The Diocese of Ontario is a

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...

of the

Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario The Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario is one of four ecclesiastical provinces in the Anglican Church of Canada. It was established in 1912 out of six dioceses of the Ecclesiastical Province of Canada located in the civil province of Ontario, and t ...

of the

Anglican Church of Canada The Anglican Church of Canada (ACC or ACoC) is the Ecclesiastical province#Anglican Communion, province of the Anglican Communion in Canada. The official French-language name is ''l'Église anglicane du Canada''. In 2017, the Anglican Church co ...

, itself a province of the

Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other ...

. Its

See city See or SEE may refer to: * Sight - seeing Arts, entertainment, and media * Music: ** ''See'' (album), studio album by rock band The Rascals *** "See", song by The Rascals, on the album ''See'' ** "See" (Tycho song), song by Tycho * Television * ...

Kingston, Ontario Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north-eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River (south end of the Rideau Canal). The city is midway between Toro ...

, and its

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

is St. George's, Kingston. The diocese is not coterminous with the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

civil

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, but rather encompasses approximately 17,700 square kilometres of it, comprising the

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

of Prince Edward,

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

Lennox and Addington Lennox and Addington was a federal electoral district represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1904 to 1925. It was located in the province of Ontario. This riding was first created in 1903 from Addington and Lennox ridings. It consist ...

, Frontenac, and

Leeds and Grenville The United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, commonly known as Leeds and Grenville, is a county in Ontario, Canada, in the Eastern Ontario subregion of Southern Ontario. It fronts on the Saint Lawrence River and the international boundary between ...

. Apart from Kingston, other major centres included in the diocese are Belleville,

Brockville Brockville, formerly Elizabethtown, is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in the Thousand Islands region. Although it is the seat of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, it is politically Independent city, independent of the county. It i ...

, and Trenton. The diocese ministers to approximately 8,500 Anglicans in 45 parishes. The diocese was founded in 1862, when it was divided from the Diocese of Toronto. In 1866, there was one archdeacon: H. Patton,

Archdeacon of Ontario An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denominations, above that o ...

. Until 1896 it included the present-day Diocese of Ottawa. Its first bishop,

John Lewis John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashville ...

, a

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second ...

cleric, was the first bishop consecrated in Canada rather than

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The present bishop is

Michael Oulton Michael Douglas Oulton (born 21 December 1959 in Sackville, New Brunswick) is the current Anglican Diocese of Ontario, Anglican Bishop of Ontario. He was educated at the University of New Brunswick. After an earlier career as a lawyer he was ordai ...

, and the cathedral interim

dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

is the Venerable David Selzer.

Controversy

Since the 1980s there has been media reporting of criminal cases and civil lawsuits in the Diocese concerning child abuse allegations by Anglican clergy and staff, and allegations of Corruption by Diocesan officials in Judy Steed's book, "Our Little Secret" in the chapter on the corruption. Most recently, one of Canada's national networks,

CTV Television Network The CTV Television Network, commonly known as CTV, is a Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. Launched in 1961 and acquired by BCE Inc. in 2000, CTV is Canada's largest privately owned television network and is now a divis ...

, aired a documentary film on the W5programme focused on Grenville Christian College called "In the Name of God", which was released on February 6, 2016 along with the launch of the book, "Grenville", by Andrew J. Hale-Byrne. This latest media reporting on CTV highlighted the close relationship between the

Community of Jesus The Community of Jesus is a charismatic monastic Christian community which is located near Rock Harbor, in Orleans, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod. Overview Today according to the group, approximately 225 professed members, together with another ...

and

Grenville Christian College Grenville Christian College is a former private boarding school located in the rural community of Maitland, some northeast of Brockville, Ontario, on the bank of the St. Lawrence River. " The independent university preparatory school was compo ...

