Welcome to Wycliffe College

	Laurie Munro & the Most Rev. Terrence Buckle

In Founders’ Chapel on December 8 at the final community Eucharist of the term the Rev. Laurie Munro was ordained to the diaconate by the Most Rev. Terrence Buckle, Ret. Bishop of the Diocese of Yukon on behalf of its current bishop, the Rt. Rev. Larry Robertson.  Laurie is originally from the diocese of New West Minister but has worked in the diocese of Yukon for the last two summers and will return at the end of the summer to serve the parishes in Dawson City. She will be living in the home of The Rt. Rev. Isaac O. Stringer,  a Wycliffe graduate and early missionary to the Arctic, who is depicted  in one of the stained glass windows in Founders’’ Chapel. Her rectory is the former rectory for the Cathedral which used to be located in Dawson City.

Isaac Stringer was born on April 19, 1866, in Kingarf, Ontario and in 1888, he began courses at the University of Toronto and Wycliffe College, the Anglican Divinity School, studying the arts and theology. In  1892, the Bishop of the Mackenzie Diocese, William Day Reeve, addressed Wycliffe students about the need for missionaries to go to the Arctic to work with the native people there. Stringer was very intrigued with the idea, but had some misgivings about the distance and isolation that he would endure. His father initially refused to support him, but time was running out and Stringer had to make a decision before Bishop Reeve left for England. Eventually as he stated in his diary, "The way seemed plain to me and so I decided to go." He accepted the posting on February 17. (as quoted on The Northern Missionaries at The Virtual Museum of Canada at www.virtualmuseum.ca  )

Because Stringer was to be a missionary in the isolated North he was more than a teacher; he was also expected to be a doctor, dentist, druggist, and social worker to the people. Consequently, during his last term at Wycliffe, Stringer was excused from his theological classes and took courses in dentistry, obstetrics, and minor surgery in preparation for his position. Laurie has had no such exemption from her regular theological studies. She will be following in his footsteps by serving the people of this northern region of Canada.