As part of our Black History Month celebrations, St. Thomas the Apostle Anglican Church in Ottawa welcomed the London Trio Plus Ensemble to perform a concert in our sanctuary. In the afternoon of Feb. 8, we were blessed by the powerful vocals and beautiful harmonies of this group as they shared spirituals and gospel songs.

The original three London sisters who formed the group, The London Trio, added family members and friends to create the “Plus.” It was a truly special afternoon where the audience swayed and clapped in time to the music. We were also invited to stand and join in singing ‘Lift Every Voice’ and ‘Siyahamba (We Are Marching)’.

Other ways of marking Black History Month included guest speakers and a book study on Black Liturgies by Cole Arthur Riley which will continue through Lent. We are grateful to the Black History Month Committee led by Dr. Joy Mighty for planning this, and the many other events we held throughout the month of February. — The Rev. Maria Nightingale

(Thanks to the Rev. Maria Nightingale for sharing these great photos!)

St. John the Evangelist: Drumming, singing, dancing and joy

On Feb. 15, St. John the Evangelist in downtown Ottawa hosted a Black History Celebration. The church was filled with drumming, singing, dancing and joy. Special thanks to Petr Maur for sharing these wonderful photos.

The Rev. Canon Gary van der Meer shared a view of the celebration in the weekly parish newsletter, thanking all the talented guests and people who brought the celebration together:

• Batimbo Percussion Drums! They love to be booked for events!
• Singers and Dancers: Valentine, Giselle, Cynthia, Ciella, Francine
• Our organizers: Deborah Nasasira, Clementine Mahirwe, Nick Busch

St. Mark’s: Food for thought, fun and fellowship

St. Mark’s has rich traditions for observing Black History Month, including inviting inspiring guests to speak at Sunday worship services. This year’s speakers — Sophia Chiboka, Rawlson King and Yolanda Parsons — shared reflections on the theme: “Honouring the Past, Empowering the Present, Inspiring the Future.” Parishioners and guests also celebrate by gathering for a fabulous potluck lunch that features flavours from African and Caribbean cultures. The Rev. Mary-Cate Garden celebrated her first Black History Month as incumbent of St. Mark’s and helped cut the cake (see photo gallery.)

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The legacy of slavery haunted Blacks in Canada, as their immigration here was proscribed in the early 20th century, and “science” harnessed to prove that hierarchical relationships were natural and right. This led to widespread segregating of Black citizens, whether in theatres or hotels into the 1940s. As late as the inter-war period, Blacks were concentrated in low wage corners of the economy: men as waiters, janitors, barbers and labourers, and women as domestic servants, laundresses and waitresses. The federal government permitted racial restriction in its hiring and promotion policies.

By 1940, most Blacks were born here. Elsewhere in Canada, Blacks were organizing, protesting limitations on employment and where they could socialize. The revelation of Nazi atrocities at the end of the Second World War produced a major shift in attitude. This led to new expressions of international opinion through the United Nations charters to create a more liberal intellectual climate. Researchers were discrediting the claims of “scientific” racism. The federal Bill of Rights in 1960 refuted personal limitations by reason of race, religion or sex.

In 1962, Ontario consolidated its anti-discrimination legislation in a code, to be implemented by a Human Rights Commission with a mandate to promote equal opportunity as well as to administer existing laws accordingly. In 1962, new Canadian immigration regulations made individual skills the chief criterion for admission and ended race or national origin as reasons for exclusion. Further regulations in 1967 established a “points” system, whereby all who accumulated sufficient points were automatically admitted to Canada.

The effect was immediate in the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa. With artificial barriers removed, highly qualified applicants from Asia, Africa and the Caribbean flocked to Canada. West Indians so swelled Ottawa’s Anglican population that in 1985 Christ Church Cathedral was twinned with Saint George’s Cathedral in Georgetown, Guyana. A significant number of Anglicans among the new arrivals led to pressure for more Blacks to be ordained. Twenty years after Blair Dixon became a priest, (the year the cathedrals were twinned), The Rev. Frederick December (1912-2004), originally from Agricola, Guyana, came to serve in the Diocese of Ottawa.