. The Toronto Star followed up this reporting on February 29, 2016. Former students of Grenville Christian College filed a class action suit against the school, the diocese and a number of individuals. The action against the Diocese of Ontario was dismissed by Judge Perell in March 2013 while continuing against others. This dismissal was based on "no evidence of any direct involvement by Diocese at school in various abuses or even having received complaints of abuse at any material time. Relationship between Diocese and student was too remote to fairly impose duty of care. It was plain and obvious Diocese had no legally prescribed duty of care to students of school. There was no reasonable cause of action in negligence against Diocese. Claim for vicarious liability against Diocese was untenable. There was no evidence Diocese had employer-employee relationship with other defendants. It was plain and obvious there was no fiduciary relationship between students and Diocese"
(http://www.lawtimesnews.com/Ontario-Civil/CLASS-ACTIONS
. Previously, Judy Steed wrote in her book "Our Little Secret: Confronting Child Sexual Abuse in Canada" about child abuse that had taken place in the St George's Cathedral. " " " " " " It has been reported in the press that a Bishop of the Diocese, Peter Mason, visited and met with an organization based in Massachusetts called the

to discuss Grenville Christian College. Bishop Henry Gordon Hill' obituary states that he was the Episcopal Visitor of the

in Cape Cod, MA and had close connections with the

in Brockville, ON. Hill, who was Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Ontario, was criticized for ordaining The Rev. Charles Farnworth, Headmaster of Grenville Christian College, without the typical Anglican higher education and seminary training as specifically stated in the Globe and Mail newspaper in an articled titled "Mothers of Invention" by Michael Valpy. Both were previously ordained in other denominations. The Ontario Provincial Police criminal investigation into abuse by former staff and members of the Community of Jesus is ongoing. The Crown laid their first charges on October 6, 2016 for sexual assault. Robert Farnsworth, member of the Community of Jesus and former member of Grenville Christian College staff, was arrested on October 5, 2016. Robert Farnsworth is also the son of The Rev. Charles Farnsworth, late Grenville headmaster, and brother of Donald Farnsworth, member of the Community of Jesus and former Grenville Christian College Dean of Boys. " Robert Farnsworth was acquitted of the charges on February 13, 2018 "

Bishops of Ontario

, 1862–1900 ( Metropolitan of Canada, 1893–1900) # William Mills, 1901–1917 # Edward Bidwell, 1917–1926 (previously

coadjutor bishop A coadjutor bishop (or bishop coadjutor) is a bishop in the Catholic, Anglican, and (historically) Eastern Orthodox churches whose main role is to assist the diocesan bishop in the administration of the diocese. The coadjutor (literally, "co ...

and suffragan Bishop of Ontario since 1913) #

Charles Seager The Most Rev Charles Allen Seager (1872–1948) was Anglican Bishop of Ontario, then Huron and finally Metropolitan of Ontario in the 20th century. Born in 1872, he was educated at Trinity College, Toronto. He was in turn rector of St Cyprian's, ...

, 1926–1932 (afterwards

Bishop of Huron The Diocese of Huron is a diocese of the Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario of the Anglican Church of Canada. The diocese comprises just over 31,000 square kilometres in southwestern Ontario, sandwiched between Lake Huron and Lake Erie. Its See ...

, 1932–1948) # John Lyons, 1932–1952 (also

Metropolitan of Ontario The Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario is one of four ecclesiastical provinces in the Anglican Church of Canada. It was established in 1912 out of six dioceses of the Ecclesiastical Province of Canada located in the civil province of Ontario, and t ...

, 1949–1952) # Kenneth Evans, 1952–1970 # Jack Creggan, 1970–1975 #

Henry Hill Henry Hill Jr. (June 11, 1943 – June 12, 2012) was an American mobster who was associated with the Lucchese crime family of New York City from 1955 until 1980, when he was arrested on narcotics charges and became an FBI informant. Hill testif ...

, 1975–1981 # Allan Read, 1981–1992 # Peter Mason, 1992–2002 # George Bruce, 2002–2011 #

, 2011–present

References

External links

Diocesan website

* * ttps://www.amazon.com/Grenville-Andrew-J-Hale-Byrne/dp/1523880058 Amazon.com: Grenville (9781523880058): Andrew J. Hale-Byrne: Books*
The Drew Marshall Show Weekly Update , Season 13 #28
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ontario Religious organizations established in 1862 Ontario, Anglican Diocese of Anglican Church in Ontario Anglican dioceses established in the 19th century 1862 establishments in Canada Anglican Province of Ontario