Leigh Anne Williams

  • Leigh Anne Williams joined the Anglican Journal in 2008 as a part-time staff writer. She also works as the Canadian correspondent for Publishers Weekly, a New York-based trade magazine for the book publishing. Prior to this, Williams worked as a reporter for the Canadian bureau of TIME Magazine, news editor of Quill & Quire, and a copy editor at The Halifax Herald, The Globe and Mail and The Bay Street Bull.

ARTICLES

The Rev. Thora Chadwick says that restoration work on St. George’s, Clarenceville, the oldest wooden church in Quebec, has been a sign of hope in a small community where people can feel marginalized. Photo: Contributed

Restoring hope for historic Quebec church

The tiny parish of St. George’s, Clarenceville, Que. is preparing for the 200th anniversary of its church building in 2018 by doing some restoration work.

Explorer Sir John Franklin and his wife sent this sundial as a gift to the Church of England Mission in The Pas, Man. Photo: Sam Waller Museum

Franklin finds in Manitoba church history

The recent discovery of one of the two ships from the doomed Franklin expedition has sparked renewed interest in the tragedy, and a small Anglican church in The Pas, Man., has some surprising connections to that history and some remarkable artifacts.

The Rev. Clarence Li and parishioner Peter Lamb extend a big invitation to anyone driving in the vicinity of St. Hilda's by the Sea in Sechelt, B.C. Photo: Courtesy of St. Hilda's

Lessons learned from Back to Church Sunday

At St. Hilda’s by the Sea in Sechelt, B.C, they hung a Back to Church Sunday banner by the road to be seen by everyone driving through the neighbourhood. They printed two different kinds of invitations-one for the Sunday services and one for Taizé and other services during the week, and they handed out invitations at the nearby farmer’s market on a Saturday morning.

St. James Mission of Christ Church Cathedral School was built in 1939. Photo: Contributed

Diocese negotiates with city to preserve building

The Anglican diocese of British Columbia is in discussions with the City of Victoria with the aim of preserving the building that houses the St. James Mission of Christ Church Cathedral School, said Peter Daniel, asset manager for the diocese.

Don Robinson, a member of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Northampton, Mass., were among the more than 300,000 people “of all faiths and none,” who joined the People’s Climate March Sept. 21, according to the Episcopal News Service. Photo: Amy Sowder

Marching toward change

With more than 310,000 participants, including religious leaders from around the world, the People’s Climate March in New York City on Sept. 21 was the largest demonstration for climate action in history.

Among the ministries in the Anglican Church of Canada’s Gifts for Mission guide is support for a program from the Episcopal Church of Cuba to help educate and develop the next generation of Anglican leaders in Cuba. Photo: Courtesy of Anglican Church of Canada

2014 Gifts for Mission guide published

Whether it is a gift of $125 to support suicide prevention strategies in First Nations and Inuit communities, $55 to help Anglicans and Lutherans develop advocacy skills to end homelessness in Canada or $25 to provide hot lunches for a child in Haiti for six months, the Anglican Church of Canada’s Gifts for Mission guide offers a different kind of shopping experience.

Prime Minister Charles Peter Mayiga of the Kingdom of Buganda in Uganda with Canon Isaac Kawuki-Mukasa, Africa relations co-ordinator for the Anglican Church of Canada at the church’s national offices in Toronto. Photo: Leigh Anne Williams

Bugandan P.M. visits Canadian church

The prime minister and a delegation of officials from the Kingdomof Buganda in Uganda visited the national offices of the Anglican Churchof Canada in Toronto today, as a part of the Canadian leg of aninternational tour to the U.K., Sweden, Canada and the U.S.

The Ontario Superior Court ruling applies only to testimony given in private by former Indian residential school students to the Independent Assessment Process. Photo: Kuzma

Confusion, relief over residential school ruling

Some former students of Indian residential schools are concerned and confused about an Aug. 7 Ontario Superior Court ruling that testimony about the abuse they suffered in the schools should be destroyed after 15 years unless individuals agree to provide their personal information to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

Palestinians sift through the rubble of their destroyed home. Photo: UN Photo/Shareef Sarhan

Weighing the Anglican response in the Mideast

Witnessing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the media, Canadian Anglicans, like so many others, may be asking themselves what can and should be done to end the ongoing strife. The Anglican Journal asked some Canadian Anglicans if they think the church should be involved in the issue, and if so, how?

