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

The post Belong Ottawa to benefit from a matching fundraising campaign appeared first on Perspective.

That’s the long but self-explanatory name that Kaptain MacDonald and Hayden Hamilton adopted for an outreach program they created, offering their help to anyone in need in the Cornwall, Ont. area.

It all started last year after a winter storm when the two friends helped a woman who needed to change her tires to winter tires so that she could drive to a hospital to see her dying mother. “Hayden and I felt very blessed to be a tool of God, really a wrench in in God’s toolbox,” MacDonald told Perspective in an interview. They felt it was a calling.

People who knew them didn’t take them seriously at first, but MacDonald says they decided, “Just for fun, let’s blow it up on Facebook…We ended up as a joke calling ourselves the Two Strong Christian Boys That Can Move Heavy Things, just because it was funny… but it’s stuck like glue and everybody knows us as that…Since then, we’ve done full moveouts, simple furniture moves…. Then we started doing landscaping, offering snow removal. It’s us that’s truly been blessed that people have these needs and that were used by God to be actually able to go out and help them.”

They don’t ask for payment. MacDonald says they use any donations they receive to help pay for supplies such as gas or equipment to enable them to help others.

Now, they have a plan to help Centre 105 and Lighthouse Drop-in Centre in Cornwall.

“We heard so much about Centre 105… but going there and actually seeing the gravity of what Centre 105 does, it blew us away. The fact that they sit 100 people four days a week, the laundry, the food, everything. I was holding tears back as I was there…. It’s our pleasure to try and help them,” says MacDonald.

The Boys recognized that what is most helpful to Centre 105 and the Lighthouse is not lifting heavy things but money to fund their operations, so starting on May 29, they are doing a two-day, 63-kilometre fundraising walk to benefit both centres. They are walking from Cornwall to Maxville and back again.

MacDonald says they don’t expect many people to walk the whole distance with them, but they have identified checkpoints along their route where people could join in and walk part of the way with them. By the end of March, they had raised about $4,000. They also hope to raise awareness and support in the community for the important work done at both Centre 105 and the Lighthouse Drop-in Centre.

“Centre 105 would like to thank Kaptain and Hayden for all the effort they’ve put into organizing this 63km walk in support of Centre 105 and the Lighthouse Centre,” said Mélodie Cousineau, a social service worker at Centre 105. “When I met with them a few weeks ago to talk about the fundraiser, it was clear how committed they are to helping Cornwall Ministries and the community. They were great to speak with and genuinely passionate about what they’re doing,” she said. “It’s really amazing to see our community come together like this. We’re looking forward to their walk in May and are very grateful for their efforts, as well as for everyone who continues to support them.”

For more information or to donate, look for Two Strong Christian Boys That Can Move Heavy Things on Facebook or contact Centre 105.

The post Two Strong Christian Boys create a fundraising walk for Cornwall ministries appeared first on Perspective.

The Community Ministries serve some of the most vulnerable people in our midst who may be experiencing homelessness, poverty, mental illness, trauma and addiction.

The ministries include day programs at Belong Ottawa’s three locations at Centre 454, St. Luke’s Table and The Well, as well as Centre 105 in Cornwall, which offer service to address basic needs such as food, laundry and shower facilities, as well as other supports that foster dignity, wellness and hope.

Cornerstone Housing for Women provides supportive permanent housing for women and gender-diverse individuals as well as operating an emergency shelter.

The Ottawa Pastoral Counselling Centre (The OPC) offers counselling and psychotherapy to individuals, couples and families, including children and teens, and has a counselling support fund that allows the OPC to offer some crisis support to people who otherwise could not afford counselling.

The Refugee Ministry Office operates as a Sponsorship Agreement Holder in Canada’s private refugee sponsorship program that has helped hundreds of people begin new lives in Canada in its decades of service.

Supporting all of this work is a daunting balancing act with a hectic pace, but the new director general kindly took time to answer some questions from Perspective.

Now that you have had a few months to start settling in, how are you feeling about your new role?

I’m settling into the role with a growing sense of clarity about both the strength of these ministries and the challenges they are facing.

In these first months, I’ve been listening carefully—spending time with staff, volunteers, and participants and paying attention to what is working well and where there is strain. What is immediately clear is the depth of commitment across all of the Community Ministries, and the essential role they play in the life of our Diocese and in the wider community.

