Bishop Tom Corston awarded Doctorate of Sacred Theology Degree but listens to 'language of appearance' from Cree Elder

Rt. Rev. Thomas Corston, who retired as the ninth bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Moosonee on December 31, 2013, was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Sacred Theology by Thornloe University in Sudbury. at its last Fall Convocation.

Tom, as he is best known to many Chapleauites, is the son of Frances (Jardine) Corston and the late Henry "Chicken" Corston. He is a graduate of Chapleau Public and Chapleau High Schools. While attending high school he served as president of the Students Council.

Tom explained that he was awarded the degree of "Doctor of Sacred Theology" by Sudbury's Thorneloe University in recognition of his  years of rural and northern ministry.

A member of St. John's Anglican Church, he was ordained a deacon there in 1974, and a year later became a priest. He also was president of the Anglican Young People's Association. St. John's is a parish in Moosonee.

In an interview at the time of his retirement, Tom told the Timmins Times, “My very first parish was Foleyet, but unlike all of my classmates, I was given a parish to myself rather than being appointed as an assistant,” Corston remembered. He admitted it was a humble beginning, but he remembered he felt like he was in charge of the world’s grandest cathedral."

He served at parishes in three dioceses before being elected bishop in 2010. 

Catching up with Tom recently, he explained that most of his episcopate in Moosonee Diocese was to work at a restructuring model that would see the survival of the Diocese in the face of dwindling congregations and financial resources. 

"We did that and I have to say that after a year, it is working well. Basically, with the approval of the Ontario Provincial Synod the Diocese has been placed "in suspension" and the Metropolitan, Archbishop Colin Johnson of Toronto, is now also the Bishop of Moosonee. 

"While he is as present to the Diocese as possible, he asked me to come back and act as his Assistant Bishop. That way we guarantee that all communities will receive an episcopal visitation, if not by him, then by me."

So, despite being "retired" Tom remains busy and is also an Honorary Assistant at his former Sudbury parish, the Church of the Epiphany.

He also delivered the address at the Thornloe University Convocation and it is excellent. I will share just one anecdote that he told from his ministry, which touched me immensely. One of the people he met along the way was Andy. Here is the anecdote:

"One was Andy…a Cree leader from Moose Factory…a big man, an elder, a Layreader in the church, a product of the Residential School system. I spent many a day with Andy and his family, serving together in the Sanctuary, in the boardroom, sitting at his kitchen table and hunting geese on the James Bay. In my memory Andy and his wife Annie stand out as examples of sacrificial love and self-giving that was evidenced, when in their middle-age, in adopting two non-native infants who were victims of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

" It was also from Andy that I learned some of what it means to be “professional”. You see, I had started to think that there was no need for me to be properly attired in my parish. I started not to wear my collar. I mean, what did it matter? My parishioners were blue-collar workers, men were more relaxed when they came to service, so why not the clergy? 

"One evening Andy came to see me and gave me a bit of a lecture about my lax attitude. He said to me, 'Tom, we look to you as our pastor…we want you to be proud of your profession and we want to be proud of your as our minister…you need to be the priest you were ordained to be and whom we called you to be in this community. You need to wear your collar and be proud to be a witness to our town.

'It might not sound all that important to you, but in a day when we face dress-down days in the work-place, when more and more of us are encouraged to relax and perhaps dress more casually, the truth is there are times when how we dress says a great deal about how we have or have not embraced our role and responsibilities. It’s much more than convention, or a “dress code”. It’s the language of appearance that says we have taken some care about how we meet the world.

"As you step out from this place, remember that it is more than what you know or what you say that will have the attention of those you encounter."

In an interview with the Anglican Journal on his retirement Tom said that whenever he tells stories from his history in the diocese of Moosonee, people tell him, “ ‘Bishop, you’ve got to put it on paper before it is gone.’ So that’s my project. I’m going to write a book about the church of the north…I would like to embark on something like that.”  

Thanks and congratulations Tom. After my first reference to him as bishop I chose to refer to him as Tom with all respect to his position in the church. I did so because I have known him since our growing up years on Grey Street where we were next door neighbours and friends, even though I am a bit older than him.

