Discovery week

Archdeacon Charles Morris

Anglican Church series seeks to explore life’s questions

The County’s Anglican churches are collaborating during a series of events designed to examine the spiritual nature of life and explore how the discussions can be informed by the teachings of the church. Although the underpinnings are religious, and Christian in particular, the intent is to start a conversation and it is not meant as a vehicle to attract more people to church. To this end, three of the seven events are in a non-church setting. “Our first interest is to encourage people to think broadly and deeply about the nature of life,” says Archdeacon Charles Morris, Rector of St. Mary Magdalene Church in Picton. “We do a bunch of different things [in church] to encourage and facilitate that. We are happy for folks to come and benefit from that.”

The discussions are to be led by Harold Percy, a retired Anglican minister, educator and author. He spent most of his career at Trinity Church Streetsville, taking a struggling congregation on the brink of closure and reviving it under his leadership. For a time, he also taught at Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto. “He [Percy] has been very thoughtful throughout his whole career about what it is that people long for at their deepest levels, but at the same they don’t particularly imagine that the church would have anything to say that would help them explore these concerns and find the answers they are looking for,” says Rev. Morris. “He shares some stories that would really touch the heart and help people on that journey.”

This series is somewhat of a departure for the Anglican churches in the County—which have for the most part done little in the way of evangelical outreach, although they have a very active community engagement. “Folks who aren’t already familiar with an Anglican church probably don’t have a clue what it’s about, what’s going on, what folks do there and what might be interesting to them,” says Rev. Morris. Having some of these events outside of a church setting caters to those who might balk at the idea of going in to a church that they are not familiar with. Additionally, Rev. Morris expects that quite a number of people who go to other churches would be likely to attend the series. “Our objective is absolutely not to get them to change churches, but to learn something, to be encouraged and inspired to dig deeper in whatever particular route they take.”

The events take place between Tuesday, May 2 and Sunday, May 7. For more information, visit the website at