At the same time, the pressures are significant. Rising demand, increasing complexity of need, and financial constraints are not abstract concerns—they are shaping daily realities on the ground. That requires us to be both honest about where we are and intentional about where we are going.

So, I find myself holding both a deep respect for what has been built and a clear sense that this is a moment for focus and discernment. My role is to help bring that clarity—strengthening what is working, addressing what is not sustainable, and supporting a path forward that is both faithful to our mission and viable over the long term.

What drew you to want to lead and guide the Community Ministries?

Our faith, as followers of Jesus in the Anglican tradition, offers a strong framework for participating in God’s work of love, care, and compassion. What drew me to this role is seeing how clearly our diocesan Community Ministries already embody that call—walking alongside those who are most vulnerable and creating spaces of dignity, connection, and hope.

I often return to Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, where Jesus levels the ground. He speaks blessing to those on the margins, raising them into dignity and visibility, while calling those with power into deeper relationship and accountability. That movement toward level ground—where people meet face to face and heart to heart—is at the centre of this work, and it’s what I feel called to help lead.

What in your past experience best prepared you for your new role as director general?

My work has consistently brought together vision, relationship-building, and sustainability.

As incumbent at the Church of the Ascension, I initiated a multi-stage visioning process rooted in Anglican identity and led the parish through cultural change and liturgical renewal. In my time at Ascension, the parish strengthened partnerships with various community organizations – including Pathway Yoga, who make their home in the church hall six days a week – enriching parish life while improving financial sustainability.

At St. Luke’s, I deepened connections between the parish and St. Luke’s Table, and with Somerset West Community Health Centre and the local Business Improvement Association, while guiding the parish through significant capital renovations. That work required integrating governance, community engagement and long-term planning.

Earlier, in my work at Health Canada, I developed skills in policy analysis, writing, and working across complex systems—experience that continues to shape my approach to strategy and communication.

Across all of these roles, the common thread has been building strong relationships, clarifying direction, and supporting structures that are both mission-driven and sustainable.

What have participants told you or what have you observed among the participants that has made a deep impression on you?

What stays with me is the resilience people carry, often alongside significant and ongoing hardship. Many are navigating layers of challenge – housing instability, poverty, mental health, trauma –  yet there is a clarity and strength in how they move through the world.

Again and again, I hear how much relationship matters. Beyond services, people speak about being known, greeted by name, and treated with respect. That sense of dignity is not secondary to the work—it is central to it.

At the same time, the growing complexity of need is very evident. Our Community Ministries are under increasing pressure, and I see staff and volunteers responding with deep commitment and care, stretching limited resources to meet that demand.

All Community Ministries are challenged to meet rising needs and costs. How can the diocesan church, parishes and individuals help?

This work is a shared responsibility. The Community Ministries are not separate from the church’s life—they are a direct expression of it.

There are important practical contributions—financial support, volunteering, and advocacy—that make a tangible difference. But just as important is a deeper engagement: seeing these ministries as part of our common life, building relationships, and allowing what we learn to shape our priorities and decisions.

We also need to be clear about the scale of the challenge. Rising costs and increasing demand mean that maintaining the status quo is not enough. This moment calls for both generosity and clarity about how we will respond together in a sustainable way.

Where do you find joy and peace outside of work?

I find grounding in simple, restorative rhythms—time outdoors, exercise, and being near water. I also enjoy cooking and a range of artistic pursuits, which offer a different kind of creativity and focus from my day-to-day work.

Time spent at our family’s off-grid cabin just outside Sharbot Lake is especially meaningful for me— it’s a place to step back, reflect, and reconnect with my husband and our two children. I’m always grateful for time with family and friends, and the steady rhythms of prayer and worship continue to sustain me and bring a sense of balance and hope.

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They participated with about 60 other front-line providers in the Empathy Project, described by the organizer, Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa, as an exercise in social policy education.

Each one assumed a persona—a person who needed help from multiple service providers—which was fictional but was expertly designed to reflect real-life experience.

They were given a list of service locations such as Service Ontario, a health care clinic and community housing service which were scattered around a multi-storey building of the Canadian Mental Health Association.

At the end of the exercise, some of their comments were: “meaningful and memorable…unsettling…very powerful… profound…overwhelmed at how awful it is…”

“The Empathy Project challenges participants to engage with the realities of navigating a complex and often dehumanizing system,” Moira Alie, chair of the Bishop’s Panel on Housing Justice, said. “Though the experience can be frustrating, its purpose is not to foster hopelessness, but to inspire action. If homelessness is a systemic problem, it is also a solvable one.” Alie is engagement manager at the alliance.

