Canon, Deacons and Presbyters Called to Serve in New Patterns of Ministry

On the miracle of Pentecost Sunday, June 8, 2025, members of the Anglican church family in the Edmonton diocese participated in a new ordination rite to recognize those among us called by God to the ministries of Canon, Deacon and Presbyter. 

Bishop Stephen London, 11th Bishop of Edmonton, installed Fiona Brownlee as a Lay Canon for her ministry of truth and reconciliation. A founding member of the Reconciliation Team at Immanuel Anglican Church in Wetaskiwin, Brownlee served as the diocese’s Aboriginal and rural churches liaison for more than a decade. By encouraging neighbourly love, she coordinated community events to honour the memory of children who died at residential schools and Missing and Murdered indigenous Women, Girls and 2SLGBTQ+ folk. She was seated in the stall of Saint Julian of Norwich by the Very Rev. Alex Meek, Dean of Edmonton. 

Before the presentation of the ordinands, homilist, the Rev. Canon Scott Sharman, explained that, for the first time in 40 years, the Edmonton diocese was using a new rite for the ordination of deacons Gordon Hills, Fred Matthews, Suzanne Oswald, Betty Tyszkiewicz, and presbyters Capt. the Rev. Helen Chan Bennett and the Rev. Jordan Giggey. 

“Tonight, in this corner of God’s Kin-dom, we are marking Pentecost with an ordering of people into new patterns of ministry,” said Sharman, noting that the service began with thanksgiving for baptism, which is intended to begin “every ordination service in our church from now on," and is “the primary ordination from God to become agents of God’s love and healing to one another and the world; it is the source from which all ministries flow, and any other naming or ordering beyond that does not add anything more but simply makes the common call of all more specific for some.”

Another distinguishing characteristic of the new ordination rite, he said, is the regular use of the word presbyter (meaning elder), the original biblical Greek word for pastors and ministers of word and sacrament. 

“This change helps emphasize that each disciple shares in Christ’s royal priesthood of making our lives a living sacrifice for others; it’s not just the work of those we commonly call priests with a capital P. Presbyters, Elders, do have a very important role to play, helping to equip and encourage others for their own spiritual life and servant leadership roles…”

Four people were called to be ordained as deacons, modelling service, especially among anyone afflicted by poverty, illness, or isolation. Gordon Hills is a licensed lay reader and member of St. Saviour’s, Vermilion. He was presented by the Rev. Elizabeth Metcalfe and Cicely Hills. Fred Matthews serves the parish of the Church of the Nativity, Frog Lake First Nation. He was presented by the Ven. Travis Enright and Indigenous Elder Russell Auger. Suzanne Oswald is a member of Holy Trinity, Edmonton, and serves on the Executive Council. She was presented by the Rev. Danielle Key and Andrea Hamilton. Betty Tyszkiewicz is a licensed lay reader and member of St. Michael and All Angels, Edmonton. She was presented by the Rev. Colleen Sanderson and Janet Egan. 

Ordained as Presbyters by Bishop Nigel Shaw, Bishop Ordinary to the Canadian Armed Forces, and Bishop Stephen London, respectively, Capt. the Rev. Helen Chan Bennett and the Rev. Jordan Giggey, vowed to amid "the gathered community, preside at the sacraments of the new covenant, nourish Christ’s people from the riches of his grace, and strengthen them to glorify God in this life and in the life to come.” The newly ordained presbyters will “tell the story of God’s love and baptize new disciples in the name of the Holy Trinity.”

Chan Bennett, presented by the Rev. Bob Peel and Patricia Peel, is a military chaplain at Canadian Forces Base Edmonton, and is also a staff chaplain and Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) educator at the University of Alberta Hospital, Stollery Children's Hospital and Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute.

Giggey, presented by the Ven. Travis Enright, Archdeacon for Reconciliation and Decolonization, and Darrell Derksema, is currently providing interim ministry at St. George’s, Edmonton. He helped form and lead Queer Beginnings, a Queer-affirming group at St. Mary’s, Edmonton. 

And, as Sharman said, as we look for ways to witness as “Pentecost-hearted people, may the whole world see and know the Good News of the diversifying and reconciling love of God our Creator for all people and all the world.”

Read Pentecost Service Text