Sad but sweet as St. Paul's bids adieu to their young father

Jeff Green | Nov 03, 2016

Father Giuseppe Gagliano is still a young man as he prepares to take on a large rural ministry, the St. Francis Regional Ministry outside of the City of Sherbrooke in Quebec’s eastern townships.

As a 27-year-old Anglican priest, it will be a challenging assignment.

However, it will be no more challenging than his first placement as a minister, when he was 24 years old.

“Officially, I came to Sydenham as a curate, since I was just out of Divinity School, but although a curate usually serves with an established priest in a larger congregation, I was more or less on my own,” he said from the chapel at St. Paul’s church, on George Street in Sydenham last week.

Gagliano was preparing for his final two services at St. Paul’s on Saturday night and Sunday morning. After that he will have some time off to recharge before moving to the eastern townships in the new year.

When Fr. Giuseppe arrived in Sydenham in 2013, “The bishop basically said to me, ‘Here are the keys; you go for it.’ I did have a supervisor to advise me, but I don’t think I came here with too many expectations. I was open to whatever I would find. I had never been to Sydenham; it was a completely new experience. What I found was a beautiful church and a welcoming congregation and community, and an active parish. I felt at home right away.”

Fr. Giuseppe was new to Sydenham when he arrived, but the area was already known to him. After growing up in Wellington County, he enrolled at Queen’s as an undergraduate, and it was through attending services and joining in activities at St. George’s Anglican Church in Kingston that he realized he had a calling. After graduating from Queen’s with a major in religious studies and a minor in politics, he attended Yale for a master’s in Divinity, and studied for the priesthood at the affiliated Berkeley Divinity College.

One of the things he has brought to St. Paul’s in Sydenham has been a contemporary service, which is held on Saturday evenings.

“We use different music than the Sunday service - different instrumentation, guitars, piano, drums, as well as a mix of different and more familiar elements to the service, which has made it popular, particularly for some of our young families,” he said.

One thing that doesn’t change between the two services is the sermon, however, and the discipline of writing a sermon each week and making it relevant has been one of the challenges he has had to deal with.

“I use a lot of my own references, to politics, Monty Python, Star Wars, reflections on English poetry, anything I can think of to speak the truth to the congregation, and if I am able to speak the truth, the message should work in both the traditional and contemporary services. It really is a matter of trust between us, and while there were some close calls, I have always been able to come up with a sermon each week.”

Over his time at St. Paul’s he has developed a rapport with the church community.

“My youth was likely an issue for some people at the start, but over time it has become more of a running joke than anything else,” he said.

He said that when he came to Sydenham he had knowledge, but in time has learned to value wisdom over knowledge.

“I also learned that teaching and change must go hand-in-hand, if you are going to change things you have to explain why and be open to revising your plans.”

He comes away from his time in Sydenham with more faith than he had before.

“Seeing the power of God so deeply in the lives of people, and being invited into people’s lives so deeply is a great privilege.”

He said that the greatest joy in his time at St. Paul’s was found in small, intimate gestures that he was privy to. “Sometimes you see really beautiful things that others don’t necessary see: the way people treat each other; the way people treat the church; the way that they are generous without announcing their deeds. These are the lived experiences of ministry.”

For their part, the St. Paul’s congregation seem to feel the same way about Fr. Giuseppe.

Parishioner Helen Lamb summed it up this way: “Our lives have been forever changed and enriched by this humble, joyful, and extremely intelligent young man who is so passionate about his faith and incredibly sincere in his love and concern for others.  We all love him - men, women, young, old - and his presence at St. Paul's and in the Sydenham community over the last three years has been a gift to everyone who came in contact with him …  We shall miss him terribly but will continue to follow his journey in the church from a distance, always cheering him on and blessing him for his time with us.”

A farewell potluck was held for Fr. Giuseppe on Sunday afternoon. There wasn’t a dry eye in the church.