Mark Holzman, chair of Cornerstone’s board of directors, stepped into the situation of an Inuit man who had been living with his son and mother in Ottawa for two years, doing well enough to rent an apartment. Until, one day he was evicted, informed that the landlord was going to renovate. He was out on the street.

“I went to register on the housing list and was told it’s a six-year wait…There were a lot of people waiting at the shelter. Often the answer was, ‘No…no, we can’t help you, you need to go over there…no, you aren’t going to be helped today.’ That was unsettling.”

Holzman pointed out that in the simulation the “clients” had to walk up and down stairs to locations in a multi-storey building. In reality they would have to take a bus. And sometimes their first problem is getting bus tickets.

Anne Marie Hopkins, executive director of Cornerstone, assumed the role of Charles, a young immigrant refugee trying to get into a shelter and in need of disability support.

“I was not able to get my birth certificate because I didn’t have $35 to pay for it. Because of that I’m not able to get onto disability and get some income to get housing.”

Hopkins said it was a realistic reflection of the barriers that folks at the shelter face regularly. Cornerstone has a fund to help with issues like getting a birth certificate, and staff will accompany people to help them access services properly.

Shauna-marie Young, executive director of Belong Ottawa, stepped into the persona a black woman, a recent arrival to Canada who didn’t have her documents in order. She became ill, had to be hospitalized, losing her children to foster care. Upon discharge she struggled to find income and housing so her children could be returned.

As she walked from agency to agency, she found abject rejection, a lack of real support, a fatigue on the part of the providers when they had nothing to offer. “Imagine losing your children to care and being told, ‘There’s nothing I can do to help you. No, you can’t see your children’…Being in receipt of no, no, no, as kindly as it’s said, it’s still no, no, no.”

The Rev. Victoria Scott, a member of Belong Ottawa’s board of directors who has just been appointed as the director general for Anglican Community Ministries, was Charles, a 17-year-old who had been bounced around in foster care, suffered abuse and ended up on the street.

“Without any money, ID or connections other than a local shelter, I had to make my way through a day of navigating the system: going to Service Ontario to be told that I couldn’t apply for a birth certificate without the fee. I then went to the ODSP (Ontario Disability Support Program) office to be told I couldn’t apply without ID, an address and bank statements. I reached out to a landlord to be told I couldn’t apply for an apartment without proof that I was receiving ODSP. I went to the employment office to find a line so long that I had to leave in order to get back to the shelter to sign in before 4 pm.”

Scott said she knew people in similar situations when she was incumbent at St Luke’s, with its St Luke’s Table drop-in centre.  She was impressed by an approach that encourages empathy. “I often think there is a misconception that the church borrows social justice from politics but it’s gospel-based. It’s our baptismal vows. It’s what Jesus did.”

Simon Kinsman, newly-appointed chair of Belong Ottawa’s advisory board, assumed the persona of a single mother, struggling to support her own ailing mother and a son facing “renoviction.”

She had been managing financially but had to take unpaid time away from her work, spending days at the offices of service providers. She herself ended up being illegally evicted and turned to the emergency shelter for help.

“What stood out for me,” Kinsman said, “was how discouraging and even dehumanizing it is to be told no constantly. People facing homelessness continue to face life’s other challenges — a sick parent, job insecurity, without the safe space to rest and without a support network.”

“It made me incredibly proud of the work Belong Ottawa and the Anglican ministries do in providing that safe space.”

Kinsman said the project is valuable for the decision-makers to better understand how the system they have designed is experienced by the people who use it.

That’s the goal of Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa. It has been taken up by Ottawa and Pembroke city councils and is offered to medical and nursing students, anyone considering a caring profession, including teachers.

Raising awareness of how the system actually works is seen by all as a big step forward in reducing homelessness.

As Mark Holzman said: ”We hope the people making the rules can experience what it’s like. Do they really need all that information before they can provide a service? If you’re telling your story over and over again…Is there not a way to simplify that process?”

Cornerstone chair Mark Holzman (top), Cornerstone executive director Anne Marie Hopkins and Belong Ottawa’s Shauna-marie Young stepped into the shoes of homeless persons this winter.  Jesus Homeless, by Timothy Schmalz.