The struggle over race relations in the United States from mid-century, including the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Junior in 1968, rivetted attention north of the border. Violence visited on peaceful non-violent Blacks demanding American civil rights was one side of the news reports, while Black achievements in sports, music and various mainstream fields of endeavour spoke of hard-won achievements.

The improving climate for Blacks in Canada contrasted with the apartheid policies of the government of South Africa, another country in the British Commonwealth.  The attention of Anglicans in the Diocese of Ottawa was drawn to the words of a Black cleric—and eventual Nobel laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. In his polemics, he wrote against the racist regime:

No matter how long and how repressive this unjust and undemocratic rule turns out to be, the urge for freedom remains as a subversive element threatening the overthrow of rigid repression. The tyrant is on a road to nowhere even though he may survive for an unconscionably long time and even though he may turn his country into a huge prison riddled with informers.

These words of hope eventually brought South African apartheid to an end, and it did so by encompassing the goal of “Truth and Reconciliation”—a phrase that eventually moved Canadians to confront their sordid history with Indigenous inhabitants.

Another 20 years would pass by after the reception of the Rev. Fred December before a number of Blacks were ordained Anglican clergy in the Diocese of Ottawa. They included receiving the Rev. Manassé Maniragaba (2007), the Rev. Naomi Kabugi (2008), the Rev. George Kwari (2008), ordaining the Rev. Hilary Murray (2012), receiving the Rev. Nash Smith (2014), ordaining Deacon Elizabeth December (2015), receiving the Rev. E. Julian Campbell (2019), the Rev. Felix Longdon (2023), and the Rev. Dr. Sony Jabouin (2025).

Despite growing numbers of Black clergy, the Rev. Julian Campbell in 2022 wrote about the longstanding negative impact of colonialism. Although slavery was abolished in his native Bahamas in 1838, Campbell noted how Blacks affected a British accent, and they were not allowed to serve at royal functions until the late 1960s. Plantation owners became dominant, possessed land, and owned Black bodies. Blacks suffered from misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia and colouration long after. Under slavery, British people saw money flowing into their coffers without witnessing the price in blood paid by Blacks in the West Indies.

Forgiveness, concluded Campbell, doesn’t mean forgetting the past. Today, as anti-Black bigotry again is stoked in the United States, note William Faulkner’s warning: “The past isn’t dead.  It isn’t even past.”

Based on the writing of James W. St.G. Walker and The Rev. E. Julian Campbell

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A dedicated group of parishioners at St. Thomas the Apostle is preparing for our annual February celebration of Black History Month. Following the national BHM 2026 theme of Resistance, our theme is Faith as Resistance.

Guest speakers at Sunday services, and enhanced fellowship time following our 10 am service featuring refreshments from various African and Caribbean countries, are planned. (see details in poster below)

As well, a Lenten book study will start during Black History Month, beginning Feb. 4, 2026 on Zoom on Wednesdays at 7 pm and run until March 18. A special in-person session is planned for Ash Wednesday, Feb. 18.  We will be reading and reflecting on Black Liturgies by Cole Arthur Riley. We are asking for a free will offering to cover the cost of these hard-cover books (suggested $30).

This year, we are excited to present a concert at St. Thomas on Sunday, Feb. 8, at 3 pm featuring the London Trio Plus Gospel Singers. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for students and children. Tickets can be obtained by emailing the church office at stthomasparishottawa@gmail.com

To get a taste of the talent of the London Trio Plus, visit their Youtube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/c/londontrioplus

St. Thomas the Apostle is located at 2345 Alta Vista Dr. in Ottawa. — The Rev. Maria Nightingale

St. John the Evangelist Ottawa plans a special service on Feb. 15

In his weekly parish newsletter, the Rev. Canon Gary van der Meer reflected on the importance of Black History Month:

St John’s joins the wider community in keeping Black History Month in February of each year. You may be wondering why this is important. I learned about its importance from a theological student who did an internship with me in the church where I served before coming to St John’s. Randy Williams, who is originally from Bermuda, pointed out how often we use the word “We” when we are trying to be inclusive. But our “We” does not actually include everybody.

