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The Anglican Diocese of Islands and Inlets (British Columbia) is excited to invite you to be part of a celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Priesting of Women in the Anglican Church of Canada. Come and join us as we give thanks for the many ways women have contributed to the life of the Church as presbyters and look to the future to examine the challenges that lay ahead for women in the Church and Canadian society.
We look forward to welcoming you to Vancouver Island later this year!
Dates: November 24-25, 2026
Location: Christ Church Cathedral at 930 Burdett Ave., Victoria.
Registration
Registration is now open. Please click HERE to complete the form. Registration for this event will close October 12, 2026.
There is no longer a cap on the number of registrants. We look forward to welcoming anyone who would like to be a part of this exciting event.
The registration fee is $210.00. Participants are responsible for making all their own travel and hotel arrangements. This includes transportation into Victoria from the airport. We will create a Facebook page where people can connect to arrange carpooling.
Program
The event will officially begin at 8:30am on Tuesday, November 24 at Christ Church Cathedral.
It will officially end with the celebratory Eucharist at Christ Church Cathedral on Wednesday, November 25. The service will start at 4pm and will be livestreamed.
More details about the program and the service will be shared soon.
Bursaries and funding
The bursary application process is now closed.
Accommodation
We have negotiated corporate rates with three hotels in the city. Please note that these rates may change before the event. Please call and let the hotel know that you want the corporate rate negotiated by the Diocese of British Columbia for the nights associated with the event (23, 24, 25 November 2026). The hotels are:
- Inn at Laurel Point: starting at $184/night+tax. The Inn is on Victoria’s beautiful Inner Harbour. It is approx. a half hour walk to the conference venue. (www.laurelpoint.com) Please reference the 50th Anniversary rate when booking. You can call 1-800-663-7667 or email reservations@laurelpointinn.com to book.
- Best Western Plus Carlton Plaza Hotel: starting at $155/night+taxes and fees. The BW is in downtown Victoria. Approx. 10-minute walk to the venue. (www.bestwesterncarltonplazahotel.com). Please note: if you want to book the Best Western, you must use THIS LINK. The front desk staff will not have this information! They have offered a variety of rooms including a suite with a kitchenette. The link will work until October 23, 2026.
- Quality Inn Downtown Inner Harbour: $140/night+tax. The Quality Inn is in downtown Victoria and approx. a 15-minute walk to the venue. (www.choicehotels.com/en-uk/british-columbia/victoria/quality-inn-hotels/cn376)
Speakers
Patti Brace
Patti is the rector of the Parish of Mahone Bay, a semi-rural multi-point parish in the South Shore region of the Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, and chancellor of Thorneloe University, an Anglican theological college in Sudbury, Ontario.
While fairly recently ordained (deacon 2018, priest 2019), she remembers the excitement of the first ordinations of women in Canada and the first in her home diocese of Niagara. While her own sense of call emerged toward the end of high school, she didn’t quite know what to do with it and headed down the path of academia, earning a BA in English at Trent University, followed by an MA and a PhD from Queen’s.
She taught early modern literature at Laurentian University in Sudbury for 20 years and did research on sixteenth-century English women writers and the London print market. It was during a sabbatical in 2012-13 that God’s call returned very insistently and, having taken a number of theology courses from Thorneloe “for fun,” she began seminary at the Faculty of Divinity at Trinity College, Toronto, while teaching and raising a teen-aged son.
After ordination in the diocese of Algoma, she served as deacon associate at Christ Church, Lively and St. John the Divine, Copper Cliff (2018-19) and then as interim at St. Mary, Nipigon, where she discovered a love of small-town ministry. She, her dog, and two cats moved to Nova Scotia in late 2021. Patti enjoys choral singing, cycling, camping, and playing the fiddle (as yet) ineptly.
Christine Burton
Christine’s high school guidance councillor says she first talked about a call to ministry in her teens. Instead, Christine completed degrees in political science (University of Regina), law (University of Saskatchewan), and public administration (Harvard Kennedy School), and worked in public service before finally allowing the Lord to ‘seduce’ her. Christine says ‘Jonah spent three days in the belly of the whale; I spent 20 years…’
She undertook an MDiv at University St. Paul, Ottawa while working, completing it after a move to Regina to care for aging parents, arriving just six weeks before the Covid-19 shut down. She was ordained transitional deacon in May 2023 and priest in November 2023.
After a curacy at St. Paul's Cathedral, Regina (Diocese of Qu’Appelle), she was appointed halftime at All Saints, Weyburn. This allows her to serve at a range of smaller parishes and chapels, the diocesan camp, Vacation Bible School and faith-based PD day care events. She is chair of the diocesan stewardship committee and the regional ecumenical stewardship group, and a member of the diocesan legislation committee. Her pink hair, originally a ‘nazarite vow,’ has become a bit of a signature look that is also a useful ice breaker.
