Late metropolitan of Ontario championed women’s ministry
Archbishop Percy O’Driscoll, former bishop of Huron and the 15th metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province of Ontario, died on April 17.
Colleagues remembered O’Driscoll as a leader who guided Ontario Anglicans through a time of change for the church, particularly supporting the ordination of women—he consecrated Bishop Victoria Matthews as the first female bishop in the Anglican Church of Canada in 1994—as well as in challenges in responding to historic abuse claims.
Bishop Todd Townshend, the current bishop of Huron, said O’Driscoll “was a person of prayer, humour, grace, and leadership. He had a real kindness to him, mixed with real integrity. Especially as bishop, he led at a very challenging time and he supported really significant changes, some of which were a little ahead of their time.” Townshend called O’Driscoll a leader in supporting women in ministry, especially in leadership positions.
Colleagues, friends and parishioners highlighted O’Driscoll’s compassion and warm, informal manner, which some ascribed to his Irish heritage. Dean Peter Wall, retired dean of Niagara, called him “a most wonderful friend, bishop and leader … He made a big and important difference in our world and in the church. He will be missed.” Archbishop Anne Germond, current metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province of Ontario, described O’Driscoll as a “good and godly man.”
Ordained as a deacon in 1964 and priest in 1966 for the diocese of Ottawa, O’Driscoll began his ministry at St. Matthias Anglican Church in Ottawa and in 1967 was appointed assistant curate at the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Kitchener. Moving to the diocese of Huron in 1969, he served as assistant curate of St. Paul’s Cathedral and Bishop Cronyn Memorial Church, then incumbent at St. Michael and All Angels Church in London. He later became rector of St. Bartholomew’s Anglican Church in Sarnia.
O’Driscoll was elected rector of St. Paul’s Cathedral and dean of Huron in 1980, suffragan bishop in 1987, diocesan bishop of Huron in 1990, and metropolitan of Ontario in 1993. He served as bishop and metropolitan until his retirement in 2000.
Matthews remembered O’Driscoll as a relaxed and supportive archbishop who made an effort to meet her before her consecration in 1994, including buying her breakfast.
“Back then, the consecration of a woman as a bishop was a very big deal in Canada … He wanted to get to know me and he was lovely,” Matthews said.
As her consecration approached, she said, O’Driscoll invited her to join him at a lunch with senior bishops and chancellors. “It was assumed there might be an objection, and he wanted me at that luncheon so they weren’t just talking about me,” Matthews said. “At the end, there wasn’t an objection, but nobody could have known that.”
Matthews also said O’Driscoll led the diocese of Huron in responding to historic complaints against clergy involving sexual abuse, though she declined to specify which cases she was referring to. O’Driscoll, she said, “helped hold us together during what was beginning to be a difficult time for the church.”
Retired archbishop Tom Morgan, who served as bishop of Saskatchewan and Saskatoon and the 14th metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province of Rupert’s Land, spent 13 years with O’Driscoll in the national House of Bishops. He recalled how O’Driscoll would personally phone him at Christmas instead of the more common practice of sending out greetings signed from the diocesan office.
O’Driscoll, Morgan said, “did not need to speak in order to be recognized. Yet when he did speak we listened … He inspired by his clarity of thought and concern for the well-being of our beloved church. He was deeply steeped in our Anglican culture … If I may be so presumptuous, he was at home in his calling to be bishop in the church of God.”
The late archbishop is survived by his wife Susan, their children and their families.
