About 530 people gathered for the morning Eucharist service to support and pray for the new bishop and to celebrate the beginning of her new ministry.

Lt. Col. the Rev. Mike Gibbons of the Military Ordinariate, who was Otley’s clergy colleague when she was incumbent in the Parish of Christ Church Bells Corners, offered the homily.

“Being the shepherd of a community in which people ask to have God revealed to them is no small task, especially when there is also the never-ending list of tasks that must be accomplished, future planning that must be attended to, as well as the human element. How much more so for a bishop whose responsibilities stretch over 46,000 sq. kilometres?” he asked.

But he said he had chosen to highlight only one of the many tasks that bishops do.

“As a military chaplain, I have worked for many leaders over the years, and each of them has had their own philosophies and approaches to command and leadership. And any good military section of a bookstore will have copious volumes on leadership, sometimes with one approach being diametrically opposed to another approach. It’s all a bit like dieting,” he quipped. “What differentiates great leaders from those who simply occupy leadership positions, and there is a difference, is their ability to inspire their people to locate their personal stories within the wider story of the community,” he said….

“Leaders tell the story of the community they serve. They engage the stories of the people who make up the community, and they tie it together. Kathryn,” he said, “you are now our chief storyteller….You are now tasked with taking the gospel and helping us to understand who we are as followers of Christ in the Church of God, and how we are to live out our Christian response, and I know that you are up to the task. Your whole ministry has brought you to this place. You have been chosen by your people and your clergy, and that call has been confirmed by the Holy Spirit. You are a pastor, a teacher, a priest, and a strong leader, and today you become a bishop in the Church of God.”

Referring back to the Gospel reading for the day from John 14: 8-11, he added: “You join an apostolic succession, ensuring the mission and witness of the Church. You represent Philip’s courage and audacity seeking to see the Father and then seeing God at work in Christ in the world.” And reflecting on the fact that the service was also a commemoration of the saint Julian of Norwich, Gibbons suggested that the bishop also represents “Julian’s defiant, faithful optimism that despite all the ills in the world, the suffering, the injustices and the cruelty to which we bear witness, that God is at work, and all shall be well.”

During the consecration, bishops and archbishops from Ottawa and many other dioceses surrounded the bishop-elect to pray for her. Archbishop Anne Germond, the Metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario, anointed the bishop’s hands and forehead with Chrism and presented her with a Bible.

Archbishop Shane Parker, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, presented her with a crozier, a pastoral staff.

Her family helped her vest and don the regalia of the office. Her sons, Derek and Benjamin MacKinnon, provided her stole. Her cope was presented by Gerald, Anthony and John Otley. Her mother, Carolyn Otley, provided an episcopal ring.

Dean Beth Bretzlaff and diocesan Chancellor Canon Henry Schultz conducted the bishop to the Cathedra, the official seat of the bishop in the Cathedral. She is the first woman to serve as bishop in the diocese of Ottawa.

Archbishop Germond presented Bishop Kathryn to the congregation. The bishop thanked all those who had gathered — family, friends, clergy colleagues from Anglican parishes and dioceses, ecumenical and interfaith friends, as well as those watching the service online.

Addressing the congregation and all of the assembled clergy, Bishop Otley said: “This is such a great honour, and I am filled with gratitude, and I know that I have been surrounded by your prayers….The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit holds us all.”

Responding to Lt. Col. Gibbons’ homily, she added, “I want us to tell the story together. I will lead and tell the story that we live in a time of abundance and … that we are established and rooted in faith… and in the words of St. Paul from Colossians, we should not shift away from the hope that is given in the good news that we have heard, that we know, and that we believe.

“And so, I am honored again to lead our diocese, to be part of leading in our ecclesiastical province of Ontario, our province of Canada, and throughout the Communion as we journey together, on a journey of welcoming, of reconciliation, of serving and loving. And we do all this in the joy of God, in the power of the Spirit, to the glory of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Following the Eucharist, the clergy processed out with loud applause of welcome for the new bishop from the crowd attending. All were invited to a festive reception in the Cathedral’s Great Hall.

