Thanksgiving for Anglicanism in the True North: places

On this Canadian Thanksgiving Day, laudable Practice gives thanks for three places which embody the particular gifts and vocation of Canadian Anglicanism.

Firstly, St. Paul's, Halifax, Nova Scotia.  It is the oldest Anglican place of worship in Canada, established in 1749.  It became the cathedral for Charles Inglis (whose father was a rector in the Church of Ireland) when he was consecrated Bishop of Nova Scotia in 1787, the first Anglican Cathedral outside the British Isles.  St. Paul's, in other words, is a sign of the enduring presence of Anglicanism in Canada over centuries, of how Anglicanism has become a feature of the landscape, communities, and culture of Canada.

The fact that St. Paul's is also the burial place for Inglis symbolises the historic national and communal vocation of Canadian Anglicanism.  The great Canadian Anglican philosopher George Grant's emphasis on how the Loyalist tradition - of which Inglis was a leading representative - shaped Canada as it "appealed to the older political philosophy of Richard Hooker" over that of Locke, points to the role of Anglicanism in shaping the Canada's common life and polity.  The Hookerian wisdom which shaped the public institutions of what would become Canada profoundly contributed to the peace, order, and good government of the True North.

Secondly, Her Majesty's Royal Chapel of the Mohawks, Ontario.  This Royal Chapel stands in succession to the Royal Chapel at Fort Hunter, New York, near the Mohawk River.  Pillaged by Patriots during the Revolutionary War, its communion vessels were brought with Loyalists of the Six Nations, led by Joseph Brant, who fled the United States after the War, to be given refuge in Canada.  A Mohawk Chapel was established by Brant in 1785.  The Royal title was restored to the chapel by the Crown in 1904, recognising both long service to the Crown and contribution to the history of Canada.

The Royal Chapel of the Mohawks stands as a sign of how Canadian Anglicanism has been profoundly enriched by the Indigenous peoples: their cultures, their lands, their presence.  It also stands, however, as a sign calling Canadian Anglicanism to repentance for the shame of colluding with and enabling those policies which denied the dignity and rights of the Indigenous peoples of Canada.  Not least amidst the horror and pain associated with the revelations concerning the residential schools - 36 of which were administered by the Anglican Church of Canada - the Royal Chapel of the Mohawks is reminder both of the gravity of this evil and of the rich, God-given gift of the culture, history, presence, and witness of Indigenous peoples.  

Thirdly, King's College Chapel. That King's College was founded by Inglis is another expression of the significance of the Loyalist and Anglican contribution to the shaping of Canada.  While the confessional nature of the university has, of course, disappeared (which is not necessarily a cause for lament for, as Hooker declares, "wisdom hath diversely imparted her treasures unto the world ... her ways are of sundry kinds"), the Chapel continues to exemplify the Anglican ethos: grounded in common prayer, oriented to what the late John Hughes termed "integral humanism":

a particular piety and sensibility which could be seen as characteristically Anglican: a sense of all creation being in God and God being in all creation, through Christ.

The Chaplain's Report in in the 2021 Annual Report pointed to how a standard practice of common prayer encouraged such a Christian humanist vision:

In the Chapel, this quest is embodied by some simple practices. Two of which I have often heard students speak have to do with the public recitation of the Psalms. The first is listening. The second is waiting. 

First, about listening. Those on one side of the Chapel must listen carefully to one another if they are to pray together. They must be listening to the people on the other side of the Chapel if they are to know when to begin their verse. They must be listening to one another if they are to enter together into the silence at the pauses at the half verse, and then begin the second half of the verse. And then, of course, there is the necessity to listen to the actual text – the words that are being offered. What can these strange words mean? And what can we mean by going to all the trouble to do this together?

Secondly, about waiting ... We must depend on people we may not know, people we may not like, people who may hate us, to complete out prayer. Of course, most often we do know and like them, and count them as friends. But ... It is significant that we sit opposite one another. What confounds our understanding and contradicts our wills and has being and worth entirely apart from our plans and projects is often much more important than what confirms us in our prejudices, offers what we already desire, or serves our aims.

This process of listening and waiting in order to discern what is human is a kind of turning, a kind of ‘conversio’.

Through Choral Evensong and Choral Compline, Eucharist and Daily Office, community and retreats, and the Robert Crouse Memorial Lectures (do listen to the excellent lecture by Andrew Louth on Christian Platonism), the Chapel demonstrates how the gifts and vocation of Canadian Anglicanism can be nurtured and encouraged in a secular age, while flowing from the witness of those Anglicans who ensured the tradition first took root in the culture, communities, and polity of the True North.

These are three places which, I hope, articulate something of an Irish Anglican's gratitude for Anglicanism in the True North on this Thanksgiving Day.  More than this, perhaps they also suggest something hopeful for the renewal of Canadian Anglicanism: a renewal flowing from and cohering to Canadian Anglicanism's historic vocation to embody what Inglis called "rational and sound religion"; encouraging the institutions of the Canadian polity to be oriented towards peace, order, and good government; repenting of past evils against, and promoting truth and reconciliation in relationship with, Indigenous peoples, rejoicing in the witness and gifts of Indigenous Anglicans; and sustaining the practices of common prayer as a means of drawing people more deeply into participation in the divine life, thereby blessing place and landscape, communal and national life.