Main Feature
Logan McMenamie: Bishop For All Victorians
Volume 28 Issue 4, 5 & 6 | Posted: June 30, 2014
On May 10, Victoria’s Multifaith Society held its annual general meeting. The key note speaker was Victoria’s newly elected Anglican bishop Logan McMenamie. I had to shake my head at first because I had attended the meeting one year previously and Logan had been the keynote speaker then as well.
But that was before he was elected bishop (see story page one for background details). Logan is always worth listening to, but the significance to me of the repeat performance was that he is not leaving behind the work that brought him into the new position of leadership.
That organic development quality along with his broad perspective erudition and grassroots orientation are part of his genuinely progressive open spirituality that has Catholic progressives wistfully and wishfully joking that he should be the bishop of the Island’s Roman Catholics as well.
On May 10, Victoria’s Multifaith Society held its annual general meeting. The key note speaker was Victoria’s newly elected Anglican bishop Logan McMenamie. I had to shake my head at first because I had attended the meeting one year previously and Logan had been the keynote speaker then as well.
But that was before he was elected bishop (see story page one for background details). Logan is always worth listening to, but the significance to me of the repeat performance was that he is not leaving behind the work that brought him into the new position of leadership.
That organic development quality along with his broad perspective erudition and grassroots orientation are part of his genuinely progressive open spirituality that has Catholic progressives wistfully and wishfully joking that he should be the bishop of the Island’s Roman Catholics as well.
While Rome fiddles with the political activity known as canonization of two recent past popes, Victoria burns with wonder at what sort of new ordinary will be non-electively appointed to succeed the recent spate of short-term bishops since Bishop De Roo’s 38 year tenure which ended in 1999. This is doubtless a source of nervous irritation to the right side of the political spectrum which has ruled the diocese for the past fifteen years.
With a progressive pope elected to be bishop of Rome, and no local bishop since the departure of Richard Gagnon to the Archdiocese of Winnipeg nearly a year ago now, I am imagining that the ultra-traditionalist leadership of the Vancouver Island RC Church are praying up a storm that they will be graced with another so-called conservative bishop. The signs of jitters are apparent.
I deliberately went to the Holy Week Chrism Mass at St. Andrew’s Cathedral to witness directly the style of the guest archbishop from Vancouver Michael Miller. The present chancellor and vicar general of the Diocese of Victoria had arranged for Miller’s presence.
I would have thought he had enough to do with the usual busy Easter season schedule in his own diocese, but apparently the continued indoctrination of troublesome Victoria with the pure spiritual teachings of Opus Dei was the higher priority.
For my experience, Miller had nothing to say, just the usual predictable nostrums, not a bit of genuine teaching in the whole evening. He simply somewhat engagingly re-issued repetitions of instructions and assureties that the church has never changed, the world is still wrong and things would always be thus. Thus endeth the lesson.
2.
I was able to attend Anglican Bishop Logan McMenamie’s three hour installation late in the afternoon on March 2 at Christ Church cathedral. It was a very powerful ceremony that included attendance by Roman Catholic Bishop Emeritus Remi De Roo and the St. John's Bible he has been promoting as an interfaith and ecumenical project of late. The First Nations aspect was powerfully represented by homilist Rev. Martin Brokenleg and a drumming ceremony near the close of the service.
Who wasn’t up front as a RC representative was the acting administrator for the Diocese of Victoria, the same rector of St. Andrew’s Cathedral who serves as chancellor and vicar general of the Diocese, Rev. John Laszczyk. He was in the same back pew beside me in informal dress and he left early, as soon as he politely could.
Also in the same rows where I was seated was an interesting spectrum of individuals including Rabbi Harry Brechner and his wife, Raylene, Paul Bramadat and his family. Paul is the director of the University of Victoria Centre for the Study of Religion and Society, where the St. John’s Bible will be housed.
To my left was Grant Croswell and his family. Grant is the director of the social concern office for the St. Vincent de Paul Society in Greater Victoria and something of a local wag. It was he who joked that Bishop Logan would suffice for both the Anglicans and the Catholics on the Island.
He once also pointed out that the number of married Roman Catholic priests on Vancouver Island nearly triple the number of active diocesan clergy.
3.
One area where former priests can be seen as active is the progressive spirituality group where I made the acquaintance of Logan McMenamie through his clergy colleague Rev. Dale Perkins, retired United Church Minister. One of the developments at Christ Church Cathedral under Logan's tenure was the Compassion Chapel inspired by the work of Karen Armstrong. Compassion as a spiritual virtue was one of the themes explored by the PSG, so we looked forward to working with Logan on the subject, utilizing the chapel for that day’s reflections on the topic.
Logan was on a sabbatical when we first approached him, then he was elected bishop, so we have yet to work through the details. One of the experiences he cited in his talk to the Multifaith Society May 10 was his visitation to the desert in the southern United States with his wife. Being near the ocean and bodies of water had always dominated his criteria for where he wanted to live, so in experiencing the desert he was dramatically going against type, so to speak.
He spoke of it as a very profound encounter with light and perspective in the desert which deepened his understanding of the biblical passages about the desert. His elucidation of this encounter reminded me of another bishop of Victoria and how he garnered wisdom from easily overlooked experiences.
One can only hope that whoever Rome selects as the new Catholic bishop, that he is the sort to become closely associated with both Bishop Logan, and Bishop Remi who honoured Logan with his presence at his installation March 2.