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Over the course of its 150-year history, Saint James’s Church at Manotick faced the problems of growth, in particular the conundrum of responding to the pressures of owning a heritage building.

Saint James’s Church originally was built in 1876 on land donated by Moss Kent Dickinson, owner of the large stone village gristmill at Long Island, who was mayor of Ottawa for a time.

Saint James’s was built in a developing village and became one of the signature architectural features of the village. Its builders could not have anticipated the pressures of a growing congregation. Fortunately, there was nothing in its development to match the grisly event that happened at Dickinson’s Mill a mere 100 yards upstream 15 years earlier.

In early March of 1861, Joseph Merrill Currier and Moss Kent Dickinson organized a day of festivities to celebrate the first anniversary of their stone gristmill. Part of the day’s activities included a tour of inspection of the mill itself attended by Currier and his wife Anna. A smiling Anna, elegantly dressed and coiffed in the fashion of the day proudly took her husband’s arm and strolled through the building. All the machines were turned on to show friends and officials alike the power of the water turbines. No one could speak above the noise, and all marveled at the mill’s technology and delighted in its obvious success.

Then suddenly, as if out of a nightmare, Anna lost her balance. She fought to keep a hold on her husband’s arm, but her billowing crinoline was caught in one of the machines. Her friends and guests, standing only a few feet away, were powerless to help. Her screams were barely audible above the noise, and as her husband and guests watched in shocked horror, Anna was sucked into the machine, hurled against its post, and killed before the machine could be stopped.

Fifteen years later, Saint James’ Church was an essay in carpenter Gothic, with porch and vestry wings. Notably, it had no tower. From 1877, the congregation at Manotick was part of the Parish of North Gower with nearby congregations worshipping in churches located at Kars, North Gower and the 1st Concession of Osgoode Township.

Saint James’s Church grew. And steadily. So much so, that by 1887, it headed the Parish of Manotick, with churches at the outlying stations of Kars and Osgoode. It was at that time that the house of worship was raised on a new foundation. Fifteen years after that, in 1902, we are told that the church was “greatly improved” by enlarging the nave and building a bell tower with battlements on the front. By this point, the house of worship no longer bore much resemblance to the house of worship first put up just a quarter of a century earlier.

It is curious how parishes become inured, even accepting of change. What once seemed startling comes to be treasured and even taken for granted as having always existed. Change often is forgotten. The fiftieth anniversary of Saint James’s Church was celebrated in 1926, with many parishioners somehow assuming that the building had always existed in its then current form from the beginning. They came to assume that the tower had always been in place. As growth continued, in 1946 the basement was made into a parish hall.

In the black and white photograph shown here, Saint James’s Church was barely able to contain an AYPA (Anglican Young People’s Association) conference that took place in the village circa 1950. Indeed, by 1958, such was the growth of this congregation that Manotick had become a one-point parish, with Saint George’s Church, Hawthorne briefly serving as an out-station in 1978-1979.

Which brings us to the conundrum faced by parishioners at Saint James’s Church in the 1980s. For by then, the house of worship no longer could hold the congregation.  What were they to do?

Previously there had been four solutions to such a dilemma elsewhere across the Diocese of Ottawa. The first was to retain the old church and integrate it with a larger new worship space, as had been done at All Saints Church, Westboro and at Christ Church, Bells Corners.

A second option was to send their venerable house of worship to a heritage site such as Upper Canada Village, and build anew elsewhere, as Christ Church, Moulinette had done.

Yet a third option was to tear down the old church and put up a larger more modern building, as Saint John’s Church at Iroquois did. This was a controversial option, given the many ties to the old church, as in local minds it defined Manotick, much as did Watson’s Mill.

And fourth, the congregation could decide to abandon the old church and build at a new site, as had been the case when Saint John’s, Merivale was abandoned for Saint John the Divine, Nepean (long since burned down) in the 1960s.

