carême peut nous aider à voir que le péché dont l’Esprit « convainc le monde » (Jean 16, 8-11) est bien plus que toute faute spécifique que nous avons commise ou que nous pourrions commettre, ou même que la somme totale de toutes ces fautes. Le péché est la condition humaine, l’état de séparation d’avec Dieu.

La repentance est une grâce de Dieu, un don du Saint-Esprit, quelque chose que nous ne pouvons pas « accomplir » par nous-mêmes. Pourtant, nous devons aussi faire notre part, nous devons y travailler, aussi dérisoires et insignifiants que nos efforts puissent nous paraître. Nous pratiquons une mort quotidienne, mourant à nous-mêmes afin de ressusciter avec le Christ pour une vie nouvelle. Nous ne pouvons pas le faire d’un seul coup. Mais nous devons pratiquer la mort et la résurrection à chaque instant de notre vie.

Lorsque la repentance devient pour nous une attitude spirituelle incessante, une façon de vivre avec Dieu, elle devient aussi notre façon de nous préparer à la mort. « Souviens-toi que tu es poussière et qu’à la poussière tu retourneras . » À ce moment inconnu et mystérieux où nous sommes appelés à franchir la frontière entre le temps et l’éternité, entre le ciel et la terre, et à rencontrer enfin le Christ, notre Dieu et notre Juge, que pouvons-nous faire d’autre que nous repentir ? Notre pratique quotidienne et patiente du repentir nous aura appris qu’en présence de l’amour infini de Dieu, nous n’avons rien d’autre à faire que de nous en remettre à sa miséricorde. Nous aurons appris que nous tous, saints et pécheurs, ne pouvons entrer au Paradis que comme le Bon Larron, par la miséricorde du Christ.

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I will give you rest: Come (Matthew 11:28-30)

The 2026 World Day of Prayer materials from Nigeria bring us a powerful invitation drawn from Matthew 11:28-30. At a time when people worldwide are carrying heavy burdens, our Nigerian sisters offer profound insights into finding rest in God. ​

Through their exploration of different kinds of burdens – shame, systemic oppression, religious persecution, poverty and despair – the writers help us understand both the weight of human suffering and the depths of divine rest.

Their work shows us that true rest isn›t just about physical relief, but about transformation through God›s grace and community support.

The Nigerian committee has woven together their cultural wisdom with the universal need for rest. Through symbols like the calabash bowl, which represents both daily sustenance and divine provision, they remind us how God meets us in our weariness.

https://worlddayofprayer.net/index.html

​The World Day of Prayer program is inspired by its motto Informed Prayer and Prayerful Action. Through informed prayer we seek out ways to act in solidarity with women and communities in need. When we prepare and celebrate World Day of Prayer, we do this as a community.

We pray and worship in community,
We continue our relationship in prayer and service throughout the year,
We work together as women of various races/ethnicities, cultures and traditions,
We become aware of the worldwide community of people,
We become enriched by the faith experience of other Christians,
We become aware of the burdens many people have to carry,
We are challenged to use our gifts and talents and use them in the service of society

(The Zambia Statement, 2007)

The post March 6 is World Day of Prayer appeared first on Perspective.

As the Anglican Communion’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Jarvis works to create partnerships between churches and UN teams as they respond to conflict, climate change and forced movement of people. Jarvis has also facilitated church-led peacemaking in South Sudan and Mozambique. Throughout it all, she’s seen nothing that compares to the power of people coming back together after conflict, and ultimately, coming back to faith through Jesus.

This resource will be available for download or send a subscription request to receive it as a free daily email message throughout Lent.

https://alongsidehope.org/lent2026/

On March 7, the Anglican Fellowship of Prayer is also presenting this online Lenten lecture

The post Journey through Lent appeared first on Perspective.

I see the answer to homelessness in embracing its complexity — and that means recognizing that gender-specific challenges require gender-specific solutions. When we fully understand how homelessness affects women and gender diverse people differently, we can build responses that truly work. When we embrace the complexity of homelessness, we also embrace the humanity of people living it.

This year for International Women’s Day, I think of all the women and gender diverse people at Cornerstone who need a safe, affirming place to land. I see the complex ways that they become homeless and remain in the shelter system. Every day, I see the courage it takes to start over after violence, displacement, or crisis. I see the barriers that stand in the way, particularly for women and gender diverse people.

