Bishop Mary Irwin-Gibson of the diocese of Montreal will retire Oct. 5 after a 44-year career in the church—including 10 years as diocesan bishop of Montreal.
Her journey hasn’t always been easy, she tells the Anglican Journal. She’s faced challenges ranging from being one of the first few women priests ordained in Quebec, to dealing with the manifold and varied interpretations Anglicans have of every aspect of church life.
Irwin-Gibson grew up in Montreal, the eldest of six children, an experience which made her grow up fast, she says. She learned many of the qualities that would later serve her as a bishop in Girl Guides, she says, including trustworthiness, resourcefulness, loyalty, courtesy and friendship. She earned a bachelor’s degree in theology from McGill University in 1997 and a diploma in ministry from the Montreal Institute for Ministry in 1981. Irwin-Gibson was made a priest in 1982, serving in the parishes of Hemmingford-Clarenceville,Vaudreuil, Dunham-Frelighsburg and at Holy Trinity Church, Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, all in the diocese of Montreal, and as dean and rector of St. George’s Cathedral in Kingston, Ont. before returning to Montreal as bishop.
The call back to Montreal was one of the highlights of her career, she says. She had thought she might retire in the diocese of Ontario, serving as cathedral dean at St. George’s, before she got the invitation to let her name stand for bishop of Montreal. That felt like a validation to her, she says, of the value of her gifts to her home diocese and of her belonging in the diocese after an early career where it was sometimes hard to find a congregation that wanted a female priest.
Irwin-Gibson also says it was a highlight to see the Holy Spirit at work in the diocesan election in May. After what she calls “a very difficult and conflictual pre-election discernment process,” she was pleased, she says, to see the diocesan synod approach the vote in harmony and with one heart. She believes the new bishop-elect, Victor-David Mbuyi Bipungu, will be an excellent fit, because he is not just a francophone and the first Black man elected a diocesan bishop in the Anglican Church of Canada, but also a gifted and intelligent pastor and leader.
“I’m terribly thrilled, so I am very confident and hopeful,” she says.
In March, four of nine members of the diocesan election search committee resigned and the remaining members forwarded their candidates to the diocese without endorsing any of them. They cited safe church concerns following complaints that had been lodged against one or more of the candidates, but which were covered—along with the identities of the respondents—by a non-disclosure agreement. Irwin-Gibson later told the Journal the complaint had been over a workplace dispute which had been dealt with and closed.
Going forward, Irwin-Gibson says, she plans to continue to help at her local parish in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, where she and her husband are retiring. As a parting message to the church, she says she encourages Anglicans to enthusiastically pursue the work of the most recent General Synod toward life-giving change.
“I think what the church has got to focus on is growing disciples, and then once the disciples grow, they get the message. They figure out what’s needed in their context. I don’t think there’s a template for everybody,” she says.