None of these solutions precisely suited the good Anglicans of Manotick. To begin with, the congregation did not want to leave their site. There was the matter of strong local appreciation of built heritage that did not take kindly to tearing down a focal building from the past, especially as the author of the recently published The Architectural Heritage of the Rideau Corridor, Barbara Humphreys, was a member of the parish.

A compromise (which did not please heritage folk) was decided on. The decision was made to tear down the old church and design a larger building to look exactly like it, incorporating such architectural elements from the old such structure as the stained glass windows in the new.

Worship services were held in the Royal Canadian Legion hall for 10 months while the old church was taken down and the new one built. The colour photograph here shows a crane in place just before a wrecking ball levelled the old house of worship after various architectural components to be saved had been removed.

A new much larger church, capable of sustaining future growth, arose on the site of the old house of worship.  Curiously, it looked very much like the church that had stood on the site for a century, incorporating many of the features that had accumulated over the decades, such as the stained-glass windows.  Bishop Edwin Lackey conducted the dedication service in the new church on 10 March 1985, and 17 years later Saint James the Apostle Church was consecrated by Bishop John A. Baycroft on 24 October 1993.

And now, Saint James the Apostle Church at Manotick is celebrating its 150th anniversary as a centre of Anglican worship. Thanks to its much larger fabric, it is a dynamic parish of the Diocese of Ottawa.

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. 

Diocesan Archives 51 M4 11

The post Saint James the Apostle, Manotick — West Ottawa Deanery appeared first on Perspective.

One hundred and thirty years ago, on the 7th of April 1896, the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa emerged from the eastern section of the Diocese of Ontario. And seventy years after that, in 1966 the western section of the Diocese of Montreal was transferred to the Diocese of Ottawa, effectively doubling its territory in size. Just a month ago, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe of Ottawa marked the first of these anniversaries by proclaiming April 7, 2026, Anglican Diocese of Ottawa Historical Day.

Anglicanism locally was much older. Anglicans around Cornwall were beginning to organize missions some 240 years ago. As David Farr remarked in “The Daughter Church:  The Genesis of the Diocese of Ottawa,” ecclesiastical authority in the Ottawa Valley for most of the first century had always been remote. First administered from Halifax, then Quebec and, after 1839, Toronto, this region lay on the fringe of established religious order in Canada. In 1862, the region was given its own ecclesiastical format when the fifteen counties in Ontario east of the Trent River and south of the Ottawa River were carved out of the Diocese of Toronto.

All of this history is reflected in the west window of Christ Church Cathedral, Ottawa created in 1982 by Christopher Wallis of London, Ontario, as photographed by Brian Glenn.  Ostensibly created to mark the sesquicentennial of the first Christ Church being built in 1832, in this window Wallis was handed the challenge of graphically summarizing the place of this episcopal parish—and by extension the Diocese of Ottawa—in the history of Anglicanism in Canada, and more particularly in the general history of this region. Hence two-thirds of the way up the window we see the coats of arms of the Diocese of Nova Scotia, the Diocese of Quebec, the Diocese of Toronto, and the Diocese of Ontario based at Kingston.

The larger composition of this remarkable window is a cross, emblematic of Christianity.  The Celtic cross design recognizes the huge Anglo-Irish population that arrived in this region in the early nineteenth century.  In Canada’s first census (1871) that asked people what they considered their ethnic origin (as opposed to their country of birth) to be, in the five rural counties around Ottawa 42,000 more people claimed to be of Irish origin than did in Canada’s two largest cities of Montreal and Toronto combined.  Most of the early Anglican clergy serving the region in fact came from England, but it was only after Confederation that English-origin Anglicans began to predominate in the congregations spreading across the region.

At the centre circle of the cross is Christ the agnus dei from whom the parish of Christ’s Church, Bytown took its name. At the apex of the window Christ the King is shown sitting on a rainbow, while a satellite is depicted orbiting the heavens. Even as the window celebrated the region’s history, it was taking note of modern developments.

