Warm official welcome to The Rev’d Anne Brandly M.D., M.Div

A very warm official welcome

Anne now resumes her ministry following her reinstatement to Holy Orders 

A very warm official welcome

Anne now resumes her ministry following her reinstatement to Holy Orders 

Anne is a resident in East City Peterborough and lives within walking distance to St Luke's Church. Anne has become acquainted with many St Matthew-St Aidan folks thanks to the on-line Zoom liturgies shared by both parishes. In a recent note, Anne commented on how she is looking forward to the opportunity of also engaging in the parish life of St Matthew - St Aidan.

In the Spring of 2021, we welcomed Anne back to the Anglican Church of Canada and to the world-wide Anglican Communion. Her vocational journey and her spiritual journey has led her many places over the years.

After a successful career as a Neurologist, the next steps of her journey led her to Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto where she obtained her Master of Divinity Degree.

Anne was ordained by the Bishop of the Arctic and soon departed for the High Arctic where she served in various parishes for over ten years. Upon her return to the South, Anne served for several years in the Diocese of Ontario and later relinquished her Holy Orders.

Since becoming part of the St Luke's community of faith, Anne has been serving with our liturgical team as Intercessor and Lector in our liturgies. After prayerful thought and reflection, Anne sought to have her Holy Orders re-instated. The Bishop of the Diocese Ontario-- Anne's Home Diocese -- recently notified the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada that he had re-instated Anne to Holy Orders.

"I was not in the least surprised when Anne approached me about beginning the process for reinstatement," Father Glenn Empey said recently. "I am very honoured to have been a small part in Anne's renewal of her calling as a Priest. We are all fortunate that Anne sought out our community of faith as the place she now calls her spiritual home."

 

Anne Photo

How does a successful Toronto Neurologist end up in the Arctic?

-- by The Reverend Anne Brandly, M.D., M.Div.

It all began in January 1984 when I had the opportunity to visit Iqaluit as part of an evangelistic mission team. Not being used to such cold temperatures, I wondered If I would damage my lungs getting off the plane!  But of course I didn't, and the next couple of weeks in Iqaluit on Baffin Island introduced me to the wonderful Inuit who had lived in the Arctic for thousands of years. I found them to be most warm and hospitable and strong believers in the Christian faith, for missionaries had taught them about the love of Jesus for a hundred years.

I left the Arctic with a strong calling to return one day as an Anglican minister. ("Who shall go for us? Here am I, send me.") After graduating from Wycliffe College in 1990, I returned to Iqaluit as assistant curate at the igloo Cathedral of St. Jude. My first solo parish was in Lake Harbour (Kimmirut).

I was like a baby learning to speak, for in those days only a few people spoke English. But eventually, I could speak Inuktitut and read the Inuit versions of the Book of Common Prayer and hymns and the Bible which were printed in Syllabics. The Lay Readers were a great support, as were the women of the parish who showed me how to live their life style, cooking caribou, char, seal, sewing skins for boots (Kamiks) and mitts. Nothing was wasted in these animals because they were well aware of the short distance from plenty to starvation.

What drew my attention to St Luke's was the parish website especially where it says that St Luke's is a "down-to-earth" parish with a simple form of worship.

I met my second husband in that tiny village where he was the local Housing Manager. When we married, we went to the northern part of Baffin Island, Pond Inlet. Several moves came after that from Rankin Inlet and finally Coppermine (Kugluktuk), on the Arctic coast, now the westernmost community in Nunavut. More people began to understand English with the advent of TV and the internet. Elders were concerned that the language would be lost.

A typical day for me consisted of morning prayers, paperwork, then visiting in the afternoon, and in the evenings youth group, vestry meetings, confirmation classes, marriage and baptism preparation, choir practice, ladies' group such as the ACW who helped in the church, visited the sick, and had bake sales making bannock and bread. There were many feasts where people pushed the church benches around to serve as little tables as they sat on the floor. A long array of meats, fish and stews and bannock were in the middle. Elders went first always!

Lest all this sounds idyllic, there was a dark side too: alcoholism, violence, suicides, accidental deaths from drowning and murders. I helped with these problems as best I could with support and prayers. I often got called out in the middle of the night for these crises.

In conclusion, it was a wonderful and fulfilling and challenging ministry for me, but my husband got sick and the little nursing station was not equipped enough to care for him. We reluctantly left The Diocese of the Arctic and returned to Ontario where my dear husband passed away a few years later.

Now I am happy to serve as honourary assistant at St. Luke's in Peterborough from where I hope to become friends in Jesus with all of you in Peterborough and in Buckhorn!

8 Comments

  1. Rick & Marion. on 27 April 2022 at 5:15 PM

    Special thanks for sharing part of your beautiful life story Rev. Anne.
    Congratulations on your reinstatement.
    We look forward to meeting with you personally.
    Peace, Love & Blessings to you and all that you do.
    Rick & Marion.
    St. Matthew-St. Aidan, Buckhorn.

  2. Bernice Johnson. on 18 April 2022 at 8:37 PM

    Welcome Rev.Anne.
    It was a pleasure meeting you on Good Friday.
    Hope you will be a regular at our parish in Buckhorn.
    BLESSINGS

    April 18, 2022. 8.15 pm.

  3. Olive Walduck on 16 April 2022 at 5:02 PM

    WELCOME REV. ANNE,
    We all got to know you, from St.Matthew/St Aidan thank goodness for Rev. Glenn and Zoom.
    Looking forward to you visiting our wee parish in Buckhorn. ( although we saw you in person on Good Friday.)
    St.Lukes and St Matthew/ St Aidan are truly blessed to have you.
    Peace always,
    Olive Walduck.

  4. Father Glenn on 2 March 2022 at 2:26 PM

    Welcome, Anne+, and thank you for your prayers for us. Glenn+

  5. Anne Louise Brandly on 1 March 2022 at 6:59 PM

    Thanks for your warm welcome even though I have not even visited your parish because of Covid restrictions . However, I am blessed to get to know some of you through our Zoom services on Wednesdays and Sundays. Be assured I pray for all of you, that you will continue to love and serve our Lord Jesus Christ.

  6. Eunice on 28 February 2022 at 6:37 PM

    A very warm welcome to you Rev. Anne. It is a blessing to both parishes to have you as part of the pastoral team and we look forward to seeing you in person at St. Matthew-St. Aidan in the near future.

  7. Marylou Bowles on 27 February 2022 at 4:27 PM

    Welcome Rev Anne I agree with Nancy that we are very bless to have you join St. Luke’s and also look forward to seeing you at St. Matthew/St. Aidan. I look forward to hearing some of you time in the north. My husband Don had a cousin who work up north and I had the pleasure of having a missionary and May who also was from the north. May was a very interesting young person at the time when she lived with us we were both young teenagers. Again I look forward to seeing you in person at church one of these days

    Marylou Bowles

  8. Nancy Fairweather on 27 February 2022 at 1:14 PM

    Welcome Anne, we are blessed to have you at St. Luke’s and look forward to seeing you at St. Matthew-St. Aidan.

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