On Saturday, Feb. 2, the Anglican Church of Canada’s first National Indigenous Bishop, Mark MacDonald, will receive the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal at Queen’s Park, Toronto.
Created to mark the 2012 celebrations of the 60th anniversary of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s accession to the throne as Queen of Canada, the medal honours Canadians who have made significant contributions and achievements to the country.
MacDonald is being recognized for his “spiritual leadership while serving Aboriginal communities and his contributions to environmental awareness of Canadians,” said NDP MP Craig Scott (Toronto-Danforth), who nominated MacDonald. MacDonald will join 29 other community leaders who will be awarded the medal by Scott. Each Member of Parliament was given 30 medals to present to outstanding constituents in their communities.
“I am very blessed and surprised to receive this honour and very grateful to Craig Scott for his nomination,” said MacDonald in an interview. “It means a lot at a number of levels to me, some very personal, but, most importantly, recognizes and honours the vision of the elders for the future of the People of the Land.”
Congratulations to Bishop Macdonald–read it all (another from the long queue of should-have-already-been-posted material).
I have always admired Bishop MacDonald inspite of some theological differences. The shepherds heart that +Mark has demonstrated for his flock is very obvious. He may work in Canada but I think of him as American (born in Minnesota,eh) though it is somewhat unclear from the article. Happy to see him get some recognition for the good work he has done. If I remember, didn’t KJS try to say that he renounced his orders when he moved to Canada?