Meet our new rector! (The following are excerpts from an article by Gisele McKnight on "My Journey Here - Maria Shepherson. April 23, 2024)
In 1965, on the day the Rev. Maria Byrne Shepherdson was born, the family lived in the last house on an estate on the outskirts of Dublin, Ireland. Her father had to run a half mile to the nearest phone box to summon an ambulance.
At that time, telephones were a luxury, as were automobiles. The Byrnes had neither. Her father worked as an musical instrument maker — a family tradition that went back centuries, but did not pay all the bills.
Maria, named after her mother and pronounced MAR – ia, was the first of three daughters born into a strict, staunchly Roman Catholic family where the church ruled virtually every aspect of their lives. The children knew better than to ask uncomfortable questions.
Maria was the first in her family to attend university, and she pursued higher learning with gusto. She studied history, Latin and the classics at University College of Dublin. At night she earned a degree in music and Italian and trained as a teacher for non-English speakers. She also studied holistic medicine, due to her arthritic condition which began in her teens.
While teaching in Libya, she joined a dart league, where she met Phil Shepherdson from New Zealand. They were later married by the Rev. Clare Herbert, one of the first ordained women in the Church of England, at St. Martin in the Fields. Now a practicing Anglican, she knew her family would not attend unless there was a Catholic priest at the altar.
“We were saddened by the absence of my family, but delighted to see so many close friends who are family in all but name,” she said.
For Phil, from New Zealand, denominational faith was not complicated at all. But it was literally the core of her family’s identity in Ireland.
In 2004, she entered full-time stipendiary ministry training.
“It was a three-year process to bash me into shape,” she said. “That’s what it was — I was being formed. I was completely stripped away.”
She was ordained a deacon in 2007, a priest in 2008 and continued to serve in the Bristol area.
In 2021 during her sabbatical, she undertook a research project to investigate the relationship between Christianity and pagan/alternative spiritualities.
“During the sabbatical, I went to Goth festivals, fairy festivals, steam punk festivals,” she said. “I sat with people confirmed in all the great faiths and brands of Christianity who had walked away from church, but not necessarily away from Christ.”
What she found from her research was that 85 per cent of the people had once been part of the Christian church.
‘Phil and I always had an affinity to Canada,’” she said, adding they had a dream to explore North America in an RV, but in retirement. They had always assumed they were too old to qualify for working.
After some discussion, Maria made a bold promise: If an ad appeared in the Church Times for Vancouver, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island or Newfoundland, she would apply. She said this knowing full well there hadn’t been a Canadian ad for a priest since 2017.
That was a Tuesday. On Friday, the Church Times was published — with an ad for the Parishes of Woodstock and Richmond.
“We laughed! My heart leapt! And I threw together a CV,” she said. “And I found myself being interviewed by the warmest group of parish reps I’ve ever encountered. The way we just talked back and forth was a delight.”
In the meantime, she met Archbishop David and Debbie Edwards while they were in the UK last summer. She had a chat with Shawn Branch, director of mission and ministry and the bishop's liaison in the Archdeaconry of Woodstock.
She was shepherded through the process with much help from Cheryl Jacobs and Ben Bourque, “who kept me from pulling my hair out!” she said.
They decided to pray about it, sleep on it and ask God for answers the next morning. He did not disappoint.
When the phone rang the following day, it wasn’t God, but Archbishop David, telling Phil the diocese needed a synod treasurer, and was he interested in applying. Shortly after, Maria’s employment contract arrived.
“We took that as a final sign, and that’s how we ended up in Canada,” she said.
As of March 1, Maria is the rector of the Parishes of Richmond and Woodstock. She and Phil are settling into their new jobs, as Phil was the preferred candidate in the search for a new treasurer. They live in the Richmond rectory.
