Clergy from the Anglican diocese of New Westminster are heading back to Yukon from June to August for the second consecutive year as part of an ongoing effort to support ministry in the North and strengthen ties between the two dioceses.
Several B.C. priests will lead worship services, train vestry members and meet with parishioners in and around Whitehorse, following similar trips in 2025. Neil Cockburn, director of music at Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver, and four choristers will also perform at the Whitehorse Worship Arts Festival and Contemplative Retreat—a joint Anglican, Lutheran and United Church gathering on July 2–5 that combines Christian worship and the arts.
“We see it very much as an opportunity for us to learn from them … We’ll be taking note of Indigenous threads that they have in their worship [and] music … hoping to enrich and enhance and make our worship more diverse when we get back home,” Cockburn says.
Dean Christopher Pappas, rector of Vancouver’s Christ Church Cathedral and dean of New Westminster, calls the trips part of an intentional, mutual partnership with the Anglican diocese of the Yukon. He notes that Archbishop John Stephens, bishop of New Westminster and metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province of B.C. and Yukon, had previously begun sending funds from the diocese directly to support the Council of the North. Stephens told the Anglican Journal after his election as metropolitan in January 2025 that he planned to continue increasing collaboration between dioceses and to build on “supporting the work of the province as a whole.”
Dean Vincent Fenga, bishop-elect of the Yukon, says bishops at the provincial synod in September 2024 committed to partnerships between their dioceses, “particularly to support those that are less resourced.” The diocese of Yukon, which has few stipendiary clergy, relies mostly on lay leaders, Fenga says.
The visits of New Westminster clergy to Yukon emerged out of conversations between Fenga and Pappas. “The idea was that we would cover certain services in the Yukon and each one of us would bring different gifts, different skills to the diocese,” Pappas says.
The arrangement allows Yukon clergy to take study leave or vacation time and engage in remote work. While New Westminster covers air fare and home parishes pay the salaries of the visiting B.C. priests, the diocese of Yukon provides accommodations, such as at the Whitehorse rectory.
During his own trip, Pappas presided over services at the Whitehorse cathedral and partnering Trinity Lutheran Church. He facilitated training for local vestry on team and lay leader development and conflict resolution, met with parishioners at pubs and coffee shops and led services at long-term care facilities. In turn, Pappas got to know Yukon Anglicans.
“We were blurring the boundaries of local ministry,” he says. “Essentially, we became partners—and I want to say this wasn’t just one way … We met the people. We learned about what ministry in the North is like. We had a better appreciation for what that entails.”
The Rev. Adam Yates, rector of St. Faith’s Anglican Church in Vancouver, travelled to Whitehorse in July and August 2025, leading Sunday worship at the cathedral as well as a midweek program on photography as a tool in spiritual formation. He will return this July.
Many people in other parts of Canada hold a “somewhat antiquated perception” of ministry in the North, Yates says. “The reality is it’s a wonderful, vibrant place full of active ministry … There are opportunities to come alongside and join the ministry that’s happening up there that enrich the life of the church overall.”
The Rev. Clare Morgan, priest-in-charge at Holy Cross Anglican Church and nave missioner at Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver, preached at Sunday services and led gospel-based discipleship with Indigenous Anglicans at the Whitehorse cathedral last June.
A musician, Morgan also brought instruments to play at long-term care homes where she led worship services. Returning to Yukon this summer, she will play at the Kluane Mountain Bluegrass Festival June 12-14 in Haines Junction—also visiting the local church there—and lead a class at the Whitehorse festival.
“If you’re in relationship and you want it to become something that actually furthers goodness and furthers God’s reign, then you dig in and you get deeper,” Morgan says. “I think that’s part of why I want to go back.”
Fenga says he hopes the partnership between the dioceses of New Westminster and Yukon continues to flourish.
“It was very useful for [B.C. clergy] to come, and they also brought different skills with them … It helps the church to grow. It helps also the church to learn from one another.”