The cross arms of the larger cross featured wavy blue lines to represent the Ottawa River, a major east/west transportation route for both Indigenous inhabitants and early French explorers. The upright of the cross is comprised of the Gatineau River flowing from the north, and the Rideau flowing from the south, with the three rivers converging on the Lamb of God, to convey the idea of believers being “washed in the blood of the lamb.”

There is much subtlety to this design. Drawn to the range of colours across the larger window, we do not notice at first the silhouette of tall pine trees on either side of the windows.  They, of course, signify the huge impact of the timber industry across the Diocese over six generations from the 1780s to the early twentieth century. Tulips along the window’s base pay tribute to the Ottawa Tulip Festival, it in turn alluding to Canadian sacrifices in liberating the Netherlands during the Second World War. Also across the base of the window we see coats of arms of the Diocese of Ottawa, Christ Church Cathedral, the then City of Hull in 1982 and the City of Ottawa.

Four oval insets also allude to aspects of the long history that in time led to the establishment of the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa. First, the oval on the upper left of the main window includes images of explorers Jacques Cartier, Samuel de Champlain and Martin Frobisher. It was on the latter’s voyage west of Greenland in 1576 that a priest on the ship held the first Anglican service in what today is Canada.

The oval on the upper right shows a tall ship and a background of fur pelts and a codfish, indicating the economic basis of the fur trade and cod fisheries that supported settlements in the eastern provinces, eventually leading to Anglican settlers heading west to the Ottawa country.

A third oval on the lower left provides an image of people gathering at the 1832 Christ’s Church in Bytown—the first Anglican house of worship in Ottawa. We also see an image of Philemon Wright’s Hull settlement where the first Anglican worship services took place—in the first house of worship of the denomination built in what today is the National Capital Region.

The fourth oval on the lower right shows the Centre Block of Parliament, viewed from Gatineau. In front of it are the flags of France and Great Britain, reflecting the passage of time when Canada moved from being a colony of one to the other.  A small red roundel featuring Sir John A. Macdonald, if intended to mark his role in bringing about Confederation, more recently marks his notorious role in establishing residential schools for Indigenous children. [Much of that terrible history has come to light since the window was created in 1982. Archbishop Michael Peers’ 1993 apology on behalf of the Anglican Church of Canada for its role in running schools was the beginning of Anglicans’ ongoing work toward truth and reconciliation with Indigenous people.]

The middle of the lower window shows a great stream of people, framed by an Indigenous person and an African-Canadian standing prominently in the foreground, and encompassing various people from the diocese and Ottawa’s history. They include: Joseph Montferrand, a legendary lumberjack; Philemon Wright, a prominent settler at Gatineau and pioneer of the regional timber industry; Lord Dalhousie who secured the site to build the Rideau Canal entrance locks and Lieutenant-Colonel John By who oversaw Rideau Canal construction, built bridges between Hull and Bytown, and laid out the original site for Bytown.

Others portrayed here include Nicholas Sparks (the image is really his son, Nicholas Sparks Junior) who donated the site of Christ’s Church in Bytown; the Rev. Adam Hood Burwell, the Rev. Samuel S. Strong and Dean John Strutt Lauder—the first three rectors who presided over the parish as it moved from being a pioneer worship community to cathedral; Bishop Guigues, the first Roman Catholic bishop of Ottawa; Mère Elisabeth Brûyère who opened the first community hospital; and Charles Hamilton—the first Anglican bishop of Ottawa.

The sole identifiable Anglican woman portrayed in this group was Roberta Tilton, who organized the Woman’s Auxiliary nationally, with members in churches across the Diocese of Ottawa sending funds and bales to support Indigenous communities across western and northern Canada from the nineteenth to the 21st centuries.

We celebrated our 130th anniversary just a couple of weeks after the first woman was installed as Archbishop of Canterbury and one month before Bishop-elect Kathryn Otley is to be seated as the 11th Bishop of Ottawa, the first woman to become bishop in this diocese.

