Bishop of Rupert’s Land announces retirement

Bishop Patrick Lee, 68, has announced he will retire Nov. 8 after five years as the 11th bishop of Rupert’s Land, the Manitoba diocese headquartered in Winnipeg.

Bishop Lee was elected to the post in March 1994 and consecrated that May. Prior to that, he had been executive archdeacon in the diocese and bishop’s chaplain. He lived in Uganda from 1984 to 1990 where he was dean of training and education secretary for the diocese of West Buganda. He had also been dean of Cariboo and rector of St. Paul’s Cathedral from 1975 to 1984.

He and his wife Mary had their lives threatened several times during their years in Africa, once at gunpoint and another time while they huddled in a building under gunfire, he told Rupert’s Land News in 1994. During that interview, Bishop Lee also said he might retire after five years as bishop.

No date to elect a successor had been announced by press time.

Meanwhile, the Diocese of Calgary will be electing a bishop on Nov. 5 to replace Archbishop Barry Curtis, who is also the metropolitan archbishop of Rupert’s Land. (Confusingly, the so-called Ecclesiastical Province of Rupert’s Land includes the Diocese of Rupert’s Land, as well as the dioceses of the Arctic, Athabasca, Brandon, Calgary, Edmonton, Keewatin, Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan and Saskatoon.)

After the new bishops are consecrated, they will elect a new metropolitan from among themselves.