Fr. Ayoob Shawkat Adwar, a priest in the Chaldean Catholic Church, was received as an Anglican priest at a ceremony in Surrey, B.C. March 26.
The event was a “small but significant piece of history,” says Archdeacon Stephen Rowe, rector of the Anglican Parish of the Church of the Epiphany in Surrey, since he is thought to be the first Chaldean priest in history to have become a member of the Anglican clergy.
Originally from Mosul, Iraq—heartland of the Chaldean church—Adwar was ordained as a Chaldean priest in 2008. His family began to arrive in Canada about five years ago, and Adwar himself followed in 2014, when he was granted refugee status.
Why is this regarded as good news? It means that the Chaldean people have one less priest to help them maintain their culture, with which Christianity is intertwined. I also wonder whether the Chaldeans, who generally have a conservative and traditional approach to morality, understand the Anglican Church in Canada’s rather more freewheeling approach to tradition.