The Reverend Karen McBride ordained

The Rev. Karen McBride was ordained on Nov. 30 by Bishop Shane Parker at Julian of Norwich Church in Ottawa, where she has also been appointed Incumbent.

The ordination took place on the Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, a traditional day for ordinations in the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa.

The Gospel reading was from Matthew 4: 18-22 recounting how Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee and saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into a lake. “And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately, they left their nets and followed him.

In his homily, the Rev. Canon Rob Davis, a retired priest of the diocese, spoke about how McBride was called out of all she was doing in her life and career. [She held senior roles in national education associations, working with universities, colleges and school boards across the country to support their international cooperation efforts.]

Now as a priest, Davis said she will draw on all her experience and skills in a new role. Karen is called and sent out into a world that is full of bad news “to proclaim the good news that there is a Saviour, and that everyone who calls on His name will be saved,” he said.

“Of course, she’s not sent alone…. She’s not even sent just with the other ordained clergy…. She is sent out with the whole body of Christ. …We are all called to this. You are a chosen people, Peter writes, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of Him who called you out of darkness and into light. There’s an awful lot of people out there who don’t know that there is any light to be brought into. And we are here, you and I, called and sent to share that light with them. And this is not a light calling…. Sometimes it is a matter of life and death,” he said.

Davis shared that when his father was a young priest, he set off walking to the church to do a Sunday morning service in Petawawa in the middle of a blizzard. Halfway there he regretted that choice, but he stubbornly pushed on and made it to the church. A farmer had lit the fire in the wood stove, so the church was nice and warm, but only one person was in the church, a man warming himself by the stove. Even so, his dad proceeded to do the whole service with Communion. Afterwards, he went to take off his vestments and returned to talk with the man, but he had left. He never saw the man again. But many years later, when he was visiting friends in the Valley, he heard the rest of the story.

“The reason that that man was in the church that day was that he was on his way to kill himself…. His whole life had fallen apart. He had lost his job. He thought he was worth nothing at all. Nobody seemed to care. He was absolutely desolate. And finally, he thought, my family would be better off without me. … There’s a place in the Petawawa River where the current swirls in close to shore and keeps the ice free. And he was walking down there, and he was going to jump in and just end it all. But as he walked, he got really cold … and he stopped into the church to warm up. And while he was there, before he could leave again, my father arrived and started the service. Then he was embarrassed to leave, so he just stayed. But as the service went on, he realized, ‘I’m the only one here. All of this is for me. He’s doing this all for me.’ And as he listened to the words, “Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden. Come.” As he received the communion, as he heard the words spoken, he began to think, ‘Maybe I’m worth something after all. Maybe there’s hope yet.” But he didn’t want to talk to Dad, so as soon as Dad turned his back, he went out. But when he went out of the church, he turned the other way, and he went home.

“Our word can make a difference between life and death. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in someone of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear if there isn’t someone to proclaim Him? And how could someone proclaim Him if they are not sent?” Davis asked in closing.

Many clergy were robed and attending the service. After McBride took her vows, they surrounded her as she kneeled, and joined in the laying on of hands when the bishop ordained her, as is the custom in the Anglican Communion. Then the bishop introduced her as a priest in the Church of God. Following the Eucharist, the bishop inducted her as the Incumbent of Julian of Norwich Parish with the words “accept this charge which is mine and yours” and members of the parish committed to supporting her and sharing in ministry with her.