Our families go back even longer as neighbours as my grandparents Edith and George Hunt, my mother Muriel and aunt Elsie lived next door to the Corston family in the early years of the 20th Century. One of my great memories was the day Tom's father Henry told me he thought of  my Mom as his sister -- there were eight boys in the Corston family. My email is mj.morris@live.ca

BULLETIN  Bishop Tom has agreed to be priest in charge at St John's Chapleau and at Foleyet for an "indefinite period" http://michaeljmorrisreports.blogspot.ca/2015/04/bishop-tom-corston-agrees-to-act-as.html

Photos

Bishop Tom delivering Convocation Address

Bishop Tom Corston receiving the degree from Chancellor Barbara Bolton (beside her is Provost Dr. Robert Derrenbacker and Registrar, Dr. Ian Maclennan)
 
Tom and family Ruth, Andrew(L) & Stephen (R) (photos provided by Tom Corston

Future of historic St. John's Anglican Church in Chapleau to be discussed

 In 1845, John Sanders, one of a family of 20, was born to Ojibway parents at Flying Post, a settlement on Groundhog Lake, about 60 miles north of the present community of Biscotasing.

About 1860, Rev. John Horden, who in 1872 would become the first bishop of the Diocese of Moosonee, journeyed by canoe from Moose Factory to Missanabie, and on his return on the river byway to old Brunswick Post south of Peterbell,  about 60 miles north of Chapleau, he struck overland to Flying Post.

The missionary priest of the then Church of England, now Anglican Church of Canada, met the young John Sanders, who in 1872 was ordained deacon, and in 1879 with his ordination to the priesthood likely became the first First Nation person to become a priest of the church in Canada.  Rev. John Sanders carried out the work of his church before the Canadian Pacific Railway became the main connecting link across Canada. In 1882, he held a service on the banks of the river at Chapleau.

Rev John Sanders

In 1982, when Rev. William P. Ivey was rector of St, John's Church, he organized a re-enactment of the service with Rev. Canon Redfern Louttit, portraying John Sanders. Canon Louttit had attended the Indian Residential School and Chapleau High School. The service was conducted in Cree, Ojibway and English.

REV JOHN SANDERS http://michaeljmorrisreports.blogspot.ca/2010/02/missionary-john-sanders-travelled-by.html

During those early years Rt. Rev. Edward Sullivan, bishop of Algoma, was carrying out missionary work in his vast diocese. In 1882, he described Algoma, which at the time included the future community of Chapleau as a vast wilderness, "a land of Christmas trees and rocks of ages."

The bishop found Rev. Gowan Gillmor, who delighted in his nickname 'The Tramp' as he walked the railway line as it was being built from Sudbury to Chapleau and beyond. 

In 1884, Rev. Gillmor conducted a service in the fledgling community at Mileage 615.1, in October 1884, and was instrumental in founding St. John's Church in 1885.

Rev. Gillmor described his work along the CPR: "I ministered to the construction people numbering about 5,000, holding services as I  went along in camps, shanties and box cars sleeping in them overnight; my experiences were the roughest."

Rev. Ivey organized another historical re-enactment with Rev. E. Roy Haddon, a former rector of St. John's playing Rev. Gillmor.

By the Spring of 1885, plans were underway to build a church in Chapleau, and in December, Rev, Gillmor attended a meeting in the partially completed railway station to discuss the matter. He also conducted services there.

A grant of $400 was available from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts in England but Chapleau people would have to raise $500, a tremendous amount in those days. The first motion placed before the meeting was that "the matter be dropped."

Mrs. R.V. Nicholson preserved an account of the meeting, which was available to me when I wrote 'Sons of Thunder ... Apostles of Love' to mark the 100th anniversary of St. John's in 1885.

When it looked like the project would fail, Mrs. Nicholson had recorded the next development: " At this point Miss Annie Nicholson, although only seventeen years old got up and said that if the meeting would allow her, she would volunteer to collect the amount with the assistance of her friend, Miss Minnie Richardson."

Despite several "prominent" members ridiculing the idea, they were permitted to proceed and at the next meeting Miss Nicholson commented that "a really strong box" would be needed as more than $1,000 had been collected and paid.

As St. John's marked its 100th anniversary in 1985, Rev. Jerry Smith, then the rector, organized a re-enactment of the 1885 meeting when Annie Nicholson and Minnie Richardson became the fundraisers. They were played by Sharon Henderson and Linda Tebbutt.

Tenders were called and a contract let for the building of St. John's, which was opened and dedicated on July 1, 1886, by Bishop Sullivan assisted by Rev. Gillmor. W. Hepburn became the first Rector's Warden and G.B. Nicholson, People's Warden, a position he held for many years. Mr. Nicholson became the first reeve of Chapleau in 1901.

