About the Archbishop
The Most Reverend Anne Germond
Archbishop of the Dioceses of Algoma and Moosonee; Metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario
Motto for 2022
“So, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see everything has become new.” (2 Corinthians 5.17)
Archbishop Anne was elected Bishop of Algoma on October 14th, 2016 and consecrated the 11th Bishop of Algoma on February 11th 2017 thus becoming the first woman to serve in this capacity. The Diocese of Algoma is one of seven dioceses in Ontario and is geographically vast and diverse. There are five deaneries in Algoma encompassing small rural communities and larger towns. It takes in a large portion of Northern Ontario from Thunder Bay in the west to Temiscaming in the east and to Gravenhurst in the south. There are 50 parishes in Algoma and approximately 80 congregations.
In the fall of 2018, Archbishop Anne was elected the 19th Metropolitan for the Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario. In this role she also serves as the Archbishop for the Diocese of Moosonee which is a mission area of the Province. It straddles both northern Ontario and Northwestern Quebec covering some 560, 000 sq.kms. There are 21 parishes in Moosonee with more than half of them in the Indigenous communities on the east and west side of James Bay.
Daily prayer and study of scriptures is the scaffold around which Archbishop Anne’s ministry is formed. With a strong gentle spirit and a personal commitment to equity and the important work of reconciliation with indigenous peoples, Archbishop Anne sees this happening in relationship building, hospitality, and table fellowship. She believes it can only happen through truth telling and justice seeking.
Archbishop Anne also serves as the Chancellor for Thorneloe University in Sudbury and as a board member and Vice Chair of the Anglican Foundation of Canada.
In October 2019, as Renison University College marked its 60th anniversary, Archbishop Anne was honoured to receive the title of Honourary Senior Fellow.
Born in 1960, Archbishop Anne grew up in South Africa and graduated from the Johannesburg College of Education in the late 1970s. She taught primary school for a number of years and was seconded to the Johannesburg College of Education where she taught Religious Studies and English Methodology. She and her husband, Colin, were given the opportunity to move to Canada in 1986 when the Cancer Centre in Sudbury were recruiting oncologists.
Due to visa restrictions, Archbishop Anne was unable to work during the first years of her time in Canada and so she volunteered teaching English as a second language and completed an honours degree in religious studies through the University of South Africa and later a Bachelor of Theology at Thorneloe University in Sudbury. During these years, Archbishop Anne became involved in a variety of lay ministries at the Church of the Epiphany in Sudbury. Locally raised in the church, she was called to ordered ministry and was ordained as a deacon in February 2001 and as a presbyter in May 2002.
Archbishop Anne served as the incumbent at the Church of the Ascension in Sudbury for seventeen years and as archdeacon for the Deanery of Sudbury/Manitoulin for six years. These were years of enormous growth for the parish both numerically and missionally as they undertook some important outreach ministries internationally to those affected by HIV/AIDS in the Diocese of Johannesburg, and locally with an alternative high school nearby. During this time, Archbishop Anne also served as the Chaplain for the Greater Sudbury Police Service and as a friend of L’Arche Sudbury.
Archbishop Anne and her husband Colin reside in historic Bishophurst in Sault Ste. Marie which has been the home of all of Algoma’s Archbishops since 1876. They have two adult children, Caitlin (Devan) and Richard (Mina). In her free time, she enjoys hiking, reading, entertaining, travelling and walking her gorgeous golden retriever, Rosie. During the pandemic Archbishop Anne discovered the joys of gardening at her cottage and looks forward to more summers of growing vegetables and watching the flowers bloom.