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Several events are planned throughout the year to bring both long-time parishioners and the wider community together.  Join us on May 9 at 7 pm for Our Story in Song, a curated choir concert featuring choral favourites. 

This will be followed by the city-wide Doors Open Ottawa on June 6. St. James’ historical displays will be set up in Tomkins Hall.

On June 13, the celebration takes a nostalgic turn with the “Over the Decades ACW Tea,” hosted by the Anglican Church Women. 

Younger members of the community can also look forward to a historical scavenger hunt in the summer.

And even more events are being planned throughout the year. See www.stjames-manotick.ca for more details.

Storytelling project

As part of the sesquicentennial, the church is embarking on a storytelling project. The goal is to collect 150 vignettes from past and present parishioners to create a living history of the congregation.

While the anniversary is a time for reflection, it also serves a practical purpose for the church’s physical heritage. A primary fundraising goal for the year is the urgent refurbishment of the East Window.

The restoration is a major focal point of the anniversary campaign. In a creative nod to the project, congregants can track fundraising progress in real-time by watching a stained-glass window drawing in the narthex, which will be «filled in» as donations reach milestones.For more information on these events, contact the organizing team at 150th@stjames-manotick.

— The Rev. John Holgate is the Incumbent at St. James, Manotick.

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One of the ways I have found over the years to help me hold onto the Easter certainty and joy is in rereading a little book, The Practice of the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence, a 17th-century Carmelite monk. (You can find the text of this book online for reading on-screen or download a free pdf at http://www.ccel.org/ccel/lawrence/practice.)

This small book is about leading a holy life in the midst of our daily multitude of tasks and responsibilities. When I first encountered this book I thought that the idea that I with all my failings could lead a holy life and be holy was impossible. After reading it, I realized that I had had a very limited idea of what holiness was all about.

The Oxford dictionary defines holiness as: “The state of being holy: a life of holiness and total devotion to God.” This definition sounds more like something that can be attained by only the greatest saints than something I could strive for. But for Br. Lawrence, a holy life is captured in the phrase, “our only business is to love and delight ourselves in God.” His view of a holy life is grounded in his open trust in Christ and of Christ’s love for him. To be holy in this way is to take delight in seeing and knowing Christ. Br. Lawrence sees each task he must complete and each person he encounters as just such an opportunity to love and to know Christ.

He also writes about the joy of making little sacrifices each day, such as striving to love even the difficult tasks and people, which he did by having a constant conversation with God throughout the day. This approach to prayer freed me from thinking that only the formal structured prayer that I had grown up with was acceptable to God. To begin each task with a prayer of thanks to God and offering the work as an act of love transforms even the most dreary things we must do. Even in the face of suffering, such a prayer of offering transforms it into an opportunity to experience the presence and and love of God in the midst of the suffering.

Striving with God’s grace to see Him in every person and moment of life has enabled me to experience Christ in a deeper and more dynamic way. For if we praise and thank Him only in the midst of the joys and beauties of life, we miss knowing the Christ of the Cross who embraced rejection, suffering and death for us and who is with us in our own suffering and sorrow.

Such a simple change of perspective and practice, but one that challenges us to break down the division we make between our spiritual life and our daily reality. This Easter, ask the Risen Lord to give you the grace to live by the hope of Easter every hour of every day, and the grace to take delight in your love of God and of His boundless love for you and for all of us.

— The Rev. Canon Stewart Murray is a retired priest of our Diocese.

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A parish can become a member of MHI which has the capacity to gather small contributions from faith communities and purchase housing in large projects such as ‘Odenak’ on LeBreton Flats. MHI became a partner with the builder ‘Dream Corporation’ which will ensure the creation of 130 affordable units in the two towers on LeBreton Flats. [The Anglican Diocese of Ottawa contributed a $75,000 donation for Indigenous housing in the project with funds from the sale of a church property.]