G. B. Nicholson

The original St. John's Church, located across from the present church beside the rectory was a 20 by 32 foot frame building.

According to the bishop's calendar on the Anglican Diocese of Moosonee web site, the Rt. Rev. Thomas Corston, the ninth bishop of the diocese and Archdeacon Huskins will meet with Andre Byham, the mayor of Chapleau on October 19, 2012, to discuss the future of historic St, John's.  The notice says a report will be given to the congregation following the service on October 21.

Original St John's. Rev. Robert Warrington

Tom Corston as most readers know was born and raised in Chapleau, and was ordained deacon at St. John's in 1974.

Like so many churches, in recent years, St. John's has fallen on hard times.

I decided to share some of the highlights in the history of St. John's from its first 100 years, recognizing that it is and was the home church for so many throughout its history, and now another challenge is being faced.

Rev. W.L. James, decsribed as "a flame of fire" became rector in 1904 and it was he who conceived the vision for the present St. John's. At the outset of discussions a majority wanted to enlarge the existing building but Rev. James held out for a new one. A motion was placed before an Easter congregational meeting on Monday April 23, 1906, "Moved by Mr. Wallace and  seconded by Mr. H. West that it is necessary to build a new church. Carried unanimously."

Mr. James died before the new church was opened. The  first service was held in it on March 29, 1908 when it was dedicated by Bishop George Holmes, with Rev. P.R. Soanes, who had become the rector assisting. The total cost was $18,000.

For a time, Bishop Holmes lived in Chapleau and St. John's was the Pro-Cathedral of Moosonee.

Interestingly, the original St. John's was dismantled and shipped on two flatcars to Cochrane, making the last part of its journey on horse-drawn carts. It was used as a church in Cochrane for several years but was destroyed in a great fire there.

After some renovations in 1913  a new pipe organ was installed in  memory of Thomas Nicholson. The story has often been told that air for it was supplied by hand pumping. In a small space under the organ two boys, including the fathers of many of us who attended St. John's were delegated to work the bellows and pump the air.

Quite often, the organist had to send frantic signals down for air as the boys would be engrossed in telling stories or carving their initials into the woodwork around them. As far as I know the initials are still there, although I forgot to look when I visited St. John's during the Chapleau High School reunion.

St. John's celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1935 with the Rt. Rev. Derwyn T. Owen, archbishop of Toronto and Primate of all Canada as guest speaker. 

Prior to the actual celebration, St. John's lost one of its most outstanding members when G.B. Nicholson died on January 1. For 25 years he had conducted an adult Bible class coming home by train from Ottawa on weekends when he was a member of parliament to conduct it. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary, Rev. Harold Hesketh was the rector and Charles W. Collins and Albert Evans

were the wardens.

With the arrival of Canon H.A. Sims in 1947, renovations to the church got underway, and were completed by the time he retired in 1950 with the vestry book for 1949 containing the entry that the advisory board had named rooms in the basement of the church the Anderson Hall after Most Rev. John George Anderson, bishop of Moosonee 1909-43 and the Renison Hall in honour of Rt. Rev. Robert John Renison, also a bishop of Moosonee.

In January 1946, St. John's was advised by Bishop William Wright that St. John's had been transferred to the diocese of Algoma. It was later moved back to Moosonee.

Rev. E. Roy Haddon arrived in 1950 as rector and made a tremendous impact on the parish during his three years there. St. John's was also aided with the boom that Chapleau experienced in the 1950s. After he left, new rectors were confronted with someone who would comment to the effect. "You may do a good job here, but it won't be like the Haddon years. He packed the place." And indeed, he did.

For example, on Christmas Eve, 1952 the largest congregation ever recorded in the entire history of St. John's was recorded. The total was 267 people. I still remember the chairs in the aisle on a beautiful winter evening. Also in 1952 St. John's was redecorated and Mr. Haddon noted that one would have to travel many miles to find such a beautiful church.

St. John's celebrated its 75th anniversary when Rev. J.G.M. Doolan was rector and Jim Broomhead.,also Chapleau reeve at the time  and Lindsay 'Andy' Anderson were the wardens. a highlight was a reunion of the Bible class founded by Mr Nicholson. It was conducted by P.J. Collins who had been the assistant for many years. They sang hymns on the same portable organ used many years previously and played by the same organist Mrs. C.W. Swanson.