Our schools taught history in a way that left out so much. We thought we were learning everything that was important, but by omission, we didn’t learn about slavery. We learned about ancient Greece and Rome but never the ancient civilizations of Africa. This is also true about Indigenous Peoples in Canada and how we were not taught about Residential Schools and their real damage to Indigenous families, their language and culture. St John’s Indigenous Engagement Coordinator, Kimberly Johnson, has helped us to understand that before there is reconciliation there must be truth — and that we are capable of hearing it, growing in understanding, and being transformed by our God’s passion for love and justice.

Black History Month is about this same process of recognition. It was our blind spot in many churches before the brutal murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis in May 2020. This was the time of the pandemic and my church congregation of the time, St Anne’s in Toronto, was having worship services on Zoom with conversation sermons. The Black members of our congregation explained to us that they do not feel seen. We learned from their stories of being stopped by police in their cars for no reason, being followed around retail stores, passed over for employment opportunities and housing rental. We learned about the presumptuous use of the word “We” that did not include them. The passion and emotion from people we had known for a long time moved us deeply. We began to study. I read White Fragility by Robin Diangelo. I have come to appreciate that there are many good books about racism, but this was the one that started the opening of my eyes.

Here at St John’s, I hope you appreciate the ways our congregation has been blessed over the past two years with newcomers from Africa. You can see from the regular photographs in this newsletter (and the pictures above) that they are very involved in our community. We recognize the hardship and challenges of coming to a new place and starting over. This month, we are celebrating the richness of languages, cultures, music and food as we continue to grow in friendship. While each Sunday will bring its own blessings, we especially invite you to attend on Sunday, February 15. There will be African music during the service with dancing and lunch following. — The Rev. Canon Gary van der Meer

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With Dr. Joy Mighty moderating, the chosen theme was Black contributions to peace. The panelists were:

• Dr. Joseph Amuah, senior researcher at the Canadian Institute for Health Information, originally from Ghana, and a parishioner at St. Mark’s.
• Josiah Davies, St. Thomas of the Apostle parishioner, who came to Canada from Liberia
• The. Rev. Felix Longdon, a PhD candidate in theology at St. Paul University, an Anglican priest from Ghana, serving as interim priest in the Parish of Bearbrook-Navan.
• Victoria Sajuyigbe, a product marketer and a parishioner at St. Thomas, originally from Nigeria

They discussed several public figures who have made important contributions to peace:

• Martin Luther King
• Kofi Annan, Ghanian diplomat, secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006 and recipient of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize
• Influential Jamaican singer-songwriter Bob Marley
• Former South African President Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Joseph Amuah added that the idea of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which originated in South Africa, is an important Black contribution to peace.  “People are given the opportunity to actually share their experiences, have conversations with those who are the perpetrators, and then come to peace for themselves and by extension their society.” He noted that Canada followed this model for its Truth and Reconciliation Commission and that it had also been used in Sierra Leone and Rwanda. “There’s nothing like the victims having conversation with the perpetrators and gaining that peace. That is the reality of it. Retribution doesn’t move anyone forward.”

The panelists also reflected on what peace means on a personal level.

Josiah Davies, who grew up in Liberia when the country experienced 20 years of civil unrest, spoke about how that political situation made it nearly impossible to have any personal peace. “I couldn’t have calm as a person because….I was afraid, thinking if I walked to the road I could get shot by other people or someone could harm me or my parents. So, when I want to consider peace, I think about that state of mind where I’m at ease. I can have food, I can have water, I can have shelter, I can have clothing, I can say hi to my neighbour, I can be of help in my community.”

Victoria Sajuyigbe agreed that the conditions in the society play a big role in how much peace people feel personally. She explained that if she sees people around her suffering from chronic poverty, she can’t feel at peace in her own life.