With a membership purchase of $100 per year, your parish would be able to vote on decisions made annually at MHI’s annual general meeting and thereby influence projects to be pursued.  Although $100 is a small sum, it is an indication of your parish’s wish to participate and contribute to the cause of providing affordable housing.

One long-term fundraising initiative of MHI is its annual Tulipathon. This three-kilometre walk in Commissioners Park (the location of the Tulip Festival next to Dow’s Lake) raises money to subsidize ‘affordable housing’ for some MHI tenants. Participation in this activity puts safe housing in reach for many low-income families and individuals.

This year’s Tulipathon will take place on May 24 at 3 pm.  Each parish is encouraged to create a team and gather supporters in their community of friends and family.  Whether parishes have members who are walking, fundraising, donating, or sharing information they and their parish are part of something bigger.  Action by your parish will help to move the mission forward, especially as housing challenges in Ottawa continue to grow.

For more information : https://www.multifaithhousing.ca/tulipathon

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Co-sponsored by Kateri Native Ministry and St. Joseph’s Parish, this event gave the more than 200 attendees the opportunity to learn about “respectful dialogue and relationship-building.” Donna Naughton, executive director of the Kateri Native Ministry of Ottawa introduced Sinclair, who began by referencing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action #61, one of four calls addressed to churches.

Acknowledging that “there will never be an end to some actions,” he pointed to increased awareness of what reconciliation means, referencing the 50 percent of Canadians who now own Orange Shirts.

He then challenged the audience with the question “What can YOU do?”  Referring to justice as “the most important part” of the TRC’s work, he identified the five Calls to Action that specifically address the roles of churches: (1) Define ‘Truth and Reconciliation’; (2) Offer the gift of space; (3) Challenge indifference; (4) Act with integrity; and (5) Become allies in the Spirit.

Define Truth and Reconciliation 

Affirming that Truth comes before Reconciliation, Sinclair referred to the deaths of children at residential schools as undeniable. Nowadays, he stated, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people are talking about love, even though new stories are emerging. Finding the children is worth the search, he asserted, and the search has begun.

Offer the gift of space

Acknowledging that sharing space is complex, Sinclair referenced the visit of Canadian Indigenous leaders to the Vatican. Interestingly, Pope Francis met the visitors in the picture gallery, where some paintings depict the Doctrine of Discovery. Calling this a first for the Vatican, he noted that the guests, clad in traditional regalia, presented the Pope with two pairs of children’s moccasins. A visitor asked, “Can you carry them?” Responding that he would try, he later declared in Alberta “I have the moccasins.”

Sinclair then challenged the audience with a question: “The cross in a church is beautiful: how do Indigenous People feel about it?”

Challenge indifference 

Sinclair observed that while the 2022 Papal Apology targeted indifference, the Pope affirmed that indifference leads to violence and harm. This, he explained, was the result of not speaking up. He challenged the audience to remember Stephen, stoned by those who were indifferent. (Acts 7:54-60). Jesus, he pointed out, continuously espoused love, saying that all are welcome and all deserve to eat. Describing the indifference of some students who mocked their Indigenous classmates, he affirmed that “This cannot be the order of the day.” In closing, Sinclair challenged the audience with this question: How does our church respond to indifference?

Act with integrity

Sinclair applauded Governor General Mary Simon for speaking truth to power when she addressed the Pope. Referring to water as “the great teacher of connection,” Sinclair said that for Jesus “All things are bent towards the flow of creation… (and) we need to go to places where we are all connected.” He added, “God is in the land. There is no need to take children away from it.”

Become allies in the Spirit 

Observing that the Pope said little when he visited the Canadian North, Sinclair pointed out that the Pontiff chose to focus instead on listening to the people. Once back on the plane for his trip home, he responded to a journalist’s direct question with, “Yes, I use the word genocide.” One month later, reported Sinclair, the Canadian government issued a statement acknowledging the Vatican’s decision to rescind the Doctrine of Discovery, describing it as “racist, colonial concept.”  He noted that despite the closure of many churches, (some) people continue as communities of faith and allies. “What will happen if we don’t care enough about ‘being Church?” he challenged.  “If we do enough, we might change the world…but that is only if we commit to love and pain and suffering and stop indifference.”