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Heather Fawcett joined the OPC as its executive director in 2023. She is also one of its practicing registered psychotherapists with more than 16 years’ experience.

With its cold temperatures and long, dark nights, January has a bad reputation for being a depressing month. How do you distinguish between Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and depression?

With SAD, you have a lot of the depressive symptoms. Oversleeping …it’s a desire to hibernate, to become socially withdrawn. You crave carbohydrates and comfort food. …It’s just a low mood. It can feel like a heaviness… like things have become too much effort. …. And if you’re experiencing it for the first time, it can be hard to identify … because it’s not something that is sudden onset. It’s not that you wake up one day and you feel depressed, or you’ve got brain fog… It’s definitely the frog in the hot water kind of scenario. It starts off and the heat gets turned up and you become used to it, but you know that you’re just not yourself.

[It’s seasonal.] We’re getting a lot less light. For some people, it makes a huge difference to their mood. That’s one of the differences between depression and SAD… Depression doesn’t automatically lift because the days start to get longer. You might feel better, but you still don’t feel yourself.”

[Therapists] know what markers to look for, so we can help somebody determine if it’s SAD or situational or even chronic depression. We cannot officially diagnose, so we would say go talk to your doctor.

When people are depressed, they often hear: ‘You just need to get out more.’ ‘You just need to have more faith.’ especially in Christian circles. ‘You need to stop worrying’. … It’s a biochemical situation. It’s not choice.

If the causes are biochemical, how can therapy help?

Psychotherapy can help somebody understand what’s going on, to assess and develop the coping skills and techniques. What’s healthy? What’s working? How come? What’s that accomplishing?… Part of our training is to know what questions to ask and what to look for, which makes it different than talking to a friend.

With SAD, it is more a case of understanding or learning that this is simply how your body reacts.

That’s one of the reasons why medication works in conjunction with therapy. It works really well because you get to understand what’s going on, why it’s going on, what triggered it, what you can do about it, build your coping skills. Do that and take a serotonin uptake inhibitor, which is basically an antidepressant, and the serotonin is in your system, and you can really start to feel like life is manageable again.

What do you find most rewarding in your practice?

When a client says, ‘I don’t need you anymore. It’s been good. I can see the changes, and I feel like I just don’t need to see you.’ That’s awesome….My goal is always to do myself out of a job. Or when a client says, ‘I tried that thing and it worked,’ or ‘I never knew I had this much value.’ Life changing insights.

What do you want readers to know about the OPC?

It’s a place where you can talk and explore with freedom from condemnation…. There are so few places we experience that….We protect dignity….It’s a place where you can feel secure without the need to have your defences up. It’s a place where it doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter what you’re struggling with.

The other thing is that, honestly, whatever you’re facing, it doesn’t have to stay this way. One of my favourite quotes is from and Eagles’ song. “So often time it happens that we live our lives in chains, and we never even know we hold the key.” That’s what we do. We find the keys so that you don’t have to have the chains.

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The holidays bring joy but can also be a stressful and difficult time for many people.

“Often there’s a big difference between the ideal that people hold in their hearts and their minds about how things should be on these significant occasions, especially Christmas. The reality of is that it is often full of difficult emotions. Grief … anger, resentment, guilt. All kinds of very strong emotions come up when you have a time like this that encapsulates an expectation of family. And I think we all have an image in our minds of how a family should be. Everybody’s supposed to be in harmony, gathered together, enjoying each other’s company. And so often that’s not the reality….Relationships can be fractured. People can be living so far apart that they can’t see each other. Families are split by marital splits.

There is also the busyness of the season. Do people talk about those kinds of pressures?

Yes, and it can be very hard to figure out how to prioritize those things. What’s actually going to determine how I answer all those requests and demands? Am I going to go with other people’s expectations? Am I going to figure out what’s most meaningful for me? Who am I going to let down? Especially if families are trying to [divide their time] at Christmas between two sets of parents or maybe more…. Trying to please everyone…. Often it’s felt afterwards too. People have some excitement going in, but sometimes they feel pretty bruised coming out.

How do you help your clients through those things?

I trained in a model called voice dialogue, which is similar to something that’s becoming very prominent now, IFS, internal family systems therapy. I trained in a precursor of that… And that’s about parts….We think of ourselves as a unitary entity, you know, ‘I’m just me.’ But in reality, we have all kinds of different parts that operate differently in different situations and have come in to answer the needs of different situations.