There are some undeniable truths about our work. Women and gender diverse people who are racialized experience homelessness at higher rates compared to their white and cisgender sisters. They are more likely to experience systemic racism in all areas of life: housing, employment, healthcare. That is a piece of the complexity that we need to understand and address. There are many other layers of complexity and this is only one of them.

So, this International Women’s Day, I’m calling on our community to turn your compassion into commitment and action. Let’s embrace the complexity together. We can all do tangible things that make a difference.

Firstly, you can call on politicians to ensure organizations like Cornerstone have sustainable investment in order to address the complexity that is homelessness. Cutting funding and simplifying services is not the way out of this.

Secondly, we all have to have hard conversations with people in our life. We can create a big impact through small conversations. At a dinner party years ago, I called out a problematic comment from a guest. Six months later, I got a phone call from that guest’s partner asking my help to flee her violent relationship. She had no one else she could talk to, but she knew I would be a safe person. She never would have called if I hadn’t said anything.

And finally, get involved. When things are daunting and scary, we have a tendency to look inwards. To want to protect ourselves. To keep things small and simple. I promise you that it feels better to say or do something than it does to sit and wallow in the difficulty of solving homelessness. Volunteer, fundraise, or do a food drive in your workplace for organizations that spark your passion for supporting women.

This International Women’s Day, the theme is Balancing the Scales. Let’s be forceful in our commitment to ending homelessness, to having tough conversations, and for getting involved in our community. We don’t get out of this problem through disengagement.

For more information about Cornerstone or to donate.

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A Presbyterian minister at Perth, the Rev. William Bell, in his 1824 book Hints to Emigrants stated: “The church of England claims an establishment here and meets with a decided preference from the members of government.” While this was certainly the aim of Archdeacon John Strachan at York (Toronto), and although Lieutenant-Governor Sir John Colborne endowed a number of rectories in the 1830s (local examples being at Franktown and Carleton Place), by and large the number of Anglican clergy and churches fell behind various other denominations during the first half of the nineteenth century.

So, although the Westmeath area was visited as early as the 1820s by Governor General Dalhousie (who favoured the Church of Scotland) and his retinue, it was not until the end of the century that Anglicans managed to build a house of worship on this remote frontier across the Ottawa River from the Province of Quebec. As early as 1855, Henry Bromley of Westmeath was enlisted as a pillar of the church by the Rev. E.H.M. Baker in the larger Pembroke vicinity.

Westmeath is first mentioned as an outstation of the Mission of Beachburg in 1869, but the going proved tough on the Calumet Island frontier in that generation, and it was removed from the list of stations in that mission from 1877 to 1879. In 1881, the Mission of Beachburg was dissolved, and Westmeath seems not to have received any services from an Anglican clergyman until 1884 when the Mission of Beachburg was recreated. Hope for a new beginning was planted in 1897 when Thomas Monsel donated the site for an Anglican house of worship.

A church of faultless lines was built of local grey limestone at Westmeath in 1898, doubtless partly subsidized by the still-new Anglican Diocese of Ottawa, and Saint Mary’s Church was duly consecrated by Bishop Charles Hamilton on 8 January 1899. Had the church been built half a century earlier, it seems likely that its name would have been selected from eight or so favoured Anglican choices: Christ Church, Saint James, Saint John’s, Saint Paul’s, Saint George’s, Saint Thomas’s, Trinity and Holy Trinity.

If the choice of the name of Saint Mary’s was chosen by the bishop over the objections of the church, at the time it was said to be a scandal that one week after the new house of worship was consecrated, it was practically deserted because parishioners refused to attend services. That did not last, but the years of struggle were by no means over. Half a century later, from 1944 to 1946 the Mission of Beachburg was an outstation of the Parish of Cobden. By 1968, Westmeath was an outstation of the Parish of Beachburg-Cobden. Saint Mary’s Church, Westmeath celebrated a century of worship on 13 December 1998. In the 2010s, Bishop John H. Chapman secularized this house of worship.

The Diocesan Archives collects parish registers, vestry reports, service registers, minutes of committees, financial documents, property records (including cemeteries and architectural plans), insurance policies, letters, pew bulletins, photographs and paintings, scrapbooks, parish newsletters and unusual documents.

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