All four panelists had migrated to Canada and spoke about the challenges of integrating into a new country.

Sajuyigbe said she felt she had to work twice as hard as non-immigrants to achieve the same things.

Amuah described an experience when he was teaching first- and second-year students at a university in Calgary who said they couldn’t understand him. Amuah was puzzled because he was teaching statistics with mostly numbers and formulas, not difficult language, and people always seemed to understand him in other settings. He wondered: “Maybe they’ve never seen someone like this before, and so they are sort of struggling to see maybe why you are the one … teaching them this class, and so, it manifests in a different way, that we don’t understand what you’re saying.” But once they got to know him, they were soon coming to his office to ask for help with their studies.

Mighty asked the panelists about the role of the church. “Has the Anglican church played a role in moving us toward peace? “

Longdon said the church’s liturgy is very inclusive. “It tries on the idea of unity in diversity. We try to tap into each and everyone’s gifts in the church.”

Davies mentioned the Anglican Church of Canada’s participation in calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war. Aside from what the leaders do, he added, “what we can do is just show love to one another and that will spread like the branches of a tree.”

Much of what the panelists focused on were ways that individual people in the church make a difference and have welcomed them into their worshipping communities.

Sajuyigbe said she has been attending St. Thomas for about two years. “When I came into this church, I was welcomed with open arms and there was so much love….The fact that the priest smiled at me, looked into my eyes, called my name, made a difference. I could see that the church was very intentional.  And what more intention can the church have than what we are doing right now, giving us the opportunity to sit down here and educate others about who we are, about our experiences.”

Amuah shared the story of how he began to attend the 8 am Sunday services at St. Mark’s Church but would always hurry home right afterwards to watch soccer. “One day while I was slipping out, this lady called to me. “Hi, how are you? I see you every time, but you leave so early.’ I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’ve been caught,” he said, laughing. She asked him for his name and contact information so they could stay in touch and soon after his wife told him an elderly lady from the church had called their home. “Before that I hadn’t really talked to anyone. So that was what drew me.” Gradually, he began to stay for coffee, got to know people and became a part of the community.

Mighty shared her own story of moving to Kingston, Ontario. Her parents came to live with her, and “we decided we would church shop…. We were looking for a church that would be welcoming” she said. They started at Christ Church Cataraqui. After the service, they wrote their names in the guest book. “A couple of days later, there were three ladies who rang the doorbell. They brought bread and flowers welcoming us. It touched me. …And then Father Ed came and visited. That was the end of the shopping. We had found a church,” she said. “It starts with just one person being kind or open or welcoming to another person.”

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Originally from Senegal, Sissoko travelled from Montreal to share his music with more than 100 people of all ages. He was welcomed back enthusiastically after offering a similar workshop last year, and many of those who attended last year returned wanting more.

Sissoko brought many drums with him, and they were distributed and shared among those who wanted to try drumming. He led the group through drumming rhythms and patterns until the whole hall resonated with the music and energy.

His partner Nicole Glaze, who has studied African dance extensively, danced and invited everyone to come dance as well.

Sissoko also closed the evening with quieter songs played on the kora, a traditional African string instrument, which has a harp-like sound.

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Dr. Joy Mighty, professor emerita from Carleton University and a St. Thomas parishioner, narrated the show and offered a brief introduction noting that African clothing and fashion provides a glimpse into diversity of different African cultures. Traditional clothing differs within each country from region to region, she said, adding that fashions may also vary considerably within a society according to age, social class, generation, occupation, and geography, and may change over time.

Mighty reminded the audience of ways in which fashion has been an important expression of politics and identity:  “During the rise of the civil rights and Black Power movements in the West in the late 1960s/1970s, the phrase ‘Black is beautiful’ became extremely popular. It transcended into fashion and into how Black people in the west wanted to dress and look. They wanted to show their pride in being Black, something that had previously been treated as inferior because of the history of slavery and colonization that Black people around the world had suffered. So, Blacks began wearing clothes and especially accessories with African themes, adapting the styles and bold colours of traditional African clothing, as if to say ‘see me, hear me. I am here. I am Black, and I am proud, and I am beautiful.’

