See Extra-diocesan Name Michael Peers Predecessor Ted Scott In office 1986 — 2004 Role Religious Leader Ordination 1960 | Spouse Dorothy Bradley Education University of Toronto Consecration 1977 Children 3 Successor Andrew Hutchison | |
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Church Anglican Church of Canada | ||
Previous post Diocese of Qu'Appelle | ||
Michael peers called to be a leader
Michael Geoffrey Peers (born 31 July 1934) was Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada from 1986 to 2004.
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Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Peers completed an undergraduate degree in languages at the University of British Columbia in 1956 and a diploma in translation at the University of Heidelberg in 1957. He had intended to embark on a career in diplomacy.
In the meantime, an interest in religion which had begun in his youth after a non-religious upbringing, increased and he decided to seek ordination. He entered Trinity College at the University of Toronto where he obtained a licentiate in theology. He was ordained as an Anglican priest and served in the following positions:
Peers speaks English, French, Spanish, German and Russian. He is married with three children and four grandchildren. He currently resides in Toronto, Ontario where he is Ecumenist-in-Residence at the Toronto School of Theology. In 2006 his Grace Notes: Journeying With the Primate, 1995-2004 (ISBN 1-55126-437-4), a collection of his monthly columns in the Anglican Journal, was published, and in 2007 his The Anglican Episcopate in Canada: Volume IV, 1977-2007.
Peers is now confessor to the monastery of the Society of St. John the Evangelist in Boston. He is also Ecumenist in Residence at the Toronto School of Theology.
Ministry on the prairies
Having come from a background that might have suggested to prairie folk that he was an "eastern" élitist, Peers quickly established himself as keen sympathiser with the ideals of prairie populism. Rural Saskatchewanians quickly perceived that Peers was their ardent supporter—that the ideals of prairie populism were his own ideals—and that his obvious membership in the Canadian élite was entirely to their advantage. The life of a prairie bishop is one of endless travel along the highways and byways of the prairie hinterland: in the course of such travels Peers made long and lasting friendships with many members of the Saskatchewan leadership, as with many grassroots Saskatchewanians, and these friendships amply informed the national and worldwide ministry of his primacy.
Major events of his primacy
Major events include: