Anglican Bishop Logan McMenamie, known for his work in addressing the harm the church inflicted on Indigenous peoples, announced his retirement on Sunday.
After six years as bishop of the Anglican Diocese of British Columbia, which includes 45 parishes across Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, McMenamie will step down on May 1. He announced his resignation in a letter read to congregants in parishes across the Island during Sunday services.
McMenamie, the 13th bishop of the diocese, formally apologized to residential school survivors at the site of the former St. Michael’s Indian Residential School on Cormorant Island in 2015.
During Lent in 2016, he walked 480 kilometres from Alert Bay to Victoria seeking permission from First Nations representatives to continue living on their land.
He made a similar journey during in 2017, walking from Port McNeil to Sooke.
“Through our forebears, we entered this land the first time believing we carried God with us,” he said in a statement.
“We failed to recognize that the Creator was already here, working in and through the First Peoples of this land. Now we, in our generation, need to symbolically re-enter this land in a new way — a way marked by respect and humility on the part of the settler church.”