Concluding his presentation on a lighter note, Sinclair asked the audience: “What would Jesus say about Orange Shirts? The answer: Jesus would ask: “Do you have my size?”

— Janet Allingham and Karen Luyendyk are members of the diocesan All My Relations Episcopal Panel

A time for reconcili-action

May 5 is Red Dress Day, a National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and Two-Spirit People.

Red Dress Day is followed by National Indigenous History Month in June, a time for Indigenous Peoples, non-Indigenous, and new Canadians to reflect upon and learn about the history, sacrifices, cultures, contributions, and strengths of First Nations, Inuit and Métis.

For many Canadians, the history of Indigenous peoples and Canada was, until recently, unknown. Generations of Canadians have lived their lives without knowing about residential schools, the historic and ongoing impacts of the Indian Act, the significance of treaties, or the contributions of Indigenous peoples to the mosaic that is Canada. With gratitude for the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, non-Indigenous Canadians, governments and churches have been given a guide to what we can do to learn and to promote healing more broadly: the Calls to Action! https://nctr.ca/about/truth-and-reconciliation-commission-of-canada-calls-to-action/

Parishes are invited to explore ways of honouring and celebrating National Indigenous Peoples Day and the National Indigenous Day of Prayer; in 2026 these two days coincide, on Sunday June 21!!

It is our hope and prayer that acknowledgement, reflection, celebration, discomfort, and remorse lead to actions towards reconciliation, relationship, and right relations.

Not sure what to do?  Here are some resources to get you started:

Video resources that you can include in your service on Sunday June 21 were created in 2021 with the diocesan All My Relations Panel (AMR)

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjbS6tqPW5bAf1HXOI0aHo5ycFEQVNYHN

Anglican Church of Canada resources:

Indigenous Ministries https://www.anglican.ca/im/

Bible Readings: consider using the First Nations New Testament https://firstnationsversion.com/book/first-nations-version/

Prayers of the People

Litany from the National Church video can be used with attribution. This has an Indigenous voice and a non-Indigenous voice https://www.anglican.ca/wp-content/uploads/LITANY-We-are-still-here.pdf

Remembering the Children prayer https://www.rememberingthechildren.ca/tour/documents/prayer.pdf

After June 21 and Indigenous History Month have passed, stay involved in the journey by watching the diocesan AMR website for events and opportunities. https://ottawa.anglican.ca/indigenous-justice

The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation and the Legacy of Hope Foundation of Canada provide resources of all kinds, check them out to start or continue on your journey of healing and reconciliation!

Email allmyrelations@ottawa.anglican.ca with questions and ideas about next steps or to share your events with other parishes in the Diocese.

A time for reconcili-action

May 5 is Red Dress Day, a National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and Two-Spirit People.

Red Dress Day is followed by National Indigenous History Month in June, a time for Indigenous Peoples, non-Indigenous, and new Canadians to reflect upon and learn about the history, sacrifices, cultures, contributions, and strengths of First Nations, Inuit and Métis.

For many Canadians, the history of Indigenous peoples and Canada was, until recently, unknown. Generations of Canadians have lived their lives without knowing about residential schools, the historic and ongoing impacts of the Indian Act, the significance of treaties, or the contributions of Indigenous peoples to the mosaic that is Canada. With gratitude for the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, non-Indigenous Canadians, governments and churches have been given a guide to what we can do to learn and to promote healing more broadly: the Calls to Action! https://nctr.ca/about/truth-and-reconciliation-commission-of-canada-calls-to-action/

Parishes are invited to explore ways of honouring and celebrating National Indigenous Peoples Day and the National Indigenous Day of Prayer; in 2026 these two days coincide, on Sunday June 21!!

