Archbishop Caleb Lawrence, diocesan bishop of Moosonee and metropolitan (senior bishop) of the ecclesiastical (church) province of Ontario, has announced his retirement effective Jan. 6, 2010.
Although by 2010 he would be one year short of 70, the required retirement age for bishops, Archbishop Lawrence has opted to retire for a number of reasons, including the fact that it will be the year he celebrates his 30th anniversary as bishop. His term as metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province of Ontario ends October 2009.
Archbishop Lawrence is the longest serving bishop in the Anglican Church of Canada, consecrated in 1980. “I’m looking forward to stepping back from that kind of high-level, active church life.”
Born in Latties Brook, N.S., Archbishop Lawrence, who was ordained a priest in 1965, received his training in the diocese of Nova Scotia but spent all 45 years of his ministry in the north. For 15 years he was “on loan” from the diocese of Nova Scotia to the Arctic, serving as missionary, incumbent and rector of St. Edmund’s parish in Great Whale River, Que.