The Haddon attendance record was finally shattered on October 9, 1983 when the parish and community gathered to say farewell to Rev. Wiliam Ivey, who had been rector for nine and one half years, and his family. There were 298 people at the farewell service.

Rev. Jerry Smith, now the rector of St, Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in Nashville, Tennessee, was rector when St. John's celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1985. In  a message in 'Sons of Thunder... Apostles of Love' he wrote in part  about a "Christian community carved out of the wilderness. Sometimes St. John's has acted more like the son of thunder than the apostle of love, and sometimes vice versa. But the bottom line is ... 'Where do we go from here?. What is God calling us to do and how are we going to respond?'"  My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Tom Corston becomes ninth Anglican bishop of the Diocese of Moosonee

UPDATE... On July 6, 2010: Tom Corston was consecrated as a bishop in the Anglican Church today in a ceremony at St. Anthony's Church, Timmins, Ontario, and was later installed as the ninth bishop of Moosonee in a service at St Matthew's Anglican Cathedral in Timmins.


Thomas A. "Tom" Corston, born and raised in Chapleau, Ontario, the son of Frances (Jardine) and the late Henry "Chicken" Corston, has been elected the ninth Bishop of the Anglican Church Diocese of Moosonee at a synod in Timmins.

Tom, who is currently an archdeacon in the Anglican church is also Rector of the Church of the Epiphany, Sudbury, Ontario, in the Diocese of Algoma, is expected to take up his new duties in July, 2010. He succeeds Archbishop Caleb Lawrence, who retired.

Growing up in Chapleau, Tom was active in St. John's Anglican Church, as AYPA president, which is a parish in the Diocese of Moosonee which he will now be leading. Tom becomes the first Chapleau boy to have become an Anglican priest to have been elected a Bishop. Tom was also a president of the Students' Council at Chapleau High School.

He graduated from Lakehead University with the Bachelor of Arts degree and Wycliffe College with a Master of Divinity degree.

In June,1974, Tom was ordained a Deacon in a service at St. John's ina service conducted by Archbishop James A. Watton, then the Bishop of Moosonee. He was ordained to the priesthood a year later.

He started his ministry in the Diocese of Moosonee.

Tom is married with two children.

Tom's grandparents John and Lydia (Swanson) Corston, came from James Bay in the Diocese of Moosonee to Chapleau in 1907 where his grandfather began work with the Canadian Pacific Railway. They established their family home on Grey Street.

Tom is a successor to John Horden, the first Bishop of Moosonee in 1872, who travelled around the vast area by canoe, snowshoe and on foot. Bishop Horden was considered one of the great missionaries of his time.

Here is where Tom has served in his ministry taken from a curriculum vitae prprepared for his nomination for Bishop of Moosonee:

Curate, Church of St. Michael & All Angels, Toronto, ON, 1974-75
Incumbent, Foleyet, Gogama, Mattagami First Nation, 1975-78,
Incumbent, Longlac, Caramat, Hillsport, Nakina, Armstrong, Collins, Allanwater Bridge,
Ogoki Post, 1978-80
Rector, South Porcupine & Schumacher, 1980-83
Regional Dean, Deanery of Cochrane, 1982
Rector, St. Margaret’s Church, Fredericton, NB, 1983-85
Rector, Iroquois Falls, Matheson & Montieth, 1985-87
Rector, Chatham, NB, 1987-92
Regional Dean, Deanery of Chatham, NB, 1990-1992
Rector, Holy Trinity Church, Sault Ste. Marie, 1992-98
Regional Dean, Deanery of Algoma, 1995-1997
Rector, Church of the Epiphany, Sudbury, 1998-present
Regional Dean, Deanery of Sudbury/Manitoulin, 1999-2002
Archdeacon of Sudbury/Manitoulin, 2002-present

Missionary John Sanders travelled by canoe, dog team, snowshoes in 19th century Northern Ontario

Rev John and Mrs Sanders circa 1898

In 1845, John Sanders, one of a family of 20 children, was born to Ojibway parents at Flying Post, at the time a native settlement on Groundhog Lake, about sixty miles north of Biscotasing.

About 1860, Rev. John Horden, a missionary of the Church of England (Anglican) journeyed by canoe from Moose Factory to Missanabie, a distance of more than 500 miles. (As an aside I always wanted to make this trip to Moose Factory by canoe, and on two occasions I started out on it, once from Chapleau and the other time from Missanabie. Both ventures failed but we went) part way which was really an awesome experience.)

