Sharon York, the former executive director of the Ottawa Pastoral Counselling Centre, died on Feb. 5, 2025 at the age of 68 following a sudden diagnosis and swift progression of cancer.
In a pastoral announcement, Bishop Shane Parker wrote: “Sharon helped thousands of people in the course of her career as a skilled, wise, compassionate, and faithful counsellor. She will be greatly missed and grieved, even as her life is celebrated with much thanksgiving. May the hopeful light of Christ, which burned brightly in Sharon, bring comfort and peace to her family and all who grieve her passing.”
Heather Fawcett, who succeeded York as the executive director of the Ottawa Pastoral Counselling Centre (the OPC) after she retired in 2023 told Crosstalk that there has been an outpouring of grief at the Centre among the many people whose lives she touched. York retired after a long career with the OPC, including 11 years as its executive director. She continued a remote practice as a psychotherapist at the OPC until recently.
Fawcett described her as a wise and kind mentor who loved to laugh, remembering how she listened thoughtfully to the challenges faced by her successor but also teased her from her retirement saying, “I’m glad it’s you not me.”
“She was a life-force,” Fawcett said, “not only a life force but a life-giving force.”
The Rev. Dr. Canon Peter John Hobbs, director general of Anglican Community Ministries (including the OPC) said York was held in the highest regard for her therapeutic abilities. “Sharon was respected, but she was also really loved…. People really cherished their relationships with Sharon, and it’s not an understatement to say by any stretch of the imagination that she made a remarkable impact on the lives of individuals she cared for, but also in our diocese,” he said. “Her commitment to the OPC goes back 30 years or more. She was the clinical coordinator or supervisor. She was, for many years, the person that people would call, particularly clergy…..Although she did one-on-one work with people who wanted psychotherapy, she was also there in a consultative role for parish clergy if they were facing a particularly challenging pastoral situation. It may or may not have resulted in a referral to the OPC, and very often it did, but in other circumstances, it helped just to be able to have a sounding board.” He added, “I’ve always said that one of the great measures of Sharon’s excellence as a psychotherapist is that the clergy of this diocese entrusted their families to her.”York was instrumental in creating the OPC’s Counselling Support Fund (CSF), which is used to provide financial assistance for people who need counselling but can’t afford the fees. “She worked tirelessly to establish that fund. And by the time she retired, there was more than $200,000 in it,” said Hobbs.
“Sharon held a conviction. Anyone who wanted counseling should have it, which actually is a conviction that we shared,” Fawcett said. “Because we both believe therapy ought to be available for all who hurt and have experienced loss or trauma and who want to work for themselves as part of growing and healing, and it ought not to be available only to those who can afford it. And so, because of this, Sharon was passionate about building and sustaining OPC’s Counseling Support Fund (CSF).”
Fawcett shared that she and York had a conversation this past November about balancing stewardship of the Counseling Support Fund with compassion “because there’s only so much money and we don’t want to exhaust the fund that we have. There’s such a high demand.” But she said that York reminded her of her view that the “OPC is God’s ministry and it is his money. …He knew who would be coming our way and what they needed. Our goal as EDs was to have compassion, to use the money well and to trust him to provide. She also spoke to me about the importance of fundraising in order to ensure the fund would always be available, and so it came as no surprise that in lieu of a retirement gift or flowers for her funeral, she wanted people to honour her by supporting that which she was so very passionate about and that was the Counseling Support Fund.”
York’s family wrote this moving tribute to her: “Sharon touched the lives of many people through her therapy work, her advocacy, and her community building. She was a fair and kind person, who strove to help people heal and to make the world a better place. She was quick to laugh, quicker to hug, and she lived her life to the fullest. She was a gardener, a kayaker, a runner, a baker, a tea drinker, a kitchen dancer, a star gazer, and a jam maker. She was an amazing mother, sister, partner, and friend.”
Information on how to donate to the Counselling Support Fund can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/3nweeu7t
Saint John, Innisville — Deanery of the Southwest