First Slavey Anglican priest mourned

The community of Hay River, N.W.T., is mourning the loss of the Rev. Georgina Bassett, who was ordained in 2012, becoming the first Anglican priest of Slavey descent in the Anglican Church of Canada. She died on July 8 of breast cancer at the age of 58.

Children and youth gathered last June at Kingfisher Lake in northern Ontario to celebrate the creation of the Anglican Church of Canada’s first indigenous diocese. Photo: Anglican Video

The making of Mishamikoweesh

Anglican Video is producing a documentary on the creation of the Spiritual Indigenous Ministry of Mishamikoweesh, the first indigenous diocese in the Anglican Church of Canada.

The National Worship Conference held in Edmonton from July 20 to 23 brought more than 200 participants from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Anglican Church in Canada together for education, fellowship and, of course, worship. Photo: National Worship Conference

Weaving liturgy and mission together

Returning from the National Worship Conference, which brought more than 200 Anglicans and Lutherans together from July 20 to 23 in Edmonton, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, said he thought it was “a sign of health” for the two churches.

Julie Hink (ELCIC Edmonton); Faith Nostbakken (ELCIC Edmonton); Scott Knarr (ELCIC Waterloo); and Maylanne Maybee (ACC Winnipeg) share a sunny moment outside Edmonton’s Providence Renewal Centre prior to the start of the National Worship Conference. Photo: Eileen Scully

Anglicans and Lutherans gather for worship conference

More than 200 Lutherans and Anglicans from across Canada are gathering this week at the Providence Renewal Centre in Edmonton for the biennial National Worship Conference that runs from July 20 to 23.

Palestinian families take shelter in a United Nations Relief and Works Agency school. Photo: Sharef Sharhan/UNWRA Archives

Caring in the midst of Gaza turmoil

On July 18, the Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City got the kind of automated phone call many people in the city have been getting from the Israel Defense Forces. It warned of likely military action in the vicinity and advised the people there to evacuate immediately to a different part of the city.

Jackson Chevarie and Veronica Chenell with their new friend Brian, who they met at Toronto’s Church of the Redeemer. Photo: Julie Boisvert

Youth make pilgrimage to Toronto

Growing up in a village of about 500 people in the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of the Saint Lawrence is, in many ways, a world away from big city life in Toronto. But for 10 young students travelling with a teacher and an Anglican priest, coming to the city in May was meant to be more than tourist trip: it was an urban pilgrimage.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby spent a day with the bishops from Africa and North America gathered in Coventry. Photo: Michael Ingham

Bishops reflect on Coventry dialogue

Coventry, England, was an inspiring setting for the 24 bishops fromAfrica and North America, who met there from May 22 to 25 for the fifthConsultation of Anglican Bishops in Dialogue to talk aboutreconciliation within the Anglican Communion and in the world.

Archbishop-elect Percy Coffin, the bishop of the diocese of Western Newfoundland, has been elected as the new metropolitan for the ecclesiastical province of Canada. Photo: Contributed

Coffin takes on new role as metropolitan

Percy Coffin, bishop of the diocese of Western Newfoundland, willbegin his new duties as metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province ofCanada later this month after the current metropolitan Archbishop ClaudeMiller retires. Archbishop-elect Coffin will be installed in the officeon Sept. 18.

Wycliffe College has a long history of educational exchange with students and clergy from the North. Photo: JPhilips23/Wikimedia Commons

Wycliffe designs courses for the North

Toronto’s Wycliffe College, which has a long history of interaction withthe people of the North, is launching a series of online theologycourses designed specifically for use in northern aboriginalcommunities.

On June 4, Bishop Lydia Mamakwa was installed as bishop of Mishamikoweesh, the new indigenous diocese in the Anglican Church of Canada. Photos: Anglican Video

First indigenous diocese celebrated

It was a historic day for the Anglican Church of Canada as it celebrated the birth of the first indigenous diocese and the installation of its first bishop in Kingfisher Lake, Ont.

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