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

The post Anglicans mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation 2026 appeared first on Perspective.

Storekeepers in nineteenth century Canada enjoyed prominence. They were the day-to-day link for isolated families with the outside world and outside markets. Their prominence was summarized in 1836 by Catherine Parr Traill. “Though a store is, in fact, nothing better than what we should call in the country towns at home [England] a “general shop,” yet the storekeeper in Canada holds a very different rank from the shopkeeper of the English village,” she wrote. Storekeepers “are the merchants and bankers of the places in which they reside. Almost all money matters are transacted by them, and they are often men of landed property and consequence, not unfrequently filling the situations of magistrates, commissioners, and even members of the provincial parliament.”

Not everyone had such exalted views of storekeepers. John MacTaggart, an early surveyor laying out the route of the Rideau Canal in the 1820s, for one, perceived them as having pretensions to gentility, and he referred to them as counter-jumpers, saying, “I have seen a counter-jumper, alias a shopman, assume the office of reforming the manners of the age.”

MacTaggart was appalled by how storekeepers took advantage of isolated men in the Ottawa country working in lumber shanties, perceiving “the storekeepers cram their stuffs into their shanties…giving long credit” in order to rapaciously “get three times the value for them.”

MacTaggart was not done. “What is the storekeeper but a person living on [the lumberman’s] exertions,” he asked, contriving “to get him into what he calls his debt,” where “he keeps his victim, feeds, clothes, kicks, and tantalizes him to madness, making him a character far worse than he otherwise would be…but there is the sleek-shaven storekeeper, mild as a lamb, and tame as a dove, uttering delicious phrases, and, nevertheless, behaving abominably. Crafty old fellows! but we see through them. But to hear it attempted to be developed over a counter by a smart-looking fellow with a quill behind his ear, is all humbug and falsehood.”

But there was another view of storekeepers, one evident in the emergence of Saint Mary’s Church at Navan, Ontario in 1867. In that Confederation year, the local general storekeeper at Navan in 1867, one Captain Visser as he was known, overheard farmers complaining about having to travel five miles to Bearbrook to attend Anglican services. Visser suggested that they build their own church, a suggestion they immediately pooh-poohed as impossible with so few families to undertake such a venture.

Undeterred, Captain Visser offered a site on land across the road from his store. Navan tradesmen caught the spirit and added their donations to a list, according to their means. For instance, there was the village carpenter, Richard Bickerton, who offered to make the pews, and later gave land for the parish cemetery. Thomas Sidney Smith, a plasterer, agreed to finish the interior walls, along with other craftsmen who offered their services to help build the church.

When preparations were made in 1898 to build a larger stone church (shown here), the original frame house of worship was moved to another location in the village, and it became the lodge hall of a fraternal group, the Canadian Order of Foresters.

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.

The post Saint Mary’s Navan — Ottawa East Deanery appeared first on Perspective.

Woody Allen a dit un jour : « Je ne veux pas atteindre l’immortalité grâce à mon œuvre… je veux l’atteindre en ne mourant pas. » Que cela nous plaise ou non, bien sûr, cela n’est pas possible pour nous. La réalité de la médecine moderne est que relativement peu d’entre nous seront pleinement conscients, lucides et pleins de sagesse d’adieu jusqu’au tout dernier instant de notre mort. Nous pouvons toutefois commencer à nous y préparer dès maintenant, même si la date exacte se situe dans un avenir encore inconnu.

Depuis les premiers temps, les chrétiens — et de nombreux non-chrétiens aussi — ont compris qu’il était nécessaire d’être conscient de la réalité de la mort. Certaines des façons dont les gens s’y sont pris peuvent nous paraître étranges, morbides, de mauvais goût. Rares sont celles et ceux d’entre nous qui ont l’habitude de prier pendant de longues heures dans les cimetières. Rares sont celles et ceux d’entre nous qui ont eu ou voudraient avoir l’occasion d’observer le processus de décomposition. Nous ne gardons pas de crânes sur nos bureaux.

Ces pratiques anciennes, aussi étranges soient-elles, ont pourtant quelque chose à nous enseigner. Elles nous rappellent que nous devons résister à la pression de notre société qui nous pousse à nier la mort, à tenter de la contourner ou à exiger qu’elle survienne selon nos propres conditions.

Que ferais-je si je savais que j’étais en train de mourir maintenant, à cette minute même, qu’il ne me restait plus que quelques secondes à vivre ? Et s’il ne restait plus de temps pour me préparer ou faire des projets, plus rien à faire ni à défaire ? Tout ce que je peux imaginer faire à cet instant, ce serait de m’écrier : « Seigneur Jésus-Christ, Fils de Dieu, aie pitié de moi, pécheur! »

Cette prière, bien sûr, est la « Prière de Jésus », pratiquée par les chrétiens orthodoxes depuis des siècles et de plus en plus pratiquée par les chrétiens occidentaux également. Cette prière revêt de nombreuses significations, mais elle consiste toujours à se jeter dans les bras de Dieu, non seulement à la fin de la vie, mais chaque jour. Grâce à une répétition quotidienne, peut-être par séances de vingt minutes à la fois, la prière devient quelque chose qui nous prie encore plus que nous ne la prions. Grâce à une pratique régulière, la prière jaillit spontanément du cœur. C’est une prière qui nous enseigne notre dépendance totale et fondamentale – dans la vie comme dans la mort – à l’égard de la miséricorde infinie de Dieu.

