Priest-in-Charge: Rev. Dr. John Oakes
The Rev. Dr. John Oakes, who is Priest-in-Charge at St.Cyprian’s has served with us since March 2022.
John, who retired from full-time church ministry in 2021, has been an ordained priest since 1997, serving mostly on the West Coast, where his major incumbency was at Holy Trinity, Vancouver. He was also Rector of St. Mary’s,
Richmond Hill, in this diocese from 2014 to 2017. He ministered for four years as senior pastor of a Vancouver Baptist congregation and he has been Honorary Assistant of St. Paul’s, Bloor Street, since August 2021.
Ever since his conversion in 1985, John’s primary passions have been to share the good news of Jesus Christ and to help build and equip the Body of Christ. “Since the call of the gospel doesn’t retire, no minister really does either,” he says. “I am most grateful to have the opportunity to offer what I can to further the ministry of this parish.”
John was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, Regent College, UBC , and
Simon Fraser University.
Prior to pursuing a career in pastoral ministry and academia in North America, he worked as an investment analyst and as a journalist and editor in the UK. He and his wife, Kirsten, who is a travel consultant, have been married for over 40 years. They immigrated to Canada in 1989
and have two adult daughters and four granddaughters.
John also remains an active scholar. He has taught at Regent College, Vancouver, was an Adjunct Professor in the Department of History at SFU, and is now a Research Fellow at Wycliffe College, Toronto. His most recent book is Conservative Revolutionaries: Transformation and Tradition in the Religious and Political Thought of Charles Chauncy and Jonathan Mayhew (Cambridge: James Clarke & Co., 2017). He is currently working on a biography of the 18th century Boston minister, Andrew Eliot (1718-1778).
Music Director: Laura Hope
Laura Hope has sung in many church, school and community choirs since growing up near Montreal, . She taught herself to play piano and recorder. She played flute in the school band. John Burns, former music director at Iona Church suggested she try organ and gave her a few lessons. She filled in as Iona’s music director for a year in the late 1970s, when he retired. More experience was gained as supply organist at Parklawn Presbyterian Church in Etobicoke in the early 1980s.
Laura has had the pleasure of singing with several church choirs, especially Iona Presbyterian Church Choir, in which she sang for decades. Other experience includes touring with singers in Ontario, Quebec, New York State, Scotland and Ireland. She even sang on stage at
Carnegie Hall conducted by Sir John Rutter.
Laura enjoys singing solos and duets as well as accompanying on piano or organ. Although she doesn’t have much formal musical training, she is grateful to the choir directors, vocal coaches and other musicians that have taught her along the way. At present, she is alto lead for Village Voices Choir (Markham) and a longtime member of the Amadeus Choir (Toronto). She has been music director at St. Cyprian since 2011.
Parish Nurse: Margaret Black
Margaret Black Margaret E. Black RN, BScN, MEd, EdDI, has been a registered nurse for 60 years. Her career has included operating room nursing in two major Toronto hospitals and a 1 45-bed hospital in the foothills of the Rockies. She also spent many regular nursing years in different areas of health care, including one year as a head nurse at St. John’s Rehabilitation Institute. Margaret taught nursing at the post-secondary level for several years.
She chose to go into Parish Nursing after she retired from teaching - a "very different but important specialty, " she says. "We are whole beings with physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs. When something happens in one area it also affects the other areas. Parish Nursing focuses on how the problem is affecting the whole person
and family."
Margaret's role as a Parish Nurse includes setting up programmes to teach and/or help people maintain their health (e.g. the SWIFT seniors’ exercise classes twice weekly). She also works with individuals and families to deal with specific health issues from getting the medical care they need to helping to find long-term care or in-home care for people with ongoing problems. Margaret is grateful to God for the opportunity to help others and to remind them that God is always with us no matter what is happening.
Office Administrator: Bob Williams
Bob Williams has had a long and varied history with Tri- Church, starting in 1982. He is currently organist, treasurer, and trustee of Iona Presbyterian and has also served as Elder. As Office Administrator, he oversees the production of bulletins for the two English-speaking churches, St. Cyprians and when needed, for Iona. He also monitors incoming phone messages and emails for Tri-Church.
As property manager for the whole building, he oversees the use of the rooms and facilities of the three churches, including St Christopher's Chinese
Anglican, as well as of the two long-term renters, Trinity Mandarin Presbyterian and Northwood Montessori Daycare. He further coordinates the rental of facilities to outside users .
Bob's official office hours are Tuesday to Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. He can be reached by email at postmaster@trichurch.ca or by leaving a phone message at 416-494-2442 (24/7).