Jacqui Durand
Jacqui is a First Nations Cree woman, born in Manitoba. She grew up in Winnipeg, but her father’s family is from the original St. Peter’s Indian Settlement on the banks of the Red River in East Selkirk, and their home reserve is Peguis First Nation. Her mother’s family is of European descent. She did not grow up with her traditional teachings or language, especially after her Cree-speaking great-grandmother passed. Over the past ten years, Jacqui has reconnected with her family in Manitoba and with her heritage and culture.
Jacqui trained as a priest through her lay ministry and subsequent curacy in a three-point rural Anglican parish, received her master's in leadership and ministry from Ambrose Seminary in Calgary, and studied simultaneously in the Indigenous studies program at the Vancouver School of Theology.
Jacqui was ordained as a deacon in 2019, as a priest in 2020, and collated as the Archdeacon for Indigenous Ministries, Treaty 7 Territory, Diocese of Calgary in 2022. Her role as archdeacon is to oversee the four Indigenous Anglican parishes: St. John the Divine, Siksika; St. Barnabus, Tsuu’t’ina; St. Paul, Kainai; and St. Cyprian, Piikani. Jacqui is the incumbent for St. Paul and St. Cyprian. As part of her role, she also collaborates with her Indigenous Minister colleague on a variety of reconciliation initiatives and conversations.
Nationally, Jacqui was elected to the Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples at the Sacred Circle gathering last year for a three-year term.
Laurel Dykstra
Laurel Dykstra grew up as a member of St. Barnabas parish in the Diocese of Islands and Inlets. They spent many years in voluntary service in faith-based movements and communities for social and ecological justice: L’Arche, Catholic Worker, Radical Discipleship.
They studied biology and gender studies at the University of Victoria, feminist biblical hermeneutics at Episcopal Divinity School and Anglican theology and liturgy at Toronto School of Theology.
As a curate they helped prepare parishes in the Diocese of New Westminster to participate in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Indian Residential Schools. They are gathering priest and founder of Salal + Cedar Watershed Discipleship community, a 10-year-old eco-justice church-plant that worships out-of-doors on Coast Salish Territory. Laurel has written several books and many articles about the intersections of faith, justice, queerness and how the land teaches and mentors us.
Alison Falby
Alison is the incumbent at Christ Church Deer Park in midtown Toronto. Previously, she served for six and a half years as the priest-director and incumbent at All Saints Church Community Centre in Moss Park, a Toronto neighbourhood affected disproportionately by the homelessness and opioid crises. In that role, she oversaw services used by people experiencing homelessness and was an outspoken advocate for them in the news media, at public events and through presentations to elected officials. She kept the church’s weekday drop-in open during the COVID-19 pandemic as a vital public health service.
Alison was ordained priest in 2012, and graduated with her M.Div. from Trinity College, Toronto, in 2011. Before her call to the priesthood, Alison was an Assistant Professor of History. She holds a D.Phil from Oxford and a B.A from McGill.
Wendy Fletcher
Wendy was raised as a cradle Anglican in southern Ontario. She was ordained in the Diocese of Niagara in 1988 by Archbishop John Bothwell, who had a vision for the concept of worker priests: priests ordained to serve in contexts outside of the church.
Wendy was ordained to serve in higher education. She has spent her entire career in the university sector: first as a professor at Huron University for 10 years. She was made a Canon of St. Paul’s Cathedral in the Diocese of Huron during that time. From 2000 she served in positions of senior academic leadership at VST for 14 years (UBC) and most recently in senior administration for 10 years at Renison University College.
Those years in academia provided her the opportunity to travel widely and engage in intercultural work and conversations across many diverse spaces. Currently she serves at Renison as President Emerita, Professor of Religious Studies and History, and as Director of the Centre for Interreligious Spirituality and Wisdom Practices. As well as her work as researcher, teacher and leader Wendy is an artist, and wife, mother, and grandmother.
Leslie Flynn
Reverend Leslie Flynn is a lifelong Anglican who grew up in Victoria, BC, on the lands of the Lekwungen peoples. She has a BA in Psychology with a minor in Human Services from Trinity Western University and a Masters of Divinity from Vancouver School of Theology.
In her previous life Rev. Leslie worked as front-line staff in supportive housing and as a coordinator of children, youth and young adult ministry. She currently serves at St. Philip Cedar, a lively parish located in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island.
Rev. Leslie is passionate about creating spaces to encounter God's love, through liturgy, the sacraments, intergenerational community and discovering the scriptures in new and exciting ways. During her time off you will find her reading a good book, at the swimming pool or playing board games.
Jordan Haynie Ware
The Ven. Jordan Haynie Ware serves as Archdeacon of Justice in the Diocese of Edmonton and Rector of Good Shepherd Anglican Church. Jordan came to Canada nine years ago from The Episcopal Church, where she was among the first class of women ordained in what was formerly known as the Diocese of Fort Worth. She's the author of The Ultimate Quest: A Geek’s Guide to (the Episcopal) Church, co-creator of the Two Feminists series of podcasts, and a recent contestant on Jeopardy!
