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Bishop Burton
Link to Diocese of Saskatchewan website
A letter from our Senior Warden
I am pleased and privileged to inform you that Church of the
Incarnation has its Fifteenth Rector—The Right Reverend Anthony J.
Burton, Bishop of Saskatchewan! It has been fifteen months since the Rector Search Committee began its
task, and over eight months since Father Smith officially retired, but
I know you will agree that it will have been worth the wait. Bishop
Burton will commence his duties September 1, so I feel I must caution
everyone for continued patience. He has tremendous responsibilities to
clear before his departure, and his family has quite an adjustment to
undergo, so I ask that we try to focus on preparations for their
welcome and not try to ask for his opinion, approval or commitment
prior to his arrival.
First, let me relate a little of
the
process involved. Due to the great care of the many people who offered
such thoughtful nominees and the reputation of our parish, almost
ninety-five nominations were received from twenty-four states and two
other countries. With the assistance of the Church Development Office
in New York, our Diocesan office, and the Internet, RSC members
reviewed each nomination to ensure that they were properly qualified
and/or interested in the position, and sent our survey, information
packet and application to those appropriate individuals. Ultimately,
the candidates were whittled down to nine semi-finalists, who were
interviewed on a teleconference call by the RSC for over ninety
minutes. Six were invited for face-to-face visits with the RSC, and
afterwards the RSC voted unanimously to bring one outstanding candidate
to the Vestry for consideration. After reviewing the RSC material and
meeting with
Bishop Burton individually, the Vestry concurred with the
recommendation and unanimously elected him as our Rector.
Bishop Burton, or Tony as he prefers
to be called, is forty-eight years old, and married to Anna, a
Californian and the daughter of an Episcopal priest. Together they have
two children, Caroline, who is thirteen, and ten-year-old, Peter. They
have lived for the past seventeen years in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan,
where Tony served as Dean of Saskatchewan until 1993, when he became
the youngest Bishop in the Anglican Communion at the time. Tony
maintains a highly disciplined prayer life, and tries to run five miles
most days.
Tony graduated with Honors from the
University of Toronto, and received a B.A and M.A in Theology with
Honors from Oxford, where Nicky Gumbel was a classmate, and Rowan
Williams and Tom Wright were among his teachers. He was ordained as a
priest in Nova Scotia in 1988, where he began his ministry working with
youth, which has remained a priority in his work since. He is a Windsor
Bishop with an abiding love for the Anglican Communion, and views the
foremost challenges facing the Church as unity in mission,
congregational aging, and Biblical and theological literacy.
Tony’s vision for the Church of the
Incarnation is to build upon what is already here by broadening our
ministries which help hurting people, developing a comprehensive
strategy to reach new people and incorporating them into the life of
the Church, and by tapping the enormous potential in our financial stewardship. I
strongly believe God has delivered us a formidable leader who will
build upon the fine examples of our past traditions to join our hands
in extraordinary communion with Christ, and help us take our Church to
levels we dared not dream.
In addition to God, we all owe a great
debt to the men and women of the Rector Search Committee, so please
heap prayers and praises on them all. Likewise, let us give thanks to
the many Intercessory Prayer partners who prayed during this process
each time the RSC met and each day in their prayer life; I truly
believe your prayers were answered. Blessings, also, must be offered to
our Clergy, our staff, our vestry, and for Dr. Turner, who have worked
so diligently and unselfishly to help our Parish maintain the right
course during our journey of faith these past several months. Finally,
my heartfelt appreciation to all of you who have faithfully served and
worshiped God in this place when it could have been tempting to grow
weary and seek his presence elsewhere. Let me assure you, your patience
will be rewarded.
In Christ,
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