Condolences to the Graham family - The Rev. Canon Barbara Graham - UPDATE

The funeral for the Rev. Canon Barbara Graham will be held on Thursday, March 24th at 1 p.m. at St. Thomas’ in Bracebridge. If it is your intention to attend, please register ahead of time with Archdeacon Kelly Baetz

It may not be possible to accommodate all who wish to be with us due to continuing restrictions.

Visitation will be from 11:00 a.m. until the service at Reynolds Funeral Home across the road from the church. A recording of the service will be posted on their website.

The full obituary for Canon Barbara may be found here

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The Rev. Canon Barbara Graham passed away in hospital in Bracebridge on Thursday, March 17^th, after a short illness. Surrounded by her family, she died peacefully to the triumphant music of the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah. We give thanks for God’s faithfulness to her in life, and for her long faithfulness to Christ and his Church. We pray for all who mourn, particularly her three sons, Andrew, Duncan, and Neil, and all her family.

Canon Barbara was ordained Deacon in 2004 at St. Thomas’ Anglican Church, and then in 2013, at the age of 83, she was ordained priest, also at St. Thomas’. That same year, she completed her Master’s in Theological Studies, graduating from Trinity College, Toronto. In 2018 she was named a Canon in the Diocese of Algoma. Before any of this, Canon Barbara worked as a nurse, first in the prairies and then in Nunavut, where she moved to serve alongside her husband, Archdeacon Bill Graham. Archdeacon Bill and Barbara then moved to Milford Bay in the 1970s, where they ministered for many years, with Barbara retiring from nursing in the early 1990s to focus on parish life. After her beloved Bill died, Canon Barbara moved to Bracebridge and began an active Lay ministry at St. Thomas’. She was Deanery Warden of Lay Readers, and a parish Lay Reader for many years, taking services at local retirement homes and visiting many shut-ins. As a Deacon she especially enjoyed and was awarded for her work at Fenbrook (a medium security prison in Gravenhurst, now merged with Beaver Creek Institution), leading Bible studies and conducting worship services for residents. Her knowledge of the Innu language from her years of ministry in the Arctic helped enable her special ministry to Beaver Creek’s Inuit residents. Canon Barbara was also a tremendous help to St. Peter’s Rocksborough and St. Stephen’s Vankoughnet, chapels of St. Thomas’.

A reliable presence at meetings of Clericus, Diocesan Synod, Deanery Council, ACW, Bracebridge Ministerial, and her Parish, Canon Barbara made her voice known at every level of the life of our church. She didn’t always agree with some of the more modern practices in church life, but her devotion to her Lord and her respect for the way decisions are made in “church land” never wavered. Even during the pandemic, she was there whenever the doors were open, and, despite her sometimes uneasy relationship with technology, adjusted as well as anyone else to Zoom meetings and on-line worship.

Beyond her church involvement and nursing career, Barbara loved her association with the Girl Guides, and adored time spent with her family, sharing many stories about her four grandchildren. She loved to travel, returning often to her native England, and visiting family in France. She also loved a good dessert.

Rest eternal grant unto her, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon her.

The Ven. Kelly Baetz, Archdeacon of Muskoka Deanery.