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KAIROS Mexico Delegation Participant Biographies,
March 2005
Bishop Daniel Bohan was consecrated in 2003 and based in
Barrie, Ont., as an Auxiliary Bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese
of Toronto. Born in Yarmouth, N.S., he grew up on the east coast
of Canada where he was ordained a priest in the Moncton Archdiocese
in 1967. After pursuing a Masters of Theology at the University
of Notre Dame in Indiana, Daniel continued parish ministry in New
Brunswick. He has taught Moral Theology at Holy Heart Seminary in
Halifax and served on the Board of the Atlantic School of Theology.
Daniel also serves as the Roman Catholic representative on the Gospel,
Ecumenism and Theology Committee of the United Church of Canada’s
Maritime Conference.
Redemptorist Catholic priest Father Paul Hansen is the still-new
chair of the KAIROS Board, although he has been involved in faith
and justice work ever since a life-changing trip to East Africa
in 1974. That same year he began serving on the board of the Taskforce
on the Churches and Corporate responsibility, and has been involved
ever since with a number of the inter-church justice coalitions
that preceded KAIROS. He represented North America on his Religious
Order’s Secretariat for Justice, Peace and the Integrity of
Creation in Rome, Italy, and served as the director there from 1992-99,
touching on the major justice struggles in most of the 74 countries
where the Redemptorists’ 6,000 members are based. Paul grew
up in Saint John, NB, and has also taught high school, and done
pastoral work in parishes and universities. On the KAIROS board,
he represents Canada’s Religious Orders, and with the Redemptorists,
he directs justice work in Canada. He is a sought after lecturer,
retreat director, and speaker, primarily in the field of Biblical
Justice.
A former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, Rev.
J. Mark Lewis has been passionately outspoken about such issues
as the Palestine/Israel conflict and famine and HIV/AIDS in Africa.
Now about to head off to Mexico as part of a KAIROS delegation,
Mark feels NAFTA has hurt the poor and oppressed in that country,
and seeks knowledge and understanding to challenge the Canadian
government about changing the now-decade-old agreement. He also
hopes the experience will help him encourage his own and other congregations
in their justice ministry. An accomplished singer/songwriter and
watercolour painter, Mark may even turn to music and art as ways
of communicating what he encounters in Mexico. Born in South Wales,
UK, Mark came to Canada with his family as a child. He has ministered
to churches in rural Nova Scotia and Ontario, and is currently serving
his eighth year as pastor of MacNab Street Presbyterian Church in
Hamilton, Ont.
Currently based in Victoria, Sister Sheila Moss of the Sisters
of Saint Ann, spent a number of years ministering in Antofogasta,
Chile, a city deeply scarred by the oppression of Augusto Pinochet.
As happened in Chile, Sheila expects her “heart will be moved
by the suffering, valour and faith” of the people she encounters
in Mexico, and by their real-life stories of daily struggle. Sheila
grew up in Kelowna, BC, and after entering the Sisters of St. Ann
worked in the field of education in Catholic schools and parishes
throughout BC, before going to Antofogasta. Since returning from
her assignment in Chile, she has worked as an animator for the Canadian
Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, and with the Multicultural
Society of Kelowna teaching English as a second language. Most recently,
she has been studying nonviolent peacemaking for personal and social
transformation, and hopes to reflect on and apply insights from
this study both in Mexico and when she returns to Chile in May.
Bishop Sue Moxley became the third woman bishop in the Anglican
Church of Canada in March 2004, when she was consecrated suffragan
(assistant) bishop for the Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward
Island. Sue began her ministry for social justice in the 1980s in
Hatchet Lake, N.S., where she founded a food bank and worked with
the Communities Against Drugs program. During her ministry, she
has educated and advocated extensively for Indigenous Rights, including
work on the First Nations Governance Act, Land Rights, and Alternative
Dispute Resolution. Sue helped develop the Anglican Church’s
human rights principles; ecumenically, she worked extensively on
the Jubilee campaign. She continues to support Residential Schools
healing projects in the Anglican Church. Locally, she is an active
member of the Halifax Interfaith Council, the Halifax Peace Coalition,
supports refugees and immigrants, and justice education for youth.
As National Bishop for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada,
Bishop Raymond Schultz is based in Winnipeg, where he chairs
his denomination’s National Council, and acts as a visible,
personal symbol of the church's nation-wide presence. He was elected
in 2001 to a four-year term in this national leadership role. Born
and baptized in Camrose, Alta., Ray pursued university studies at
Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, and was ordained in
1966 in the Western Canada Synod of the Lutheran Church in America.
He focused on liberation theology and education for transformation
during later graduate studies at the Vancouver School of Theology.
Ray has served in congregational ministry in both Alberta and BC,
worked with the Lutheran Association of Missionaries and Pilots
(LAMP), and provided campus ministry at the University of British
Columbia. He served as Bishop for the BC Synod from 1998 to 2001.
Ray is married and has three adult children and four grandchildren.
Born and raised in Montreal, Wanda West is not only a busy
member of Union United Church, Montreal's oldest Black church, she
is also active nationally and internationally, serving on the United
Church of Canada’s General Council as well as with the Ethnic
Ministries Committee. In 1998, she was a delegate to the World Council
of Churches gathering in Harare, Zimbabwe. Wanda grew up at Union,
where she took an early leadership role with Explorers (a church
group for young girls), and attended an ecumenical gathering in
the Dominican Republic. Wanda has participated in the Gospel Choir
and Young Adult Ministry at Union United Church, and continues to
serve as member of the church board. A registered nurse, Wanda lives
with her family in Montreal.
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