La miséricorde de Dieu n’est pas quelque chose que nous devons mendier ou pour laquelle nous devons nous humilier afin de l’obtenir. En mourant, le Christ a révélé la vérité de la miséricorde infinie et inconditionnelle de Dieu. Demander miséricorde, c’est se tourner vers Dieu avec confiance et espérance. Nous affirmons que Dieu est attentif à nous à chaque instant de notre vie et qu’il nous accepte tels que nous sommes véritablement : créés à l’image divine, destinés à partager la gloire divine, mais faibles et enclins à l’échec et à la peur. Lorsque nous demandons miséricorde, nous demandons la guérison et l’amour qui nous rendront à nouveau entiers : qui nous rempliront de Dieu.

Dieu, dans son amour, nous offre tendrement sa miséricorde à chaque instant de notre vie. Ainsi, nous pouvons avoir confiance que Dieu ne nous refusera pas sa miséricorde à l’heure de notre mort.

The Rev. Canon Kevin Flynn is a priest and educator

An English translation is available online with the October issue of Perspective.

The post La prière de Jésus et la mort appeared first on Perspective.

The Rev. Amy Hamilton has been appointed as Incumbent of the Church of the Ascension, Ottawa, effective Oct. 19, 2026. She has been serving as Rector of the Church of the Epiphany, Montreal.

The Rev. Thomas Brauer has been appointed as Incumbent of St. Michael and All Angels in Thunder Bay in the Diocese of Algoma, effective Oct. 15, 2026.

Staff News

Michele Allen joined diocesan staff as the executive assistant to Bishop Kathryn Otley.

Allen has worked in the nonprofit sector since moving to Canada in 2007 from Manchester, England, with her husband and three children. She holds a degree in Business Administration and has spent the past 17 years working closely with clergy, including both Christian and rabbinical leaders.

She shared that she recommitted her life to Christ in 2014 at Harrowsmith Free Methodist Church and is delighted to now be joining the Christian community in Ottawa.

In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family, watching “football” — particularly Manchester United — and watching anything related to true crime.

Allen is excited to join have joined the staff at Ascension House and to work with Bishop Kathryn. Please contact her at bishopsoffice@ottawa.anglican.ca  for matters related to the Bishop’s Office, including meeting and event requests, invitations, and correspondence.

The post Clergy and Staff news — October 2026 appeared first on Perspective.

Holzman served as the chair of Cornerstone’s board for four years. He chaired a capital campaign committee and sat on the planning committee Cornerstone’s newest supportive housing residence on Eccles Street. He has played a major role in helping Cornerstone, an Anglican Community Ministry, raise critical funds and awareness through various fundraisers. For Coldest Night of the Year (CNOY), one of Cornerstone’s key annual fundraising events, he has been the top fundraiser for close to six years. The announcement from Cornerstone noted that Holzman is passionate about housing and the homeless sector and that he frequently comes to locations to chat with residents, support resident art sales and shelter community events.

The post Mark Holzman nominated for volunteer award appeared first on Perspective.

The event is part of All Saints/ Aging with Grace series of community gatherings, now in its second year. The Rev. Chung Yan Lam said it is intended to start or ease conversations about death and end-of-life that are uncomfortable.

This time the parish is collaborating with Community Deathcare Ottawa (CDO), a non-profit collective of practitioners supporting dying, death and grief. CDO describes its members as “rooted in holistic, compassionate, and family-led approaches to deathcare, and share a belief that death is not simply a medical or logistical event, but a sacred and meaningful part of life.”

Why a Victorian theme? CDO founder Kelly Butler explained that in Victorian society, “Death was part of everyday life. The dying were cared for at home, communities gathered around the dead, mourning had its own language and rituals, and remembrance was woven into clothing, photographs, objects, and ceremony. Death was a communal event.

“Nowadays, dying and death has moved out of our homes and communities and into Institutions and professional systems. Many of us have lost the rituals, knowledge, and confidence that once helped people accompany the dying, care for the dead, and express grief. Community Deathcare aims to reclaim these processes.”

Butler has decades of experience helping families navigate bereavement and end-of-life care and teaches a death doula training program.

The event at All Saints’ will take place from 11 am to 2 pm on Oct. 17.

The post All Saints’ Westboro event aims to open and ease conversations about death appeared first on Perspective.

The Church of St. Bartholomew’s Annual Bazaar and Tea Room is one of the most popular events in the fall calendar. Not only is it a great place to meet friends, enjoy tea together and see your neighbours, it also presents great tables of bargains including antiques, gifts, jewellery, books, preserves, attic treasures, toys & games, crafts & knitting, Christmas decorations and a superb bake table. You can enjoy great shopping knowing that you are helping many important community causes and global relief initiatives.

