George Elliott
A glance back on the last forty-five years
On May 7, 1979, we all graduated from Wycliffe College as a new chapter of life opened up for us. On May 18th I was ordained a transitional Deacon at St. Anne’s, Gladstone Avenue in the Diocese of Toronto. Sadly, St. Anne’s was destroyed recently by a devastating fire. I began my Curacy at St. Thomas a Becket in Erin Mills and on May 18, 1980, was ordained a priest. In January 1981 I started my Incumbency in the three-point Parish of Minden. In January 1989 I moved to All Saints’, King City where I served for twelve years. On December 2, 2000, I was elected a Suffragan Bishop in the Diocese of Toronto and was consecrated a bishop on February 3, 2001. For the next thirteen years I served as the Area Bishop of York-Simcoe overseeing 72 churches in 45 parishes. I received an Honourary DD from Wycliffe on May 2002 and had the honour and privilege of giving the Convocation Address to the graduating students. I retired in May 2013.
Linda and I were married on July 2, 1977, between my first and second year at Wycliffe. Our daughter Elizabeth and our son Matthew were born while we were in Minden. They were six and three when we moved to King City. I was a Beaver leader in Minden and a soccer coach, hockey trainer, and member of the high school’s council while in King City. Elizabeth married Petri on March 18, 2006. They adopted Adyson in 2021. She turned sixteen this May. They live on a fourteen-acre property in Waskatenau, Alberta. Matthew married Kendra on September 30, 2017. They have two children, Rachel, who is almost 5, and Rory, who is almost 3. They live in Grimsby, Ontario. After living in King City for thirty-two years, Linda and I moved to Grimsby on July 5, 2021, to be close to Matthew and his family.
Looking back at the last forty-five years, it is fair to say that the church has changed radically. I have watched and participated in this change from a number of different perspectives. As a rural parish priest, I enjoyed a wonderful sense of community but also shared in the pain of watching some of those communities shrink and close their churches. In a fast-growing bedroom community, I watched church attendance shrink as the ‘newcomers’ had little or no connection to any faith community. What brought you community were school activities, sports, Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, and for a few, a community of faith.
I have two highlights from my parish ministry. The first was my involvement with refugee resettlement. It began at St. Thomas a Becket, Erin Mills during the Viet Nam Boat People crisis and continued later with the Iraqi refugees and then Syrian refugees. I have had direct involvement with over twenty sponsorships. My second highlight was serving as a mentor for those who were preparing for ministry. I oversaw a number of students in the Toronto Parish Training Programme and Wycliffe’s Internship programme and served as Director of both programmes. It was a privilege to encourage and support others in discerning their call and an affirmation of the path God had opened for me. It encouraged in me a desire to be a lifelong learner and still reminds me today that you learn little from experience unless you take time to reflect upon it.
As an Area Bishop, serving a variety of faith communities, I saw firsthand many of the same struggles I had encountered as a parish priest. I enjoyed most of all going Sunday by Sunday to a different church to share in worship and fellowship together. You will be delighted to know that I was more than well fed, and my ‘episco-pot” can attest. My episcopal ministry also took me into a much broader experience of our beloved church. From attending eight General Synods, six provincial Synods, and the Lambeth Conference in 2008, which was a highlight of my life, to serving as President of the Anglican Journal Boad for six years, I met sisters and brothers whose common faith in Jesus Christ brought us together to face the many challenges before us both in the church and in the world. These challenges included the ongoing struggles with sexuality, the healing and reconciliation process with our indigenous sisters and brothers in the aftermath of Residential Schools, global warming and the harm done to our environment, the increasing divide between rich and poor and how our church communities can more effectively reach out to those in need, and the changing reality of the place of our church in the midst of an increasing secular society. I would add to that list the effects that the COVID epidemic has had on individuals, especially many parish priests, and on congregations, many of whom, are still struggling in the aftermath of closing their church doors to worship and person to person pastoral care for months on end.
In retirement I have filled in for vacationing clergy and did one long-term interim in the Parish of Lloydtown. Since moving to Grimsby we have been worshipping at St. George’s, St. Catharines. As ‘Bishop in Residence’, I help out with services when needed and support the ministry of the parish, especially their Breakfast Programme that has been running, without missing a day, for over thirty years. It currently feeds over a hundred people a day. Their motto is, “All are welcome, no questions asked.”
It has been quite the journey, to say the least, but a journey I have not made alone and one I believe I have shared with all of you. God has richly blessed me, my family, and those who I have had the privilege of serving in Christ’s’ name over the past forty-five years. At my consecration I sang a blessing and have done so ever since. I offer it to you in thanksgiving to God.
Bless and keep you friends in God’s love forever.
From one family never separated.
In the name of God; Father, Son, and Spirit.
May God’s love surround you as we journey forth.
Amen.
George Elliott
