Wednesday in Easter Week
April 20, 2022
Dear Friends,
Please be warned that this note bears news of sexual misconduct.
As you know, we count Mark MacDonald a beloved friend in the Chapel. He was with us just before students were sent home because of Covid in March of 2020. He gave the Robert Crouse Memorial lecture this year. We had hoped that he would be with us this past week as our Holy Week missioner. For a long time now I have prayed day by day at the Holy Communion for 'Sandra our Bishop, David our Metropolitan, and Mark, our friend.'
It grieves me to have to report that Mark has resigned his orders and acknowledged sexual misconduct. Very few details are public. I know only what is said on the front page of the website of the Anglican Church of Canada and in the letter there from the Most Rev'd Linda Nicholls, the Primate (= chief bishop).
I have pasted the link below this message.
There is so much to mourn here: the effects of his actions on the complainant, on the complainant's family and friends, on people across the country, and on Mark himself.
We are no strangers to brokenness and betrayal. We just kept Holy Week together. We cried out together, 'Crucify him! Crucify him!' Each day we heard the priest comfort us with the words, 'On the night he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus Christ took bread...'
Our friend Mark has admitted to betraying another. We pray for that victim of his betrayal that trust may be restored to this person whose soul has been damaged by such betrayal of trust.
Tomorrow afternoon our Bishop, the Right Rev'd Sandra Fyfe, will be with us to celebrate the Holy Communion at 5:00 p.m. There will be prayers of intercession with special intention for victims of violence, sexualized violence, and all forms of physical, spiritual, and emotional abuse. It will be a simple service, with no choir and no hymns.
For some time before the Holy Communion there will be an opportunity to gather with Bp Sandra and Jordan Roberts and myself in the Senior Common Room, beginning at 3:30 p.m. Of course I am available and Jordan is available to meet with students, faculty or staff individually and confidentially at any time.
God bless and keep you. Feel free to call or text me at any time at (506) 232-8270.
Under the Mercy,
Ranall+