Reflections on the heritage, life & work of faith communities in Ottawa and Eastern Ontario
On Sunday, October 5th — as a rich, amber sun was beginning to set on an unseasonably warm fall afternoon — I had the chance to attend an Evensong service at St. Matthew’s Anglican Church at 217 First Avenue, in the Glebe. St. Matthew’s takes a high church approach to liturgy, which made Evensong —…
With Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada no longer providing funding to house 130 asylum seekers in Ottawa hotels, people of faith in the nation’s capital have stepped up to assist newcomers facing homelessness. Volunteers and clergy from Kitchissippi United Church, including Council Chair Denise Bonomo and Reverend Daniel Addai Fobi, have helped 20 asylum seekers…
Completed in 1955 in the Neo-Gothic style, Rideau Park United Church remains a vibrant congregation with a particularly robust music ministry — something that became clear to me when I visited on the last Sunday of the summer season, September 21, at the 10:00 am service. Close to 100 people were in attendance that Sunday….
Built in 1887, St. Margaret’s Anglican Church was once a village chapel serving the rural community of Janesville. In its early years, it was a mission church of the much more affluent St. Bartholomew’s Church in nearby New Edinburgh. This “chapel of ease” located along the road that connected Ottawa to Montreal served poorer English…
Two French-speaking Catholic parishes made the front page of this past Saturday’s Ottawa Citizen, as City officials move ahead with plans to designate Saint-François-d’Assise Parish in Hintonburg and Saint-Joseph Parish in Orleans heritage buildings. The municipal government’s committee charged with safeguarding Ottawa’s built heritage accepted a recommendation from city staff to apply designation to the…
When one visits a church and hears that the congregation’s clergywoman is sometimes known as “the little Pope from Brockville,” the risk of tuning out the sermon is greatly diminished. I had the chance to visit Wall Street United Church in Brockville on a couple of occasions this summer and in each instance, I found…
On my way to the Glengarry Pioneer Museum’s Fall Harvest Fair on a crisp morning, I stopped by St. Michael and All Angels Anglican Church in Maxville, Ontario, and attended their 9:00 am Sunday service. Built in 1860 as a Presbyterian church and later to serve as the spiritual home of a Baptist community, the…
Earlier this month on a hazy Sunday, while visiting an elderly and ailing friend Stateside, smoke from Canadian forest fires drifted across the St. Lawrence. It clung to the humid air over New York’s North Country. After a 45-minute drive down the 416 and having crossed the Ogdensburg-Prescott International Bridge, I turned right and drove…
When I was a kid, my dad would haul me out of bed early on a Sunday morning, order me into my ‘Sunday best’ including tights without holes and shoes that pinched my feet because I only wore them occasionally, and pack all of us into the VW van to go to church. We were…
The Ottawa Pastoral Care Training Program, an ecumenical initiative offering laity formation in pastoral care since 1979, has opened up registration for its Fall 2025 Basic Course. The course is geared to those who volunteer with church-based pastoral care teams. Participants can register for either the in-person course, hosted at St. Paul Presbyterian Church (971…