Often these parts have come in to protect our vulnerability…. We adopt these protectors because they answer our needs. So, we’re born into a family, we have to fit into it and manage in it. So the parts come in to help us do that. And every person’s accommodation to their family will be different. The parts are protective and creative. …So if I, for example, learn to please other people as a way of accommodating to my family, that protects my vulnerability, but it also gives me a way to interact….

These parts usually work up to a point, and then they hit a wall, and they don’t answer all the needs anymore. And that’s when people usually come to therapy.

My approach is always that what people have learned to protect themselves with is always valid because it worked, and it was necessary for survival. That doesn’t mean it’s working now.

Do people sometimes create or discover a new part?

That would be part of the work, to protect your vulnerability in an alternate way so that you don’t have to use that one that you learned way back when. You now have other options…

There’s also a capital S self … the one who can know all the parts and understand them in their own terms….  Meeting the parts with compassion and understanding is the way to help them loosen up, not to call them some kind of pathology and try to rip them off.

You highlighted a Christmas theme in that.

Being oneself is not toxic. We can come before God as we are at Christmas, We shouldn’t shut ourselves out of the stable because we think we or our families aren’t good enough. The message is goodwill to all people.

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“Almost 200 meals were served … [to] a mix of Centre 105 donors and program participants,” executive director Taylor Seguin said, adding that the event raised just over $10,000.

“On behalf of Centre 105’s management board, staff team, and volunteer team, we would like to sincerely thank everyone who attended and donated,” he said. “Times are tough in our communities, but with your support, Centre 105 is able to continue to provide essential services … to the most vulnerable individuals in our community.  Thank you!”

Centre 105, one of five Community Ministries of the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa, is located at 105 Second Street in Cornwall in the parish hall of the historic Trinity Anglican Church.  It began under the leadership of the Rev. Peter Cazaly (now retired) in 2017 and continues to provide a sanctuary and support for those in need of a hot meal and a safe space to rest or socialize, and referrals to other essential services. The Centre also provides a place for people to do laundry, and in 2024, renovated to add showers.

Amongst those enjoying a delicious breakfast and the social event were members of Cornwall City Council and administrative staff.  “One can never underestimate the value of the contribution of the work done by Centre 105,” said councillor Denis Sabourin.

In attendance were several Anglican Diocese of Ottawa clergy, including the Rev. Canon Dr. Peter John Hobbs, director general of Community Ministries; the Rev. Mark Lewis, the Ven. Peter Crosby, and the Rev. (Retired) Peter Cazaly.

“God’s favourite people are the marginalized, so that is where the church should always be,” said the Rev. Jon Martin, incumbent of St. John’s Kanata North Anglican Church.  Mentioning crises in housing, financial instability and mental health, Martin said, “I think it is essential that Christian communities do everything they can to address those issues and support those struggling with them.”

The next Centre 105 fundraising activity is the Centre 105 Annual Christmas Concert and Holiday Reception Fundraiser, scheduled for Dec. 15 between 2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. at Trinity Anglican Church.

For more information on Centre 105 or to donate,please go to: www.centre105.ca

The post Breakfast fundraiser supports Centre 105 appeared first on Perspective.

Dean Beth Bretzlaff took a moment at Synod to thank him for his decades of devoted ministry in the diocese.

“You are the heart and soul of this Diocese, both our parishes and our community ministries. You’ve been a student, you’ve been a priest and a pastor and a teacher and a mentor, a leader as an archdeacon, a canon and director general, a whole new title that we made up just for you,” she added affectionately. “And most of all, you’ve been our friend, and we’re really glad that you’re just retiring and not going anywhere else. So, we look forward to seeing what this next chapter has for you, and we’re going to hold you in our hearts and souls, and we want to thank you.” Synod members spontaneously stood to give him a heartfelt standing ovation.

In October, he kindly took time out of his busy schedule to reflect with Perspective on his years of ministry.

Before Hobbs was a priest of the diocese, he was a child of the diocese, born in Cornwall, Ont. His father, the Rev. R. Harry Hobbs, served in Christ Church Long Sioux, Emmanuel in Arnprior, St. John the Divine in Nepean, and later as the deputy director of program for the Diocese, before the family moved to Manitoba. Asked when he first felt called to ministry, Hobbs said he remembers playing church when he was very young. “Some Sunday afternoons I would have bread and juice and I’d preach a little sermon and distribute communion, all in an old choir room.”

