Announcement of New Sub-Dean and Vicar
Dear Friends,
I am delighted to announce that Bishop Andrew Asbil has confirmed the appointment of The Reverend Canon Dr. Stephen Fields as our new Sub-Dean and Vicar. Canon Stephen comes with a great deal of experience, and was the unanimous selection of our Vicar Search Committee and myself.
Canon Stephen Fields was born in Barbados. He entered seminary at the age of 18 to test his sense of vocation to ministry. He is a graduate of Codrington College and the University of the West Indies, The General Theological Seminary, and The Graduate Theological Foundation, where, in 2019, he received the Doctor of Ministry degree with a concentration in Transformational Leadership.
He was ordained to the Office of Deacon in 1981 in Brooklyn, New York, and Priest in 1983 in Barbados. After serving in his home diocese for 11 years, he was called to serve as the Associate Priest at St. Michael & All Angels, Toronto, in 1993. Subsequently, he served as the Incumbent at The Church of St. Stephen, Downsview, for 15 years. For the past 10 years he was the Incumbent of Holy Trinity Church, Thornhill. He was the Founding President of The Downsview Youth Covenant, an outreach program to youth in the Jane-Finch-Wilson community in Toronto.
Canon Stephen has served the Diocese of Toronto as member of the Diocesan Council, the Executive Board, the Postulancy Committee, and several other committees, boards, and working groups. His most recent appointment was as a member of the Episcopal Leadership Working Group, the group charged with examining and reporting to the Diocesan Bishop on alternative models for the exercise of episcopal leadership, oversight and pastoral ministry within the Diocese. He is one of the facilitators for the Anti-Bias and Anti-Racism (ABAR) workshops that will be offered to Diocesan clergy and lay leaders as part of the Diocese’s anti-Racism, anti-Bias work.
He was a part of the leadership team for the No Longer Strangers Project, a multicultural ministry initiative of the diocese, and was the founding coordinator of The Black Anglicans Coordinating Committee, now succeeded by the Black Anglicans of Canada.
Very much a part of the wider Anglican community, he has chaired, or shared in coordinating, several international gatherings, including the Fifth Caribbean Anglican Consultation (CAC), and the Local Committee assisting International Planning Committee of the Third International Afro-Anglican Conference (AAC). Both events were hosted by Toronto.
The CAC is a biennial conference that examines the ministry and ministry needs of the clergy, and those of the congregants from the Caribbean and the Caribbean Diaspora, to determine how the congregants are contributing to the life of their church communities, and how the Church is responding to their needs. He continues to coordinate the CAC’s online monthly forums. The AAC is a gathering of Black Anglicans from around the world, which met every 10 years. The first conference was held in Barbados in 1985 while the second was held in Capetown, South Africa in 1995 at the invitation of Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
He is a prolific composer of short prayers and is a student of the guitar. His ministry is supported by his wife, Lucy, an educator, and their two sons, Marc and Luke, with who he enjoys traveling and vacationing.
Canon Stephen has received many awards, including the African Canadian Achievement Award (Excellence in Religion), recognizing his ministry in the church and the wider community. He was appointed an Honourary Canon of St. James Cathedral in Toronto in 2004. He has been featured in several publications, including both editions of the “Who’s Who in Black Canada” and “Some Barbadian Canadians: A Biographical Dictionary”.
More information may be found on his blog: https://canonstephenfieldsblog.wordpress.com/
Our new Vicar will join us in September, and we ask that you remember him, his family and the people of Holy Trinity, Thornhill, in your prayers during this time of transition.
In Christ,
Dean Stephen Vail+
