Evangelical appointed as Ontario lieutenant-governor
Lloyd Mackey
Special to ChristianWeek
OTTAWA, ON—Longtime broadcaster and community activist David C. Onley was driving along a Toronto-area freeway when he received a call on his cell phone from Prime Minister Stephen Harper with the news: he had been chosen as Ontario's new lieutenant-governor.
Onley has been preparing to take over the role from James Bartleman, whose tenure wraps up this summer.
While the 58-year-old Onley is best known as a science fiction writer, community activist, CityTV environmental broadcaster, news anchor and advocate for handicap accessibility, he is also an evangelical Christian whose faith will shape what he brings to his new Ontario vice-regal position.
Lutherans elect first female bishop
As a child playing church with her siblings, Susan Johnson was relegated to the sidelines. Her denomination didn’t ordain women and her brother always got to play the “pastor” role.
Now, decades later, Johnson is taking charge as the national bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC), a first for the denomination. Those early games stirred a passion for ministry in Johnson, who comes from a long line of ELCIC pastors on both sides of her family, including her father. By the time the denomination began ordaining women Johnson was well into a career as a high school music teacher.
“A lot of people said ordained ministry was something I should consider. I closed my ears for a number of years,” says Johnson. “But the voices got louder around me. And the internal voices got louder.”
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Sickness and healing transform teen
For almost an entire year Brad Fraser had a migraine that never left. It began in December, 2005, when Fraser was a Grade 9 student at Winston Knoll Collegiate in Regina. And the constant headache wasn't his only problem.
"I tried to jog around Knoll, but I started getting dizzy and I almost smashed into columns," Fraser recalls.
Extreme fatigue and severe pain in his lower back and abdominal area not only robbed him of a spot on the basketball team, it also caused him to miss school.
"One thing led to the next, and I ended up going to different doctors. And they're like, well, it isn't this and it isn't this," says Fraser. "I had two MRIs, [two] CT scans, two ultrasounds. I had so many blood tests it wasn't even funny. I felt like I was a blood donor during that time."
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