Campbell is from the Bahamas, and he reminisced about the shock of arriving in Canada in the middle of winter when the snow was up to his knees.

Michael Perkin, stewardship co-ordinator for St. Mark’s, offered words of thanks on behalf of the parish. He praised Campbell’s ability to navigate his way in a new parish, in a new country, and just four months later, in a global pandemic.  “What a way to begin a ministry,” he said. “Fr. Julian and the dedicated team quickly initiated a YouTube ministry that took us through services and a celebration of virtual Holy Week and Easter. YouTube led to live streaming,” which Perkin noted continues and has brought viewers for services from the Bahamas, the United States, Great Britain and beyond.”

Among the highlights of Campbell’s time in the parish, Perkin mentioned renewals of pastoral visits and the pastoral care team, a focus on youth participation in services, outreach to students at Carleton University and lots of hard work to make the church’s 75th anniversary celebrations memorable.

Campbell played a key role in diocesan anti-racism efforts.  St. Mark’s has planned and hosted many impactful Black History Month events during Campbell’s tenure, and the parish was known for hosting excellent celebrations after those events enhanced by delicious food and sweets from the Caribbean, music and dancing.

The High Commissioner of the Bahamas to Canada, V. Alfred Grey, spoke at those events and attended the farewell service. He thanked Campbell for being a wise advisor and friend to him in Canada.

Campbell thanked the parish and said he felt “honored by the kindness you have shown … over the years, but also particularly on this Sunday.” He asked for their prayers as he embarked on this new journey and promised to continue to pray for St. Mark’s.

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Bishop Shane Parker offered the homily, beginning by remarking on how much things have changed since St. Mark’s was founded.  “There weren’t solar panels on the roof back then. Oil was endless and in great supply….. If we said we were going to build an Anglican Church, people would be lining up and when the church was finally built it would be filled and we didn’t need to do to much to make that happen.

Now we live in a very different context where we’re not really noticed as much as we used to be. And we need to come to terms with that, not in a way that discourages us. The simple truth is that we are a smaller church in a city, in a context where many people are suspicious of religion, have no religion, or are members of another religious tradition. And we need to learn how to be faithful in such a change of context. And as many of you know, our diocesan church has done a lot of work in recent years to come to terms with the things we know we’re being called to do in this changed environment.”

The bishop recommended the diocesan Learning Commons, designed to offer resources to help learn how to be healthy parishes and to learn how to be the church in the world at this time. He encouraged parishioners to focus on discerning how God is working in the world around them and around St. Mark’s and to look for ways to “participate with other people in serving the common good.”

The bishop thanked Father Julian Campbell, the Incumbent of St. Mark’s, for his ministry in the church and in the diocese and prayed for blessings on all of his and the parish’s endeavours.

At the end of the worship serve, the parish officially welcomed a group of individuals and families who had joined St. Mark’s during the pandemic when such in-person ceremonies were deemed to be unsafe.

As everyone gathered in the parish hall to have lunch and celebrate the anniversary together, Father Julian told Crosstalk that parishioners had also marked anniversary over the year at different points during the year by planting a tree; holding a strawberry tea; hosting a musical performance by the group “Aged in Harmony;” and creating a pictorial directory of parishioners. This special worship service and celebratory lunch capped off their celebrations.

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Belong Ottawa is an Anglican Community Ministry, which serves hundreds of vulnerable people in the city who struggle with poverty, precarious housing, mental health issues and addictions, providing for basic needs and social support at three locations — Centre 454, St. Luke’s Table and The Well.

Young brings with her a wealth of experience as a registered nurse, educator and leader in health care and management. She earned a Master’s degree in conflict studies and is an accredited mediator. She kindly made time to talk with Crosstalk in late October.

How are you settling in?

“It’s going really well. I’m extremely impressed by the dedication of the entire team, and so that’s really helping settle in for sure…. The team has been warm and welcoming and informative.”

What drew you to Belong Ottawa?

The opportunity to work with an organization whose mission, vision, and values aligns with both my personal and professional vision and mission and value system was really the calling to join the organization. My passion has always been serving those who are less fortunate, whether that’s marginally housed, living with substance use or comorbid psychiatric conditions. My background in nursing has led me to be aligned to serve those who are most in need in our society.

What pats of your experience best prepared you to lead Belong Ottawa?

Belong is a small organization, recently amalgamated, and so there is a growth opportunity here…. I have worked with Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada, with the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Care Centre (formerly the Royal Ottawa Hospital) and with Carlington Community Health Centre. In those positions, I was responsible for change leadership and management, whether that was at the point of care, or organizational infrastructure, so all of those skills are very important for me in this role now, as is my background in nursing and knowledge around mental health, addictions and psychiatry.

I worked at the Royal Ottawa for about six years, managed the substance use and concurrent disorders program at the time when the hospital was evolving to become a tertiary care centre, and a centre of excellence, so there was a huge transition. My knowledge, skills, ability and experience in mental health and addictions is also as important because I very much understand the needs of our participants.

I’m an accredited intergenerational mediator, so I understand family systems and the methodology and the research around various issues families face. And often some of those issues are what led our participants to have lost their contact in their support systems.

I’m am also an accredited manager and leader, and I am committed to the people that I work for. That is not just the participants, but the amazing team at Belong — so supporting the excellence in the service delivery to our participants and also serving the staff, the employees, our valued human resource, which is the why and how we can do what we do. They are equally important to me.

I don’t think there’s one piece of my background or experience or knowledge that is more important than the other in this role. It’s the whole basket that I’m bringing forward, and to be honest with you, I have tapped on every bit since my first day.

