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Sean Frankling

  • Sean Frankling’s experience includes newspaper reporting as well as writing for video and podcast media. He’s been chasing stories since his first co-op for Toronto’s Gleaner Community Press at age 19. He studied journalism at Carleton University and has written for the Toronto Star, WatchMojo and other outlets.

ARTICLES

Indispensable codifier of church doctrine or archaic argument over 4th century theology? The Church's first ecumenical council, depicted in this icon from the Church of Stavropoleos Monastery in Bucharest, Romania,carries a complicated legacy into it's 1,700th anniversary. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Fourth-century theology that still packs a punch: reflecting on the Council of Nicea’s 1700th anniversary

Sean Frankling June 11, 2025

Like many Anglicans, I’ve been reciting some version of the Nicene Creed since I was old enough to sit through a church service with the grown-ups. And thanks to the smattering of church history I still retain from my time at Ottawa’s Augustine College, I have at least a basic idea of where it came from and what it means—a council of bishops from across the 4th century Christian world brought together by the Roman emperor Constantine to discuss the Arian heresy and nail down some specifics about the nature of Christ. But, also like a lot of Anglicans, I feel less sure about many things surrounding this foundational text which is a regular part of my worship life—a text which also marked the 1,700th anniversary of its writing this year. 

Mourners gather around the body of journalist Suleiman Hajjaj, killed in the latest attack on Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza. A press vest used to mark journalists as noncombatants is laid atop his body. Photo: Reuters/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Israel attacks Anglican hospital in Gaza again; up to 6 dead, 30 injured

Sean Frankling June 6, 2025

Israeli soldiers once again attacked the Anglican-run Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza June 5, this time killing five people and injuring 30 more according to a release from the diocese of Jerusalem. Among the dead are three journalists and a father who was taking his son to the hospital’s surgical unit to treat pre-existing injuries, the release said. Four staff at the hospital were among the 30 wounded, it added. Another journalist injured in the attack is reported to have died since the diocese’s statement was released.  

Harper, left, and Steven Seegerts smudge and bless the Covenant and Our Way of Life after the documents were ratified by Sacred Circle May 30, 2023. Photo: Anglican Video

Sacred Circle to build framework of emergent Indigenous church

Sean Frankling May 26, 2025

Sacred Circle, the main governing body of the Indigenous Anglican church, will continue to give shape to the emerging self-governing institution when it meets this August 5-10 in Calgary, Alta.

National Indigenous Archbishop Chris Harper says key topics will include working out the procedural structures needed to put its founding documents, Our Way of Life and the Covenant, into practice; discussing an equitable method of picking representatives to Sacred Circle from across Canada; analyzing the funding available to the Indigenous church; and potentially even choosing a new national Indigenous archbishop.

New bishops Ann Martha Keenainak (left), Alexander Pryor (centre) and Jared Osborn (right) were elected and consecrated at the Arctic's diocesan synod wearing vestments lent by the other bishops whose ranks they now joined. Photo: Charley Maidment

Alexander Pryor new diocesan bishop of Arctic; Ann Martha Keenainak and Jared Osborn suffragans

Sean Frankling May 15, 2025

The diocese of the Arctic has elected and consecrated three new bishops at its diocesan synod, running May 8 to 15 in Edmonton. Former Executive Archdeacon Alexander Pryor has been consecrated as the new diocesan bishop. Assisting him as suffragans will be bishops Anne Martha Keenainak and Jared Osborn. The three will succeed former Diocesan Bishop David Parsons and suffragan bishops Joey Royal and Lucy Nester, all of whom retired in 2024. 

Council of General Synod members talk in table groups. Photo: Matthew Puddister

Panel outlines six paths to ‘big change’ in church

Sean Frankling April 28, 2025

The church is approaching a time of important decisions—one which Anglicans can and should embrace with hope, Archbishop Anne Germond, acting primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, told Council of General Synod (CoGS) in her opening remarks March 7.

“When he would go to do a parish visit, it wasn’t ‘the bishop from London’ coming, it was Bob coming. And so it was kind of a celebration. People knew him, they loved him and they looked forward to being with him,” says Bennett's close friend, Bishop Terry Dance. Photo: General Synod Archives

Beloved Bishop Robert Bennett remembered for people-first ministry

Sean Frankling April 24, 2025

Friends and colleagues remember Bishop Robert Bennett, formerly of the diocese of Huron, as a caring, hilarious and deeply pastoral bishop who invariably put his relationships with parishioners first. Bennett died April 14 after a life touched by the love of his wife, Kathleen, their daughters Meghan and Jessica and countless Anglicans, an amazing number of whom Bennett always remembered by name, say his friends. 

Wreckage at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza after an IDF air strike destroyed a two-storey genetic laboratory and damaged a pharmacy. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Israel bombs Anglican hospital in Gaza

Sean Frankling April 15, 2025

An Israel Defence Forces (IDF) air strike on Palm Sunday destroyed and damaged several buildings at  Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza. The hospital, which has at some points been the only one functioning in Gaza amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, is funded and operated by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem.  

The Rev. James Spencer built two replicas of his St Mary's parish's churches out of Lego and found an opportunity to meditate on community outreach in the process. Photo: James Spencer

Priest’s Lego church replicas draw life-sized attention

Sean Frankling April 11, 2025

The Rev. James Spencer has been building with Lego since he was eight years old. Today, that lifelong hobby is getting his parish, St. Mary’s Anglican Church with buildings in Clarenville and Burgoyne’s Cove, Nfld. noticed online—and forming the heart of a new ministry to local children. 