There was also a rich display of African arts and crafts in the St. Thomas parish hall.

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Last year, one of the ways St. Stephen’s celebrated Black History Month was with an interactive African drumming event, which started with us joining together to share a meal of African and Caribbean foods.  We are a global community at St. Stephens, and the food that evening was prepared and presented by members of our BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Colour) parish members and beyond. The food we enjoyed included Sadza from Zimbabwe, Caribbean beef and chicken stews, jollof rice, fried plantain and, of course, several desserts.

After dinner, the tables were pushed back, and the floor was opened up to the drumming world of Sadio Sissoko. A multi-talented African musician originally from Senegal, Sadio has lived in Montreal for many years. Sadio brought at least 30 drums of different sizes with him and as he led the music, he encouraged us to either use the drums, slap our thighs or clap to the rhythms. By the end, there was a lot of dancing too. We had so much fun, we asked him to come back.

Do consider joining us at this year’s Drumming Extravaganza. Bring your loved ones for a special Valentine’s celebration. Celebrate love and heritage in a memorable way. It is a perfect way to honour Black History Month while enjoying delicious dishes from African and Caribbean traditions and an evening of beautiful music and rhythms.

Come for 5:30 pm on Feb. 14. Dinner will be at 6 pm, and the drumming will start at 7 pm.

Please call the church office at 613 828-2472 or email sscometochurch@gmail.com to reserve a spot as we would like to keep tabs on numbers coming so we can prepare enough food.

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Two Saturday events are planned. On Feb. 8, from 2 pm to 4 pm in our parish hall, we are hosting a fashion show with clothing from a variety of countries from around the world. A display of arts and crafts will also enhance our understanding of the diversity of black culture in countries of the Caribbean, North America, and Africa. On Feb 15 at 1 pm, Kathy Armstrong and Stacey Can-Tamakloe from Carleton University will lead a drumming workshop, which will be followed by a panel discussion on the topic of ‘Black Contributions to Peace’ from 3 pm to 4 pm in the parish hall.

At our 10 am Sunday worship, we will have special guest preachers throughout the month of February and an enhanced coffee hour following the service with finger foods from different African and Caribbean countries each week.

We hope you will be able to join us for worship or some of these special events! (2345 Alta Vista Dr.)

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They began with the period 1929-1977—a time during which the first Black person, Blair Dixon, was ordained an Anglican priest in the Diocese (1966). In 2023, they focused on the first swath of time in the cycle, 1784-1832, when the first Black Anglicans are recorded being baptized and married in Anglican parishes here, some of them either arriving as enslaved persons or escaping the institution of slavery in the U.S. In 2024, the focus was on the next time period, 1833 to 1880, noting the under-reporting of the Black presence at a time when the memory of slavery was omnipresent, while the U.S. Civil War raged, and Reconstruction began.

This year, our focus is the period falling between 1881 and 1928. It started only 20 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was made in the U.S., and just when Reconstruction was effectively being shut down in the southern U.S. Of the five periods examined in our project, it is the most curious due to the lack of regional information and photographs and the surprising fact that during this time some Blacks began returning to the U.S.

The 81 Black inhabitants of the Diocese of Ottawa listed in the 1911 census (this number may also be under-reported)—like all Blacks in North America—were haunted by the legacy of slavery. They lived at a time when much of the population in eastern Ontario and western Quebec was migrating west to the opening prairie provinces.

Although slavery had been legislated out of existence, first in the British Empire and later in the United States, it left Blacks in an economically disadvantaged position in North America. The rise of the Ku Klux Klan from the 1860s on saw many former slave states enact laws that enforced segregation. Blacks were exploited at the lowest wages as a matter of course, and news of lynchings terrified them. Those migrating north to U.S. cities closer to Canada occupied the lowest rungs on the economic ladder.

