Right Rev. Michael Ingham, Anglican bishop of the Diocese of New Westminster, will receive an honorary degree from Simon Fraser University today (June 14) - two months before he retires.
Ingham is among a group of 10 people the university is recognizing with honorary degrees this year - in his case, with a doctor of laws, honoris causa, for his outstanding contribution to the community.
"He's helped shape Vancouver, and his contributions to the poor and the needy and disenfranchised in our city and globally has been very significant, and he certainly deserves our praise for that," said Pastor Victor Thomas, director of the interfaith centre at SFU, who will introduce Ingham at the convocation ceremony.
Ingham was elected as bishop in 1994. He made international headlines in 2003 for being one of the first leaders within the Anglican Church to authorize the blessing of gay and lesbian relationships - three years before same-sex unions became legal in Canada.
"A large majority of Anglicans in the Lower Mainland agreed this was the right thing to do and we should be doing it for the sake of justice and human dignity," Ingham said. "There were some who objected, but they were in the minority, and an even smaller minority left."
For his controversial move, Ingham was named the third most significant newsmaker in Canada after Paul Martin and Larry Campbell in 2003, and he was the subject for a full-page profile in the New York Times that same year. In July 2008, Britain's Daily Telegraph named him one of the 25 most influential Anglicans in the world, and in 2012, Vancouver Magazine named him among the 45 people who "made Vancouver better."
Born in Yorkshire, England, Ingham studied politics, philosophy and theology at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, where he received a master of arts degree.
He trained for the priesthood in the Scottish Episcopal Church, before doing postgraduate work at Harvard University and spent a semester studying Judaism at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Ingham was ordained in Ottawa in 1974 and later moved to Vancouver.
During his nearly 40-year career, he has been a strong proponent of interfaith dialogue, publishing the books Rites for a New Age in 1989 and Mansions of the Spirit in 1997.
"I've worked for respect among religions," Ingham said. "I think very often religions can be a source of tension, even violence. We've seen this in many places. But I also know that in every religion there's a powerful impetus for peace, and I've worked with Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Buddhists, Sikhs, who are passionately committed to building bridges of understanding. And there's a big opportunity for that in the Western world, particularly in British Columbia where we don't have a history of inter-religious violence."
Ingham is currently the longest-service Anglican bishop in Canada and is set to retire on Aug. 31.
"It's been a very demanding role," he said. "It's very rewarding, but it's also pretty stressful. I look around me and there's lots of capable leaders waiting in the wings. Once of the things leaders have to do is know when to step aside and when the organization needs fresh energy and initiative, and I think we're at that stage now."
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