Barbadian-born Peter?Fenty, ordained a priest in Barbados in 1975 before moving to Canada in 1992 to become the rector of St Lawrence Church in the Diocese of Montreal, will become the first black bishop in the Anglican Church in Canada.
“This is a historic moment in the life of the Anglican Church in Canada, but I want to make it very clear that I will be a bishop for all of God’s people,” he said in an interview after the election at St James Cathedral in Toronto yesterday.
The 61-year-old bishop-elect Fenty, who won on the seventh ballot, will be consecrated at the cathedral on June 22.
This was Fenty’s sixth time running in an episcopal election.
“I’ve learned more and more that in God’s time things happen,” he said in an online report coming from the Diocese of Toronto.
Fenty said he had no plans to enter the election until friends urged him to reconsider and only made up his mind after his annual retreat in Boston in January. (JS/SM)
