Archdeacon Chris Dunn retires

BY LEIGH ANNE WILLIAMS

Archdeacon Chris Dunn, the Incumbent of All Saints Westboro, is retiring this month just after marking his 41st year as a priest, much of his ministry serving the Diocese of Ottawa.

After being ordained as a deacon in the Diocese of Huron where he grew up, Dunn served briefly in the Diocese of the Arctic, first in Frobisher Bay and then as missionary-in-charge in the Parish of Inukjuak in 1981.

Finding the language barrier difficult in a community where only one other person spoke English, Dunn returned to the South, but he told Crosstalk that the lessons he learned while preaching with an interpreter stayed with him—to speak slowly, use short sentences, and simple language, “not the big words from theological seminary…. You spoke from the heart… I think it stayed with me for the rest of my ministry.”

Dunn came to the diocese of Ottawa when Bishop Edwin Lackey offered him a position as Deaconin-Charge of the parish of Stafford just outside of Pembroke (now part of the Area Parish of the Valley). “I was taken in by the people of the parish,” he said, adding that he really enjoyed the rural parish setting where he spent two and a half years and was appointed Incumbent after being ordained as a priest by Bishop Lackey in 1982. Dunn also served as Incumbent in the parishes of Bearbrook-Vars-Russell.

In 1987, he stepped away from the active exercise of priestly ministry and began working at the Shepherds of Good Hope in the shelters and soup kitchen, and later as public relations coordinator and eventually as personnel director. In Dunn’s 10 years there, the organization grew rapidly. “We went from being one building in a little school on the corner to being in a number of different facilities with a variety of programs … and about 200 staff.” He said the work was an important experience in his ministry. “I can’t stress enough the need for clergy today to have a real handson experience of what it’s like to be working with people in crisis.”

When he returned to parish ministry, he served the Parish of Metcalfe, Vernon and Greely; as priest-in-charge at St. John the Baptist Church in Kars; and as Incumbent at Trinity Anglican Church in Ottawa for 10 years. In 2006, he was appointed Territorial Archdeacon of Ottawa Centre, and then in 2008 as Incumbent of All Saints Westboro.

In the course of the last 14 years at All Saints, Dunn has presided over the kind of creative collaborations that many churches are now considering. Before he retired, Dunn’s predecessor the Rev. Canon Allen Box had laid the foundation for All Saints to enter into a partnership with the First United Church of Ottawa, which was selling its building and looking for a new home. They agreed to share All Saints’ building along with costs such as light, water and utilities.

“Allen put all of that together,” Dunn said, “so, when I arrived here 14 and a half years ago, it was underway, but … it’s in my time that we’ve sorted out all the details of how that is lived out. We were able to accomplish a half million-dollar renovation of the worship space, working with First United to build a design for that and they shared the cost.” And together, he added, they have been able to make the church a community hub.

In 2016, All Saints welcomed parishioners from St. Matthias Anglican Church and more recently from St. Luke’s Anglican Church after a fire severely damaged their church.

Dunn’s experience at Shepherds of Good Hope helps in the running of the food bank at All Saints. “Our experience this past year has been more than a 50% increase in the number of people coming to the food bank,” he said.

Over the years, Dunn has become well-known for his children’s sermons, which feature a rich cast of puppets. “When I got to the parish of Stafford, I decided I needed to do something for the children that were present, so I started to do what were called brown bag sermons. You’d bring out a brown paper shopping bag and you’d have something inside that became the focus of a discussion with children at the beginning of the service. One day I brought out Seymour the Skunk….He was my first puppet 40 years ago. What I quickly discovered was that the adults are taking as much away from children’s story as the children.”

His reputation preceded him, and he recounted how an All Saints parishioner came to him before he even started objecting to changing the service to add a children’s sermon. But the experiment worked. “Within a year, if you even tried to get rid of a children’s story, nobody was going to have that. They just became part of the fabric of the place.”

Dunn, who was appointed Territorial Archdeacon of Ottawa West in 2009, has also served the Diocese in a number of other important roles as Chair of the Property and Finance Committee, the Budget Committee, and as a member of Diocesan Council, the Real Estate Working Group and the Archdeacons Advisory Panel.

What will he miss most? It’s an easy answer, he said. “There are so many people whose lives I’ve touched and been involved in along the way. That’s what I treasure most.”

Dunn is a skilled photographer and has generously shared his talents and photos of churches, nature and people with Crosstalk. We wish him joy in his retirement (and with not a little self-interest!) lots of time to pursue his photography.