Returning to old Brunswick Post which was about 10 miles south of the present Peterbell, and about 60 miles north of Chapleau, Rev. Horden struck overland to Flying Post. There he met John Sanders who was to become one of the first native persons (he may have been the first) ordained as a priest in the Church of England in Canada.

With the consent of his father, Rev. Horden took the young man with him to Moose Factory where he was to live with his grandmother commonly known as 'Old Maggie Sanders'. John Sanders entered the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company, working as a carpenter, and attending the mission school at Moose Factory.

By 1872, John Horden who by then had become the first bishop of Moosonee decided that John Sanders, who was now married, should have training for the ministry.

Follow me on the trip they made to get John Sanders to college in Winnipeg. They set out from Moose Factory by canoe, crossing portages and eventually arrived at Michipicoten Harbour near the present community of Wawa. Then they got on a sailing vessel on Lake Superior to Fort William and then overland to St. John's College in Winnipeg. Apparently a great storm occurred while they were on Lake Superior, bringing fears that the vessel would sink.

Following his studies, John Sanders was ordained deacon in 1876 and priest in the Church of England in 1879 in Moose Factory.

As a missionary, he travelled from his base at Mattagami to Flying Post to Missanabie to Michipicoten. He also travelled by way of Loon (Borden) Lake, the Loon Lake portage, and to the present site of Chapleau.

John Sanders was carrying out missionary work for his church before the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed, and he would have travelled by canoe, on foot and dog team and snoe shoes in the winter months across a vast stretch of Northern Ontario. Quite honestly as I adapt the story of John Sanders from my 1984 book 'Sons of Thunder ... Apostles of Love', the history of St. John's Anglican Church, I am amazed at the travels of people like John Sanders. For sure we shall never see their like again.

Rev. Sanders conducted one of the first Christian services at Chapleau on the banks of the river. After Chapleau was established many early residents recalled the open air services he held at the Indian reserve and at the first St. John's Church. In 1982, Rev. William Ivey, then the rector of St. John's organized the re-enactment of the service conducted by Rev. Sanders one hundred years earlier. Canon Redfern Louttit, who had attended the residential school and graduated from Chapleau High School returned to portray Rev. Sanders. Canon Louttit had been ordained at St. John's in 1940 after graduating from Wycliffe College, and had worked as a missionary in the Diocese of Moosonee. The service held on the banks of the river behind the church was conducted in Cree, Ojibway and English.

After the CPR was completed Rev. Sanders moved his headquarters from Mattagami to Biscotasing. Although my research indicates that Rev. Sanders established one of the first churches in the diocese south of James Bay at the Mulligan Bay Hudson Bay Company Post, there has been considerable discussion on this point as to where it was actually located. Anyone with information please let me know. He was responsible for the building of the Anglican church at Missanabie.

On February 26, 1902, John Sanders died at Biscotasing. Funeral services for him were conducted at Missanabie by Rev. A.O. Cheney, rector of St. John's, Chapleau. He was 57 when he died and is buried in Missanabie. Rev. Sanders had many relatives in Chapleau.

Without doubt, his arduous missionary labours and his travels by canoe, dog team and snowshoes had taken their toll. John Sanders was certainly one of the apostles of love that I wrote about some 26 years ago in my history of St. Johns.

MAIL

I received the following from Tom Corston, now an Anglican priest and archdeacon, and of course, a very well known Chapleau boy after my column on telephone operators. Tom wrote: Hi Michael...Great story about the operators. I always laugh at the memory of the operators that worked the telephones in Chapleau. When people would call looking for my father, they would say to the operator, "I don't know his real name, I only know him as 'Chicken'." To which the operator would often respond, "Oh, that's 'Henry', his number is..." A time gone forever. Thanks for the great memories Mike, I enjoy them all."

And from Larry 'Ton' Comte, an old friend from Chapleau High School and member of another pioneer Chapleau family. Ton wrote about first diesel: "My dad "Raoul" or known as "Lulu" was the engineer on the first diesel in Chapleau. My dad was a graduate from Los Angeles as a Diesel Engineer. It was always interesting to hear the train crew mention that is was great to be on the diesel with dad, if it caused problems, he could fix it on the run."

My email is mj.morris@live.ca