In 2025, proceeds from our bazaar contributed to more than $25,000 of outreach funding St. Bartholomew’s issued to: St. Margaret’s Anglican Church, Vanier (to support their ministries); The Rideau Rockcliffe Community Resource Centre (programs to assist newcomers and those living in poverty in the Rideau-Rockcliffe ward); Inuuqatigiit Centre for Children, Youth and Families in Ottawa; Alongside Hope  for their international development work and aid; St. George’s College, Jerusalem (to help rebuild their programing and pilgrimage offering in the Holy Land). Other recipients in the past have included Cornerstone Housing for Women and Belong Ottawa.

The St. Bart’s Bazaar has always been a success, and it is mainly due to those who generously support us. We are only as good as the donations we receive! Should you be downsizing or wanting to dispose of items in your home, please consider donating to our bazaar. We always need unique souvenirs, classic tea sets, glass, costume and fine jewellery, books, “attic treasures”, toys, games and any special, hand-made items. Closer to the date we would also appreciate home baking and preserves.

This year, there are two new items for sale which will make excellent gifts — unique handmade fly-fishing lures in several designs and beautiful Advent candles to give light to your families and friends during the darkest time of the year.

If you have any questions at all please do not hesitate to call either Liz 613-745-4677 or Linda 613-298-9980. We would be happy to pick up boxes from you and thank you in advance for considering St Bart’s. Looking forward to seeing you on Saturday, November 7th at 125 MacKay Street from 12 pm to 4 p.m.

—  Linda Assad-Butcher and Liz Heatherington, Co-Conveners

The post St. Bart’s Bazaar supports local and global outreach appeared first on Perspective.

Horton, a longtime parishioner and choir member at St. Thomas Alta Vista, was one of three recipients from the municipality honoured in the ceremony at the Ottawa Farmers’ Market. Councillor Marty Carr highlighted the recipients’ dedication to improving the quality of lives in the local community and city-wide.

The commemorative coins carry the City’s coat of arms on the front and an image of the locks at the junction of the Ottawa River and the Rideau canal on the back. Sutcliffe noted that it was the construction of the Canal, built by Colonel By, which birthed the development of Bytown, now the City of Ottawa.  — Michele Bédard

The post Janice Horton of St. Thomas Alta Vista honoured by the City of Ottawa appeared first on Perspective.

Ikeda’s pilgrimage began in Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto on July 15, with the route to Montreal to head north at Morrisburg, allowing a prayer for peace at the Canadian Parliament Buildings in Ottawa before heading eastward to Montreal.

Ikeda is a monk in the Nipponzan Myōhōji, a Japanese Buddhist movement known for its commitment to pacificism and social action, which was founded in 1917 by monk Nichidatsu Fujii. Nipponzan Myōhōji members embark on walks for human rights, nuclear disarmament and peace internationally.

Lewis explained he received an email from one of the supporters of the Walk for Peace in Canada, requesting accommodation for the monk in Morrisburg on July 31.  After explaining to the organizer that it was not possible for Ikeda to spend the night in church, Lewis invited him to overnight at his home in Iroquois, Ont.

Following Ikeda’s arrival in Iroquois, the evening was spent with Lewis, his wife Wendy and some invited guests, before walking to Morrisburg along Lakeshore Drive on Aug. 1.  Along this route, he met and spoke with some people and after arriving in this small South Dundas community was met at St. James by Lewis, toured the church, and they had lunch together.

Ikeda spent the night of Aug. 1 in Winchester and continued on to Vernon, Ontario where he stopped at the Ottawa Amitabha Buddhist Society of Canada’s temple on his way into the city. On Aug. 5, he prayed for peace on Parliament Hill. He also attended a Remembrance Lantern Ceremony on Aug. 6, the date in 1945 when the first atomic weapon was detonated over Hiroshima, Japan.  He then continued his pilgrimage eastward and arrived in Montreal on August 14.  After spending some time in Montreal, he planned to fly to Tokyo to visit family before returning to his monastery in India.

In an interview after Ikeda’s visit, Lewis described him as being very kind, humble and helpful. He observed that there seems to be an aura of peace and joy surrounding the monk.

While on the pilgrimage, Ikeda carries what he owns in a knapsack on his back as well as a drum which he beats with a stick as well as a paper and pen to record his experiences.  While walking the monk drums and chants, and he described it to Lewis as walking in a meditative state.  It is the wish of Ikeda to meet people in their “natural” state, and this is why he does not make arrangements for accommodation or other necessities in advance of his arrival in a specific location, although he does have assistance from friends supporting his walk who find contacts as they did with Lewis.

Arlene Armstrong, a resident of Iroquois and member of the Anglican Parish of North Dundas at St. Clare’s, met Ikeda at the home of Reverend Lewis. She described him as a very humble and peaceful man. “It was an honour to meet Ikeda,” she said. “He is a kind person and an ambassador for peace.”

The post Buddhist monk welcomed in Morrisburg during his Canadian peace pilgrimage appeared first on Perspective.