Canada had long prided itself on being a haven for those escaping from slavery in the U.S. from the 1830s to the early 1860s. But, as James W. StG. Walker wrote in his book Racial Discrimination in Canada: The Black Experience, even as the Underground Railway was celebrated in touring productions of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery two-volume novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly, which was published in 1852—visiting even the smallest hamlets in the region—it underlined the continuing low economic status of Blacks in North American society.

Prevailing race theory and the racist stereotyping of Blacks in print media, and notably in the 1916 silent film Birth of a Nation, reinforced negative stereotypes of Blacks. “The ideology of racism came from outside Canada, but it landed on fertile soil,” Walker wrote. The following excerpts from his book paint a vivid picture of the racism Blacks faced in Canada during this era:

“White Canadians could identify with the European rulers of overseas empires, finding in themselves the same virtues which led European civilization to dominate much of the globe…

“It was this intellectual environment that was met by the first large body of American Blacks to enter Canada since Confederation. Among the six hundred thousand Americans attracted by the Canadian immigration recruitment campaign were a few Blacks, but it was the deterioration of conditions for blacks in Oklahoma, following statehood in 1907, that produced a wider movement into Canada. Already experienced with farming techniques useful on the prairies, and encouraged by immigration literature, approximately thirteen hundred Blacks from Oklahoma settled in Alberta and Saskatchewan between 1910 and 1912…. Their numbers, and the fear that this was the first wave in a potential flood of black migrants, brought demands for special legislation to preserve the West for whites only….

“Public petitions and municipal resolutions from all three prairie provinces urged Ottawa to ban further Black immigrants and to segregate those already there….Newspapers in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal supported Western resolutions, citing the American example as “proof” that Blacks were inferior and disruptive, and similar sentiments were expressed in federal parliament.

“The Liberal government prepared an order-in-council in 1911 to prohibit Black immigration for one year, but it was never proclaimed. Fear that relations with the United States could be damaged, and that Black voters in Ontario and the Maritimes would be alienated apparently prevented such an overt restriction. Instead, less formal measures were adopted. Agents were sent into the South to discourage black migrants: medical, character, and financial examinations were rigorously applied at border points, with rewards for officials who disqualified Blacks; American railways were influenced to deny Blacks passage to Canada. Continued by the Conservatives after their 1911 election victory, this subtle campaign had stopped all black immigration by 1912 without the necessity of ever declaring a formal racist policy.

“Similar attitudes excluded Blacks from participation in mainstream activities all across Canada. This was demonstrated dramatically during the First World War. Anxious to do their part for nation and empire, young Black men volunteered for overseas service. Though no blanket restriction was imposed, individual commanding officers were entitled to refuse Black volunteers, and most did so….

“Blacks were concentrated in specialized corners of the inter-war economy, the men as waiters, janitors, barbers and labourers, and the women as domestic servants, laundresses, and waitresses. The elite among the men worked as railway waiters and porters. This range shrank as difficult economic circumstances displaced white workers, so that waiting jobs and other personal contact positions passed increasingly to whites. The Blacks’ near-monopoly of railway service was breached when the position of dining-car waiter became a white preserve, leaving blacks as sleeping-car porters with no opportunity for promotion to senior roles.

“The persistent notion that blacks belonged apart denied them admission to many recreational facilities, including dance halls, swimming pools, skating rinks, theatres, and hotels. Although there was no absolute barrier, for local practices varied considerably, the restrictions consistently reflected a belief that white superiority could be undermined by intimate contact. Attempts to entrench segregation through formal laws during the 1920s were unsuccessful, but discriminatory practices were upheld in the courts as legally acceptable. In 1919 the Quebec Appeal Court declared it legal for Loew’s Theatre in Montreal to continue its practice of restricting Blacks to balcony seats. Ontario courts in 1934 found it legal for a restaurant to deny service on grounds of race.”

Next year, we will focus on the most recent phase, the years 1978 to 2026, when the numbers of Black Anglicans increased exponentially and a number of Black clergy began serving parishes in the Diocese of Ottawa.  

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