As a young man after finishing his undergraduate degree he considered an acting career and attended theatre school in Montreal. Realizing that wasn’t the path for him, he returned to Winnipeg, uncertain. His father had died in a car accident when he was 16. “I was 24 years old, and I was not a churchgoer at that time. I knew the church very, very well. I had lots of people who I knew were praying for me and who were supporting me, but I was not going to church,” he said. Suddenly something changed. “I had this profound sense of calling, ‘You’re going to be a priest.’ I remember waking up in the house full of rock musicians and actors that I lived in, going down that morning and saying, ‘Guess what? I’m going to be a priest.’”

A few days later, he phoned Bishop Edwin Lackey and said he wanted to be a priest in the Diocese of Ottawa. Bishop Lackey asked him to come to Ottawa to talk with him and sent him a plane ticket. The bishop was supportive but told him to go back to church to start with. “That was great advice,” Hobbs says. He went back to Winnipeg for two years and in that time met and married his wife Diane, and then they moved to Ottawa so he could attend Saint Paul University.

Clearly, he found his way. “I knew the power and the depth of community that can be wrought … with all of the liturgical life of a parish. I knew that there was something wonderful and beautiful about that, but also this sense for social justice was also very much a part of my own sort of emerging ideology and being ordained seemed to be a great marriage of the two.”

Hobbs was ordained in 1992 and served in the parishes St. Matthias on Parkdale Avenue from 1992 until 1995, Chelsea, Lascelles, Wakefield until 2001 and at Christ Church Bells Corners until 2013. He loved his years in parish ministry. “It’s very affirming. …Once or twice a week someone takes you aside and affirms you, says ‘You’re awesome.’ And it’s because you’re doing natural things that a priest would do.”

He added that there are many great helping professions, but “very few that allow you to be with people in some of their most intimate moments in life, moments of great loss, moments of great joy, of accomplishment, of sorrow. And we are asked to be with people in their homes, at their hearth, if you will, in ways that I don’t think other helpful professionals are. And that’s an incredible, deep honour.”

In 2013, Bishop John Chapman offered Hobbs the opportunity to become director of mission for the Diocese, and his interest in the Community Ministries was deep enough pull him away from parish ministry. “I was very happy to come [to Ascension House] … I was always attracted to the Community Ministries of our Diocese and watched them with great interest and volunteered at Centre 454 for a couple of years on my days off.”

During the 13 years since, the Community Ministries have grown along with the expanding and deepening needs of the population they serve. Hobbs estimates the budget for the combined ministries when he became director of mission was about five to six million dollars. Now it is between $15 and $20 million.

He has been a powerful voice for the Community Ministries. “We cannot underestimate just how difficult it is for people who are addicted, people who are living in poverty and struggling with issues like trauma, mental health, addiction. It is a complex web of realities,” he said, speaking to staff last year. “It’s a very different world in which we’re living right now with the acuity of those in need being that much higher than certainly it’s ever been in my life from my observation.

“I think this is a point in time where we as a diocese need to decide, are we going to invest in this ministry? Not that we haven’t, but I think we need to renew that commitment in a way that it shows up in our financial life. It’s great that we have the kind of funding agreements that we have with the City of Ottawa for Cornerstone and Belong Ottawa, and we’re certainly working on it in Cornwall. Each of the Community Ministries in one form or another have a very healthy group of individual donors and parish donations…. But we, as the Diocese, need to really take a look at how we are going to invest in these ministries to ensure they’re sustainable. Because I believe it’s core gospel.

And I believe as we move forward further into this century, the church will largely be measured and the church will be attractive because of its ability, commitment, to care for those who are most vulnerable in our midst.

“There’s lots and lots of people who make the Community Ministries happen, and it’s just simply been an honour to be on this perch as the DG [director general].

Canon Monica Patten, chair of the Community Ministries Committee, praised Hobbs’ extraordinary ability to be a bridge between the Community Ministries and secular organizations, such as the Alliance to End Homelessness.  “He would go there and bring the perspective of the ministries and of the church and learn about what matters in the community.”  She added that he was always a remarkable support for the executive directors. “He genuinely loves the ministries and people they serve.”

