The Right Reverend Mary Irwin-Gibson

Bishop Mary’s message (Anglican Montreal Spring 2024)

Lent is a 40-day spiritual journey of self-examination and prayer. It began on Ash Wednesday, February 14th. The Ash Wednesday service contains a Litany of Penitence on page 285 of The Book of Alternative Services. I always find it very moving and helpful in thinking about my desire to be more attentive to God. Where have I drifted away? Where have I willfully looked away? Where have I harboured un forgiveness even while I have asked God to forgive me? The Litany touches on so many ways in which we need to repent and return to God’s love.

• We have not loved you with our whole heart, and mind, and strength. We have not loved our neighbours as ourselves. We have not forgiven others, as we have been forgiven.

• We have been deaf to your call to serve as Christ served us. We have not been true to the mind of Christ. We have grieved your Holy Spirit.

• We confess to you, Lord, all our past unfaithfulness: the pride, hypocrisy, and impatience of our lives,

• Our self-indulgent appetites and ways, and our exploitation of other people,

• Our anger at our own frustration, and our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves,

• Our intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts, and our dishonesty in daily life and work

• Our negligence in prayer and worship, and our failure to commend the faith that is in us,

• Accept our repentance, Lord, for the wrongs we have done: for our blindness to human need and suffering, and our indifference to injustice and cruelty,

• For all false judgements, for uncharitable thoughts toward our neighbours, and for our prejudice and contempt toward those who differ from us,

• For our waste and pollution of your creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us,

Some people use Lent to develop new holy habits and others to make necessary changes to old habits. May this Lent draw you into the love and purposes and grace of God.

About Bishop Mary

Bishop Mary Irwin-Gibson, had been Dean and Rector of St. George’s Cathedral in Kingston since 2009 but is a committed, bilingual Montrealer with family connections and 28 years' service in the diocese.

Bishop Irwin-Gibson, who moved to the Montreal area as a young girl and grew up in the area, was ordained as a deacon and priest in 1981 and 1982. She served for three years as an assistant curate in the Parish of Vaudreuil, then for seven years as rector of the Parish of Dunham-Frelighsburg in Quebec until 1991.

She spent 18 years as rector of Holy Trinity Church in Ste-Agathe-des-Monts, in the Laurentians, earning an MBA in French along the way from the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). In 2009, she became the rector at St. George’s Cathedral.

When nominations were open for the next Anglican bishop of Montreal, “I felt the Holy Spirit asking me to let my name stand,” she told Matt Gardner of the Anglican Church of Canada news service.

“I was willing to go if I was elected and willing to stay (in Kingston) if I wasn’t elected, because something I’ve learned from the military (in Kingston) about deployment is that when the boss calls you to go, you go, and if the boss says stay, you stay. And the Holy Spirit’s the boss.” The bishop’s husband, Mark Gibson, has a diverse business and consulting career, particularly in renewable energy and technical sales. He was executive officer of the Diocese of Montreal for about 10 months in 2006. They have two adult daughters.

Bishop's Award

The Bishop’s Award was instituted in 1989 by Bishop Reginald Hollis as a way to recognize the Christian witness of lay people who have made an outstanding contribution over several years to the life and work of their Parish and the Diocese at large.

To download the list of recipients of this award, click HERE