Bill Lowe, former director of planning with the Anglican Church of Canada, died on March 22 following an illness.
Mr. Lowe, 72 who retired from the national church office in 1991, also served as honorary chaplain to Church House staff.
He was born in Calgary and ordained a deacon in the Diocese of New Westminster in 1956, and was made a priest in 1957. He was rector at the Church of Christ the King in Burnaby, B.C. before he was appointed as director of planning in 1967. The former bank teller became responsible for the $2.5 million Anglican World Mission Fund which aided development projects around the world.
During his tenure, Mr. Lowe directed the restructuring of the national office, which included encouraging departments to work together instead of on their own.
Mr. Lowe was also active in ecumenism and saw television as a way to reach people of various faiths. He mourned the loss of the Canadian Interfaith Network after the Anglican Church withdrew from it 1986. CIN resurfaced in 1989 as Vision TV.
“It was exciting to catch that vision of the religious communities of Canada working together to provide television with a religious context for the people of Canada,” said Mr. Lowe, who also served in the church’s communications department. He added that Vision TV had captured many of the hopes he had for a multi-faith broadcast system.
His funeral was held on March 26 at the Church of Redeemer in Toronto.