Over the last year, Spencer has been building a pair of Lego models of the Clarenville and Burgoyne’s cove church buildings—built at the scale of one Lego “stud” (the basic unit of Lego blocks, demarcated by one of the nubs that let the bricks interlock) to one foot. 

Participants in the ecclesiastical province of British Columbia and Yukon's parish development course strike a pose for unity. From left to right: The Rev. Jeffrey Mackie-Dernstad, the Rev. Linda Lagroix, Karen Rooke, Liam Patience, Natasha Henderson, Kallee Lins, the Rev. Matt Koovisk and the Rev. David Burrows. Photo: Contributed

Regional parish development programs aim to improve organization and outreach

Sean Frankling April 9, 2025

Now, the diocese of Ottawa has become the latest in a recent wave of regions across the Anglican Church of Canada to begin work on a program of parish development. Like the diocese of Niagara and the ecclesiastical province of British Columbia and Yukon, which have similar programs, Ottawa is aiming to provide parishes, their clergy and their lay leaders with the education and resources to streamline their decision-making, focus their vision and purposefully reach out to their communities.  

Rod BrantFrancis elected bishop of Moosonee

Sean Frankling March 28, 2025

The newly reinstated diocese of Moosonee has elected the Rev. Rod BrantFrancis, a Mi’kmaq priest currently ministering to a Mohawk parish in Ontario, as its first bishop in a decade.

Hazel Pritchett Harris, former rector’s warden at St. Michael and All Angels in St. John’s, N.L., addresses parishioners at the church’s 2023 disestablishment service. Photo: Emily Rowe

Parishes struggle with money woes, uncertainty

Sean Frankling March 24, 2025

Many parishes in the Anglican Church of Canada are finding themselves torn between their own desire to survive and their obligation to support the higher structures of the church, says Ed Willms, a parishioner at All Saints Anglican Church in Huntsville, Ont.

Bishop of the diocese of Yukon, Lesley Wheeler-Dame (left) poses with commissioner of Yukon, Dame Adeline Webber (right). The two work together in a community partnership between diocese and territory to manage the estate of famous Klondike prospector, Keish, also known as James "Skookum Jim" Mason. They call themselves the two Dames. Photo: provided by Lesley Wheeler-Dame

Bishop Lesley Wheeler-Dame of Yukon to retire in October

Sean Frankling March 21, 2025

Bishop Leslie Wheeler-Dame of the diocese of Yukon will retire Oct. 24 this year, she announced in a letter to the diocese dated Feb. 26. On Oct. 24 she will reach 70, the mandatory retirement age for bishops in the Anglican Church of Canada. In an interview with the Anglican Journal, Wheeler-Dame said she felt reluctant to leave the position amid a period when the diocese is showing promising signs of renewal. Still, she added, she will not be leaving its service, instead planning to serve in Ministry of Presence, a program in which retired Anglicans volunteer to serve as non-stipendiary congregational leaders to supplement the diocese’s limited number of stipendiary clergy. 

The Rev. Chad McCharles elected bishop of Saskatoon

Sean Frankling March 14, 2025

When he initially got the call to let his name stand for bishop of Saskatoon, the Rev. Chad McCharles, a Manitoba priest and part-time school bus driver, said his first impulse was “a hard no.”

Treasurer of General Synod Amal Attia, chancellor Canon (lay) Clare Burns and general secretary Archdeacon Alan Perry update the Council of General Synod on the national office's finances, March 8. Photo: Matthew Puddister

‘Paper gains’ in investments save General Synod from deficit in 2024

Sean Frankling March 10, 2025

The Anglican Church of Canada’s national office would have ended up with a $237,000 deficit—despite $600,000 in pared-back spending and an unusually high contribution from one diocese—if not for the unusually strong performance of its investment fund, which lifted it to a $3.19 million excess of revenues over expenses in 2024. But this investment performance consisted of “unrealized” or on-paper-only gain, and concerns about the office of General Synod’s financial sustainability persist. 

‘General Synod cannot be at the periphery’

Sean Frankling March 7, 2025

The church is approaching a time of important decisions—one which Anglicans can and should embrace with hope, Archbishop Anne Germond, acting primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, told Council of General Synod (CoGS) in her opening remarks March 7.

Bishop Mariann Budde of The Episcopal Church’s diocese of Washington meets U.S. President Donald Trump after her sermon at Washington National Cathedral Jan. 21 Photo: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque

The church and Donald Trump

Sean Frankling March 4, 2025

Amid the rising international tensions and overwhelming flood of executive orders under the new Trump administration, it is the duty of Anglicans in Canada to speak up for the marginalized and vulnerable, says Canon Maggie Helwig, rector of St. Stephen-in-the-Fields Church in Toronto.

"I’ve worked in the leadership of many kinds of churches. I have been involved in national policy choices. And one of the reasons I have this job is because I was shocked and dismayed at the kind of data that is adopted and then guides policy choices." -Scott Mealey, associate director of CIECR. Photo: Sean Frankling

Stats forum draws Christians seeking answers

Sean Frankling February 25, 2025

Not only multidenominational church researchers, but also parish and diocesan strategists and even interested lay people attended December’s second annual gathering of the Canadian Institute for Empirical Church Research (CIECR), a research institute at Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto. It’s a sign that in an increasingly uncertain faith landscape, people are looking for clarity and data to guide their decision-making, ministry and outreach, Canon Neil Elliot, the Anglican Church of Canada’s statistics and research officer, told the Anglican Journal at the event.

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