It is our hope and prayer that acknowledgement, reflection, celebration, discomfort, and remorse lead to actions towards reconciliation, relationship, and right relations.

Not sure what to do?  Here are some resources to get you started:

Video resources that you can include in your service on Sunday June 21 were created in 2021 with the diocesan All My Relations Panel (AMR)

Anglican Church of Canada resources:

Indigenous Ministries

Bible Readings: consider using the First Nations New Testament

Prayers of the People

Litany from the National Church video can be used with attribution. This has an Indigenous voice and a non-Indigenous voice 

Remembering the Children prayer

After June 21 and Indigenous History Month have passed, stay involved in the journey by watching the diocesan AMR website for events and opportunities. https://ottawa.anglican.ca/indigenous-justice

The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation and the Legacy of Hope Foundation of Canada provide resources of all kinds, check them out to start or continue on your journey of healing and reconciliation!

Email allmyrelations@ottawa.anglican.ca with questions and ideas about next steps or to share your events with other parishes in the Diocese.

The post Ten years later, Niigaan Sinclair challenges churches and Christians to answer the TRC Calls to Action appeared first on Perspective.

Hobin Architecture will match donations from new donors made before July 1, 2026, up to a total of $45,000. Belong Ottawa will share donations received through the program with two other charities — the Youville Centre, which supports young mothers and their children, and the Ottawa Humane Society.

Belong Ottawa operates day programs in three locations in downtown Ottawa —Centre 454, St. Luke’s Table and The Well — serving vulnerable people who may be experiencing poverty, homelessness, mental illness and addictions. The day programs address basic needs such as food, laundry and shower facilities as well as offering other supports that foster dignity, wellness and hope.

“At Belong Ottawa, we are honoured our organization has been featured in this year’s campaign,” said executive director Shauna-marie Young. “This spotlight gives new supporters the chance to discover our essential, lifesaving work, and it reinforces how powerful it is when charities and socially responsible companies come together. Partnerships like these strengthen our communities and create lasting, positive impact. Thank you for this meaningful recognition.”

Steve Clifford, Hobin’s director of marketing and communications, explained that the company started the You Give, We Give program in 2021 in response to the hard times the community was going through during COVID. “We’ve always had a strong philanthropic mandate here, giving a portion of our own revenues, but we wanted to leverage our peers. So that’s what kind of drove this new matching program.”

Architect Barry Hobin founded the Ottawa-based firm in 1979 as a two-person office that has now grown to a team of more than 40 designers, technologists and administrators. It is now the longest operating architecture firm in Ottawa. Woven into the firm’s DNA is a strong belief in and commitment to giving back to the community.

In an interview with Perspective, Hobin explained, “We hold ourselves accountable…. We don’t come to the end of the year and ask ‘Have we got some money left over that we can throw into charitable giving?’ Our regular accounting and profit and loss sheet has built into it an expectation of charitable giving.” He added, “We philosophically want to give to agencies that are small, who are grassroots…. Our first major gifts were to things like the Ottawa Mission and around social justice and compassion. As causes, those things ring true to us.”

Hobin noted that the firm is a secular company, so its charitable giving is described in terms of recognizing “that we exist because of the strength of community, and we want to make our community stronger.

However, he added that the firm “ascribes to the Judeo Christian framework of tithing…. we’re in a time when talking about personal faith is challenging. Demonstrating your beliefs through action resonates with your community.”

You Give, We Give 2026

Ottawa architect Barry Hobin and his firm believe in giving back to the community year in and year out.

photo: metropolis studio

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It is much like lighting a votive candle — choose a ribbon and as you tie it on, hold in your heart an intention, a person or a situation; as the ribbons cover the net, our prayers become contemplative art.

The Cathedral is open from 9 am to 3 pm, Monday to Thursday, and 9 am to noon on Friday, and all are most welcome to come in and spend time in the sacred space.

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