As he steps away from the work he has been so passionate about, Hobbs said he feels confident that the Diocese is a living system that will be able to figure out how to ensure that the Community Ministries continue to thrive and grow.

He thanked the Diocese and all five bishops he has worked with. “I’ve been able to not only have the fullness of ministry that this diocese provides me, but it’s also allowed me to be educated and teach. I’ve done three graduate degrees since I was ordained and that means the world to me.”

What’s next? Hobbs says he will continue to teach graduate students at the Virginia Theological Seminary, where he’s been teaching since 2000. But he is looking forward to more time at home with his family and new grandchild. “I love going to church every Sunday morning. It’s the highlight of my week, to be at the Eucharist.”

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November begins with All Saints Day, a time to think about and pray for loved ones who have died. Lorrie (Margaret) Beaton specializes in grief, loss, anxiety, depression, conflict resolution, personal growth, and personal transformation. She previously worked extensively with the Bereaved Families of Ontario, so we asked for her insight.

Grieving can be a long process. Is that out of sync with a culture that generally wants everything to be done quickly?

At first, people ask ‘Is there anything I can do? Can I help in any way?’ And what I find is that might last a couple of weeks or may be a month, where people can understand that you are going to be emotional around this loss, but then their lives go on and they’re not really thinking about what you are experiencing because they haven’t had that loss, so it’s a mystery. …Something as simple as the music in a restaurant or a smell… it is very sense-oriented, might cause … a grief burst or a grief bomb, I might call it, and that makes it hard. Because people may say, ‘Oh my gosh, what’s wrong with you?’ [The answer is] ‘I’m grieving. … I’m going to have waves of grief that show up.’ That can really create a discomfort, seeing a friend who looks like they are in distress. But grief really goes against everything that we’ve been taught…

People often say that someone at a funeral was very strong, meaning they didn’t shed a tear, but I say that’s not strong. …We have this fear that someone is going to cry…but that’s what you have to do when you’re grieving. You have to let it come when it comes in those waves and just let it flow and not judge it for being there because this is your body’s way of trying to understand what is something that seems unimaginable.”

How can therapy help?

It gives someone a neutral place where they they won’t feel judged. …Sometimes it takes a few sessions for people to understand that because they’re used to saying ‘Oh, it’s fine, because I walk with my best friend every day and we talk about this.’ But usually a friend will jump into fix-it mode. “You’ve got to get out there….You’ve got to start living again,” that kind of thing.

With therapy, or counselling for grief, often we’re just sitting with what’s there. And we’re not trying to shift it in any way. It’s just allowing it to be there and not judging it…. It’s more of just accepting  [emotions.] “Okay, so you’re really angry right now. Let’s talk about that. Where is that coming from?  And why would why would the anger be showing up now?” And really understanding that it doesn’t mean that anger is going to be there forever. It’s just this is what you have to process right now. Next week, it’s probably going to be something different.” And then having the guidelines and the resources to offer someone. … I’ve an article that I share that says “No, you’re not going crazy. You’re grieving.” Because it can feel very crazy making when you can’t concentrate, you have no energy, you’re not sleeping, you’re not eating, or you’re eating too much… You can’t get back into your daily routine. That’s grief. You’ve just got to let that be there for now. “

[Grief counselling is] compassionate inquiry and the neutral stance…. We’re not trying to take that pain away from someone. We’re just helping them process the pain of where they’re at right now, without judging. So, compassion, that’s it.

Are your clients themselves are sometimes impatient with the grieving process?

[Yes] someone will ask, ‘So how long is this going to take?… I’m really uncomfortable with these feelings that keep coming up and messing up my life.’ And I always ask them, ‘Well, how did, how long did you know that person?’ Sometimes people say, “Well, it was my mom.” And I say, “Okay, so you’ve known this person even months before you were born. It’s a part of you, so it’s going to take however long it takes to unravel that relationship and for you to make sense of this and adapt to this new relationship. It’s not a switch. People think after a year they are supposed to turn that grief switch off and not have to feel this anymore.

“The first year is really just making sense of the absence of that person and really understanding that relationship. Where and how do they fit now? … I used to support a lot of more children, and [many years ago] one of my little guys said, ‘You know what? This is great.’ And I said, ‘Really? Grief is great?  What do you mean?’  And he said, ‘Well, before I used to always have to call my loved one, and they’d have to call me back. And we’d have to make time for each other. But now I can talk to them anytime.’ ”

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