Early in your career, you lived and worked in the North. What did you do there?

I was living in Iqaluit…Working with and serving in health services in Iqaluit—a formative experience in my early nursing years….

It was really an important personal family experience and a professional growth experience….I wanted my children to learn, to experience part of Canada that they might never see [otherwise]. I wanted them to understand what it’s like to live as a minority, even in their country of origin. It was a great adventure to live there, to understand the eastern Arctic and Nunavut and learn that Canada isn’t just the east and west coast, there’s three coasts in this country…. Many Inuit populate that north coast, and the Inuit Regions are are vital to our country — a very rich ecosystem, very rich in culture and traditional Inuit knowledge .

More recently, you served as director of programs at Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada here in Ottawa. What was the focus of your work there?

I was hired to create a division where we addressed social and economic prosperity, safety, justice, health and well-being, and anti-violence in support of Inuit womens rights, health and prosperity.

What are the biggest challenges you see at the moment or on Belong Ottawa’s horizon?

There’s still opportunities for …supporting our team and further development of the infrastructure, and creating stability in a newly amalgamated organization….

There is ongoing opportunity to work with our allies and partners in Ottawa to address the issues of food insecurity, lack of affordable housing… and finding creative ways with our partners to address and eliminate homelessness.

Are there specific hopes you are envisioning?

Consolidating the organizations in ways that continue to support the current day programming we are engaged in that makes a difference in the lives of 600 to 700 people a day in Ottawa, and also really focusing on supporting the entire team … so they may continue to do the work they’re doing.

We are really looking forward to the rebuild of St. Luke’s [which was severely damaged by a fire in October 2022.]

And ongoing community relations with our neighbours around each of the service areas, continuing support and education and raising awareness of the needs of the populations we serve…trying to be good neighbours, working closely with our parish partners.

The post Shauna-marie Young is Belong Ottawa’s new executive director appeared first on Perspective.

St. Mark’s Anglican Church in Ottawa offered abundant gifts to help observe Black History Month in February — an eloquent guest speaker for each Sunday of the month, a panel discussion, a fashion show, as well as a feast and a live band on the final Sunday. All of the services were live-streamed and there are links to them on the St. Mark’s website. 

Guest speaker Paul Mugarura complemented and thanked St. Mark’s on its efforts. “There are many people in this country and all over the world who use religion as a way to divide our countries and sow division and fear. And there are times that I find my feelings of hope just challenged by this reality. But every time that I feel a sense of despair, I run into congregations like yours that are willing to have the hard conversations. Did you know that congregations that observe Black History Month are not the norm? They are an anomaly. You are an anomaly, but you are an encouraging anomaly. Thank God for you.” — LA Williams

Paul Mugarura who leads a Sunday afternoon worship service at Trinity Anglican Church on Bank Street, offered a reflection on Feb. 4. He is also part of the team leading the diocesan effort to increase Anglican parishes involvement in contextual mission and new worshipping communities.

Mugarura spoke about the history of colonialism in Uganda where he spent much of his time growing up and where his father was an Anglican priest. “We have to, with humility, accept the fact that the church has been complicit in many troubling events over the centuries,” he said.  He held up the Apostle Paul as an example of someone who did not expect people to give up their cultures and languages to conform, but someone who “tried to be all things to all people” as he preached the gospel in their context. 

Yolande Parsons, immigrated to Canada from St. Vincent in 1982 and quickly got involved in the Winnipeg Black community and issues of the time, such as marches and efforts calling for the release of Nelson Mandela. She later was also a part of the National Black Committee on Aids (NBCoA) in Manitoba and Ontario.

Yolande is a graduate of Heritage College & Seminary and is now tracking for pastoral ministry with the Free Methodist Church in Canada (FMCiC). She is the women’s ministry coordinator and chair of the Board at Arlington Woods Church. 

On Feb. 18, Parsons spoke of the early history of Black people in Canada and the Underground Railroad and a few of the important figures in the struggle for freedom and equality. She then focused on how all people were created in God’s image and how Christians “as ambassadors of Christ in his kingdom, … are called to be people of reconciliation.”  

The Rev. Dr. Anthony Bailey is the coordinating minister of Parkdale United Church. He has degrees in social work, theology, philosophy of religion and ethics and culture. He has studied and worked in countries such as Barbados, the USA, Kenya and Jamaica. He provides multicultural, diversity and anti-racism workshops and training to churches, schools, community agencies, media, government departments, police services, and other community groups.

Speaking at St. Mark’s on Feb. 11, Bailey began by illuminating some Black (Cushite) people in the Bible that are not widely known to be Black, such as early church leaders Simeon and Lucius and later focused on important Black figures in more modern history. He also spoke of the way the concept of race was invented as a way of categorizing people by Europeans, including philosopher Immanuel Kant, in contrast to the way God’s people are presented in Revelation as “a great multitude from every nation.”

Vergeneas Alfred Gray was born in the Bahamas and became a teacher and a lawyer. First elected to Parliament in 1987, he was a minister of several departments in the Cabinet for 10 years, as well as the executive chairman of the Broadcasting Corporation of the Bahamas. Mr. Gray was appointed as High Commissioner of the Bahamas to Ottawa, Canada in October 2022. He serves as a minister at the New Destiny Baptist Church in Nassau.

Speaking at St. Mark’s on Feb. 25, Gray highlighted the accomplishments of important figures in Black history, some well known such as South African president Nelson Mandela and Dr. Martin Luther King, but also individuals who are not household names such as Dr. Patricia Bath, who developed laser surgery for cataracts, and astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison. Gray made a donation to St. Mark’s on behalf of the High Commission.

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