Trinity United Church’s new pastor brings with her an extensive military background, and a thirst for teaching.
For this week’s edition of People of Collingwood we spoke with Rev. Dr. Lesley Fox, 60, pastor at Trinity United Church.
Q: Where did you grow up?
A: I grew up in Toronto and Ottawa.
Q: Did you always know you wanted to go into spiritual ministry?
A: I knew in my high school years that this is the path I wanted to go on. I had lots of confirmations along the way.
I am someone who was raised in the church. Church family was important to us because my dad was raised in Dublin, Ireland, and my mom is from Glasgow, Scotland. Even though we were born here, we had no extended family.
The church became our second home. It was always important to our family.
I was raised in the church and I was good in sciences so I thought I might pursue a career in science, but I had all these niggling calls that came together.
I changed my undergraduate program to English literature at Ottawa University. I got my Master’s at the University of Toronto and my doctorate at the University of Alberta.
I’ve had two really significant calls in my life. I’ve been in pastoral ministry for many years. I was a military chaplain. I still am.
I’m a reservist.
I just came from CFB Borden, and I was overseas for four years.
I’m somebody who has a foot in both worlds: civilian and military.
I serve here full-time as pastor at Trinity United. As a reservist, I work... with the Collingwood Army Cadets as a COATS (Cadet Organizations Administration and Training Service) officer. It’s kind of neat.
Q: You’ve just come to Collingwood to take over at Trinity United as of this Jan. 2. Prior to that, where had you served?
A: It’s been a really busy few months. From September to December 2022, I was at CFB Borden. Previous to that, I was four years overseas with the military. I was posted in London, England. I had northern Europe, so the U.K., Norway, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. All the military members and their families. I had a very big parish. (laughs)
Q: Is there a large faith community within the military?
A: As a chaplain, our role is to serve people of faith, and people who have no faith. We work with atheists, agnostics, humanists, people from different religious backgrounds – it matters not. We care for everyone as chaplains.
Q: What made you understand you were meant to go into this spiritual calling?
A: I know, today, we describe a lot of people as spiritual but not religious.
As a person, I’ve always been spiritual and religious. I see the value of the faith community, as well as understanding my spirituality.
The community helps me with my faith journey.
Q: What drew you to be interested in coming to Collingwood?
A: We have a website where you can look for churches that are actively searching and apply as you would for any other job.
I looked at this church and I thought, ‘My goodness!’
First of all, you’re in the most beautiful place in the world. My daughter lives in Toronto, so she’s not too far. What I loved about this church is they do so much outreach into the community. So much social activism happens here, and that was key for me. It also looked like they were a congregation that loves faith as a life-long journey and loved educational pursuits.
I thought it could be a good mix.
Q: How has it been here so far?
A: It’s been wonderful.
I jumped right in.
Q: What kinds of things do you bring to the table that might be that’s new to the congregation?
A: I think my mix of military and civilian worlds, they find interesting.
I really enjoy the teaching side of ministry. I’d like to bring in new things that maybe they haven’t heard or seen or been a part of before.
One of the things I’d like to do is teach the enneagram, which is a tool of spirituality that speaks to your personality type based on spirituality.
This is a very wise group of learners in this congregation. I learn a lot from them as well. They are open to self-exploration.
Q: What other sorts of things do you like to do outside of the church? Do you have any hobbies?
A: I’m a great hiker. This area is incredible for that.
I’m a climber too. When I was in the U.K., I climbed the three highest peaks. I’m going back after Easter.
I like running and active sports. I also like art. I’m a watercolourist. I had a painting in London that was sold at a charity auction. This community is very into art as well.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like people in Collingwood to know about you?
A: I am a dual citizen: British and Canadian.
One of the things we’re going to do at this church in the future is twin with a church in southern England, in Folkestone. There are more than 300 Canadians buried in Folkestone. I did a Canada Day service there every year. The kids there would put flowers on the graves of all the Canadian soldiers who were buried there.
We’re going to make a connection.
It’s a real delight being here. When I first saw the lights on the ski hills from Collingwood, I was stunned.
For our feature People of Collingwood, we speak with interesting people who are either from or are contributing to the Collingwood community in some way, letting them tell their own stories in their own words. This feature runs on CollingwoodToday every weekend. If you’d like to nominate or suggest someone to be featured in People of Collingwood, email [email protected].