Jordan’s core belief is that the work of justice is the work of pastoral care. It is her pastoral responsibility to demand that the world respect the children with disabilities, the immigrant teens and the Indigenous Elders who make up the multicultural congregation she serves. Some of her proudest ministry has been co-founding Faith Spaces | Safe Spaces, an interfaith anti-racism project, and connecting with the next generation of women who wrote in to her podcast, Two Feminists Annotate the Bible.
Jordan holds degrees from Yale Divinity School and the University of Texas at Austin, as well as a certificate in Nonprofit Executive Management from Georgetown. She lives in Amiskwaciwâskahikan / ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ on Treaty 6 territory with her husband and their retired racing greyhound.
Gerlyn Henry
The Rev. Gerlyn Henry is a priest and content creator in the Anglican Diocese of Toronto. As the incumbent of the Church of the Holy Wisdom in Scarborough, she has combined a local parish ministry with an ongoing global conversation on faith, justice, solidarity, and ministry.
Named by Sojourners magazine as one of the 10 Christian Women Shaping the Church in 2026, Gerlyn is a Preaching Justice Fellow and the co-host of the Two Priests and Palestine limited series podcast. In the Anglican Diocese of Toronto, she is the co-chair of the right relations committee as well as an anti-racism facilitator. With over 500,000 followers online, her voice is a clarion call for reflecting on faith's place in daily life.
Rev. Gerlyn has been featured recently on Canadian Public Broadcasting, in People magazine and the Toronto Star, in addition to appearing as a guest on over 10 podcasts in the past year. Earlier this year, Gerlyn signed with The Bindery Agency to publish her first book in 2027. When she isn't at the pulpit or on camera, she is navigating the beautiful, messy intersection of politics and faith.
Victoria Matthews
Victoria grew up in an Anglican non-church-going family. They knew the Anglican church was the one they did not attend. That meant infant baptism and no Sunday school or church attendance. However, 13 years of attendance at an Anglican school introduced her to the Christian faith. She remembers she loved the Chapel and religious studies classes, which wasn't universal.
The first ordinations of women to the priesthood in Canada were celebrated when Victoria was in her first year at Yale Divinity School (thanks to a North American Theological Scholarship via the Lily Foundation). Her first attendance at a Eucharist celebrated by a female priest also occurred at Yale. She remembers not sleeping the night before because of a mixture of excitement and fear.
Deaconed in 1979 and priested in 1980 in the Diocese of Toronto, she was elected in 1993 to be an Area Bishop for Toronto. The consecration was February 12, 1994. This was a first for Canada and the fifth episcopal consecration of a woman in the Anglican Communion. Subsequently, she served as Diocesan of Edmonton (1997 to 2007); Bishop in Residence at Wycliffe College, Toronto (2008) and Diocesan Bishop of Christchurch in Aotearoa, New Zealand (2008-2018).
Since returning to Canada, she has assisted the Dioceses of Edmonton, Algoma and Moosonee, and is now back in Algoma. Victoria gives thanks to God in Christ and the Anglican Communion for the challenges and blessings of a rich and varied ordained ministry.
Early in life, Elizabeth wanted to work for Parks Canada and completed a five-year forestry degree. From there, she became the Executive Director of the Nova Scotia Forestry Association, with a fondness for Smokey Bear.
Elizabeth Northcott
For Elizabeth, the Anglican Church was always "home" and so she ventured into theological studies in Montreal, graduated in 1991 and was the second woman to be ordained in 1991 in the Diocese of Fredericton. She began as curate at Christ Church Cathedral in Fredericton with the Very Rev. John Wright and three years later became the chaplain at RCS/Netherwood. In her second year of chaplaincy, she was appointed to a two-point parish in East Saint John.
Wanting to spend more time with her aging parents, Elizabeth moved to Vancouver. She enjoyed eleven years as an Associate Priest at St. Mary's in Kerrisdale. She also served on diocesan council in New Westminster. She had the privilege of serving on the Anglican Foundation with Primate Fred Hiltz.
The draw of grandchildren is a great incentive for change. When the opportunity arose to apply for the incumbency of St. Mark in Qualicum Beach, Elizabeth responded quickly. Here, in the Diocese of BC she has served as the Archdeacon of the northern parishes. She has built a home here with her spouse, Susan, for the last nine years, with grandchildren living nearby.
Volunteering
Interested in helping with the event? Contact The Rev. Canon Jeannine Friesen at jfriesen@bc.anglican.ca.
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A poster is provided below should you wish to post something at your parish.
A Facebook Group has been started for this event. Join us at: Let's celebrate 50 yrs of the Priesting of Women in the ACC!
The organizers gratefully acknowledge a grant from the Anglican Foundation of Canada in support of this event.
