St. Alban’s Anglican Cathedral was the first stop of a special visit by the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada on Sunday.
The Sermon for the day was performed by Most Reverend Shane Parker, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada as part of a visit to Saskatchewan.
Also taking part in the service was the Right Reverend Richard Reed, Bishop of the Diocese of Saskatchewan.
Parker explained that the idea for the tour came from customs of the Anglican Church.
“Part of my job is to get to know, to be with, to visit each of the 30 dioceses of the Anglican Church of Canada. So I need to be invited into a diocese. So the way I’ve been doing that is just to have conversations with my colleagues and when opportunities emerge, we set up a plan. So that’s how it came to be,” Parker said.
Reed explained that having Parker visit during the summer was purposeful because it is not as busy as Christmas or Easter.
“Everyone’s out doing summer things. And so I thought, well, while he’s here, I’m hoping to do the same and give him a taste, a second taste, since he’s been in Saskatchewan when he was younger. So I’m hoping to take him on a fishing trip and up to Stanley Mission to see the historic church and the Nisstoiak Falls,” Reed explained.
Parker spent about five years of his childhood on the prairies.
“My father was in the Canadian Army, so we moved to different places in Alberta and Saskatchewan. I did live in Regina and in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan in the 60s.” Parker said.
Parker added that he was born into the Anglican Church of Canada.
“So I responded to a call to ordination almost 40 years ago, and I was ordained as a priest and served in the Diocese of Ottawa. And then I was elected as the Bishop of Ottawa, as Richard was elected here in 2020. And last year at the General Synod, the Parliament of the church.
Primate Shane Parker preached his Sermon at St. Alban’s Cathedral as part of his visit to Prince Albert on Sunday
I was nominated from the floor and elected to be primate of the Church of Canada.
Parker was elected to a three-year term as primate of the ACC by the church’s General Synod on June 26, 2025. Although he was not initially a candidate for the office, he was nominated by the Synod’s house of bishops after a motion from the Synod’s order of laity requested an additional nominee following the second ballot. Parker’s election came on the fifth ballot, when he received majority support from both the laity and clergy orders of the synod. He was installed in the post on June 29, 2025
Parker said that his term has been going well.
“It’s going fine. There’s a lot of, the church was in a place where it needed, it articulated a need for a lot of change at different levels. And I think I was elected to lead that change. I have only a three-year term because I have to retire when I’m 70, so it’s three years with a with a very clearly defined mandate to drive change at different levels,” Parker said.
Reed said that there are always struggles with the Anglican Church in Saskatchewan , whether it’s issues of money or depopulation. Reed noted that the struggles are common in all churches.
“I think that, we kind of move along with the culture around us. So, when towns are shrinking and schools and things close, it won’t be long before a church will close,” Reed said.
“So in centres where there are more people and immigrants moving in, we are seeing some new people in some of our churches where in some of the more rural areas you see stability, but some decline just because people don’t necessarily move in those many smaller towns,” he explained.
He said that he remembered an incident at his first parish at an Anglican Church Women event on his first week there was a group that was upset because the church was closed.
“But it was a town of like 100 people and they just couldn’t sustain it any longer. And I think that’s one of the challenges when you’re in a rural prairie area that some of the towns, they shrink and churches with them,” Reed said.
Reed said that St. Alban’s Cathedral is doing ‘okay’. The Cathedral is searching for a new Rector and Dean of the Cathedral.
“And we’d love to find the perfect person right away. But it takes time to find the right person to lead a cathedral church in a diocese, and especially in a time like we’re living in, where it’s not just the people like Shane, who grew up in the church,’ Reed said.
Reed said that new people are coming into the church from different parts of Asia and Africa
“. And so you’re looking at not only do we need to change, but change is happening all around us. And so finding that person who is comfortable ministering to a multicultural context is, it’s challenging, but it will happen,” Reed said.
Parker explained that the dynamic that Reed was talking about differs from place to place in Canada as a whole.
“In some of the urban centres, it’s a very different dynamic. But across the church, there’s a need to look at how many physical buildings we have because we’re still living on a structural, much larger than we need in those cases,” Parker said.
Parker explained that there are interesting things happening in the Anglican Church like replanting of churches.
“ We see that in the north where churches that for whatever reason have been abandoned are now being reclaimed because there’s population around it. But it is a time where we are looking very carefully at being a little bit more tightly organized, a little bit more focused on the things that we ought to be focused on,” Parker said.
Reed said that after the stop in Stanley Mission Parker will be visiting Saskatoon and handed off to Bishop Chad McCharles of the Diocese of Saskatoon.
During his Sermon Parker spoke of the journey of people to be faithful using a story of a man and a crow.
“I think people want to know how they’re supposed to live in this life to be faithful. And sometimes we get confused about what we’re really being called to do, but when it comes down to it, we’re really being called to live in ways that reflect the teachings of Jesus, which is to live in a good way, as Indigenous people say. And to understand that in doing that, we will actually feel close to God, because that’s how God made us to live, as people of compassion and mercy,” Parker explained.
Reed said that he was ready to enjoy the beautiful day on Sunday.
“Before the next rain shows up,” Reed said.
