Bishop Terry O. Buckle of the Diocese of Yukon has been elected metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province of British Columbia and Yukon by the executive committee of the provincial synod.
Archbishop Buckle was elected after three ballots. He led on each ballot. Also in the running were Bishop Michael Ingham of the Diocese of New Westminster, and Bishop James Cowan of the Diocese of British Columbia.
He becomes the chief bishop for BC and the Yukon, one of five archbishops in the Anglican Church of Canada. As the bishop with the most years of seniority, Archbishop Buckle had been the acting metropolitan for almost a year following the retirement of Archbishop David Crawley late in 2004.
All but one of the 22 member executive committee were present at the meeting in Richmond, BC, Friday evening. The ballots were as follows:
First, Buckle 9, Ingham 8, Cowan 4; second, Buckle 10, Ingham 8, Cowan 3; third (after Bishop Cowan withdrew), Buckle 13, Ingham 8. A simple majority was sufficient for the election.
Archbishop Buckle, 64, has served the church in Canada’s North since coming there from Simcoe, Ontario, with his wife Blanche in 1966. He was a Church Army captain for 11 years before his ordination as a priest in 1973.
He graduated from Church Army College and attended Wycliffe College, and carried out his ordination studies from 1966 to 1973.
He served as priest at Fort Simpson, and later, as dean and canon at Inuvik, both in the North West Territories. From 1982 to 1988 he served as priest and archdeacon at Fort Nelson, B.C., and as rector and canon for Yellowknife, N.W.T
He was elected a suffragan bishop of the Diocese of the Arctic in 1993. Two years later he was elected the diocesan Bishop of Yukon. It is one of Canada's smaller dioceses, with 13 parishes.
He and his wife have four children.
The new Metropolitan was installed Saturday, November 5, at St. Anne’s Anglican Church, 4071 Francis Road, Richmond.
Besides the Dioceses of Yukon, New Westminster, British Columbia (Vancouver Island), the ecclesiastical province, one of four in the Canadian Church, includes the Dioceses of Kootenay and of Caledonia, and the parishes of the Central Interior which were formerly in the Diocese of Cariboo.