The Ecclesiastical Province of the Northern Lights, founded in 1875 as the Province of Rupert's Land, forms one of four ecclesiastical provinces in the Anglican Church of Canada.
Territorial evolution
The territory covered by the province is roughly coterminous with the western portion of the former Hudson's Bay Company concession of Rupert's Land, as well as the North-Western Territory of British North America. It today consists of the present day provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, as well as the extreme western portion of Ontario and the Nunavik area of Quebec. It also includes all of the territories of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.
At almost 6.5 million square kilometres, it is the largest ecclesiastical province by area in the country, and was even larger when it was created. The Anglican Diocese of Moosonee was joined to the Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario in 1912. The five dioceses in British Columbia were also originally part of Rupert's Land Ecclesiastical Province, until they became an Ecclesiastical Province of their own in 1914. Furthermore, the Diocese of Selkirk was part of Rupert's Land until it joined the British Columbia province in 1943, as the Anglican Diocese of Yukon.
In 2024, the provincial synod voted to rename the province as the Ecclesiastical Province of the Northern Lights.
Dioceses
There are presently 10 dioceses in the province:
Athabasca (Northern Alberta) Arctic (Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Nunavik (northern Quebec)) Brandon (Western Manitoba) Calgary (Southern Alberta) Edmonton (Central Alberta) Mishamikoweesh (northern Manitoba and northwestern Ontario) Qu'Appelle (Southern Saskatchewan) Rupert's Land (Southeastern Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario) Saskatchewan (Northern Saskatchewan) Saskatoon (Central Saskatchewan)
Metropolitan The provinces of the Anglican Church of Canada are headed by metropolitan bishops, elected from among the provinces' diocesan bishops, who then become archbishops of their own diocese and the metropolitan of their province.
The current metropolitan of the Province of the Northern Lights is Greg Kerr-Wilson who is the Archbishop of Calgary.
Metropolitans of Rupert's Land Source: Metropolitans of the Ecclesiastical Province of Rupert's Land Order Name Dates Diocese Notes 1st Robert Machray 1875–1904 Rupert's Land Primate of All Canada, 1893-1904 2nd Samuel Matheson 1904–1931 Rupert's Land Primate of All Canada, 1909–1930 3rd Isaac Stringer 1931–1934 Rupert's Land 4th Malcolm Harding 1935–1942 Rupert's Land 5th Louis Sherman 1943–1953 Rupert's Land 6th Walter Barfoot 1954–1960 Rupert's Land Primate of All Canada, 1950-1959 7th Howard Clark 1961–1969 Rupert's Land Primate of All Canada, 1959-1971 8th Fredric Jackson 1971–1976 Qu'Appelle 9th Frederick Crabb 1976–1981 Athabasca 10th Michael Peers 1981–1986 Qu'Appelle Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, 1986 — 2004 11th Kent Clarke 1986–1987 Edmonton 12th Walter H. Jones 1988–1993 Rupert's Land 13th Barry Curtis 1994–1999 Calgary 14th Tom Morgan 2000–2003 Saskatoon 15th John Clarke 2003–2008 Athabasca 16th David Ashdown 2009–2014 Keewatin17th Greg Kerr-Wilson 2015- Calgary Archbishop of Calgary
See also Ecclesiastical provinces of the Anglican Church of Canada List of dioceses of the Anglican Church of Canada
References
External links Provincial website