Alongside Hope staffer honoured with Anglican Award of Merit

When she first received the email from Allan Perry, Suzanne Rumsey thought maybe his email had been hacked and she was being scammed. It’s not every day the General Secretary of the Anglican Church of Canada wants to talk to you.

Indeed he did. Rumsey learned she was to receive the Anglican Award of Merit, the highest lay award in the church, given annually to people who have made an outstanding contribution to the life and work of the Church nationally and/or internationally.

As the Public Engagement Program Coordinator for Alongside Hope since 2010, and the Latin America and Caribbean Program Coordinator for the nine years preceding, Rumsey has made a significant contribution to the work of Alongside Hope (formerly PWRDF). The job change in 2010 came following a restructuring at Alongside Hope. To deal with the change and begin her new job, Rumsey rode her bicycle 1,400 km from General Synod in Halifax to St. Anne-de-Bellevue on the island of Montreal, site of the 1959 General Synod that created PWRDF. Dubbed “Le Tour de PWRDF,” Rumsey was welcomed into parishes and spoke about the work of PWRDF along her route.

Watch Rumsey’s video reflection on her tour.

She has contributed to, written and edited education resources for Lent and Advent, about food security, climate change, refugees and more. She has created worship liturgies for parishes that open people’s hearts to the work of our partners. The Sharing Bread trilogy was a centre piece of the Fred Says food security campaign that ran from 2013-2016.

During the pandemic, Rumsey spear-headed Praying with PWRDF, a weekly online worship that pulled together volunteers to stay connected to our work. Rumsey coordinated guest reflectors from all over the world, and found inspiring opening and closing music on YouTube. She led the “online parish” through the past five years, eventually moving from weekly to monthly services. When churches were in lockdown, the services were a lifeline for many people who expressed their appreciation time and again for the opportunity to be together.

But the defining mark of Rumsey’s time at Alongside Hope may well be Mapping the Ground We Stand On, a reconciliation workshop colloquially known as “the mapping exercise.” 

What debuted at PWRDF’s National Gathering in 2015 on five rolls of butcher paper with a hand drawn map of Canada has since grown to a full-colour vinyl rendering with 15 trained facilitators leading workshops – both virtual and in-person – across the country in Anglican and non-Anglican settings.

“I love maps,” says Rumsey in the introduction to the workshop. (Truth be told she says it often in everyday life, too). 

The impetus to create the Mapping Exercise was in response to the 94 Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Rumsey recalls: “Justice Murray Sinclair, who led the TRC, talked about how the process had shown us the mountain that we as a country needed to climb. For me, the Mapping Exercise is a step on our journey up that mountain. And as with all journeys, we need maps and we need others, to help us find our way.”

Born and raised in British Columbia, the daughter of a priest, Rumsey grew up in the church. She didn’t quite follow in her father’s footsteps but instead recently completed her Masters in Theology from Trinity College at University of Toronto; studies that have informed and enriched her work with Canadian Anglicans on behalf of Alongside Hope.

Reflecting on the award, Rumsey described how she has often been asked if and when she plans to become ordained. “While I am grateful for the question and the confidence in me that it represents, I am also aware that many view ordained ministry as the ‘real’ ministry in the church. And so the Anglican Award of Merit is, for me, an affirmation of the ministries of human rights defense, international development and justice education that I, in partnership and solidarity with so many others, have done over the past 35 years. And for that, I am deeply grateful.”