As 2025 came to a close and the diocese marked the end of its 150th year, Bishop Susan Bell announced the mission designation of St. Luke’s Mission, effective January 1st, 2026. This was the third initiative to earn this status in 2025 under Canon 4.9.
“This is a fitting way to conclude our 150th anniversary year as a diocese, and welcome a new year full of hope and possibility, trusting in God’s daily provision,” said Bishop Susan Bell. “St. Luke’s Mission, led by the Spirit, builds on the Anglo-Catholic legacy of its forbears who worshiped at the church for generations.”
The St. Luke’s Community was established in 2019 under the leadership of then church-planted Rob Miller. The community began with millennial adults as a residential praying community in the north end of Hamilton. Rooted in the Anglican sacramental and Catholic traditions, the community has developed a consistent rhythm of worship and prayer, fostering a stable and engaged membership, shaped over time by its life as a praying community. This initiative also helped to form an ecumenical community of common prayer, which is now a collaboration across the city.
The community grew from a group of disillusioned and over-extended Christians looking to reinvigorate their faith. Through Anglo-Catholic and mystical traditions, the group explores their faith through slow-paced liturgy and a deeply sacramental rhythm of morning and evening prayer. The simple, liturgical morning and evening prayers offer silence, scripture, and stillness, allowing individuals space away from the noisy world to reflect deeply on their encounters with God in their daily lives.
At the heart of life together at St. Luke’s is the Sunday Eucharist. Rooted in the Anglican Catholic tradition, the worship engages the community, inviting all to the table to encounter the risen Christ. By inviting the community to engage in this deep sacramental act of remembrance, transformation and sending members become signs of Christ’s presence in the world.
Another core piece of the mission is the importance of building relationships with each other and God’s creation. St. Luke lives out its Christian mission through hospitality, art events, storytelling over shared meals at community potlucks and weekly meals at Fisher’s, a local pub, building relationships with each other and their neighbours. Spaces of solidarity, healing, and contemplative witness are offered through prayer shrines and vigils during times of grief or crisis. “With this community, we’ve really taken care of each other in a special way,” says Holly Campbell Gale, volunteer at the mission. “Several of us have gone through a really difficult last year with loss and with struggles within our families, and we’ve really shown up for one another.”
Focusing on creation, the community has cultivated land behind the church, creating a community garden to serve as a central space for community life, food and collaboration. Prayer events mark the change of seasons, and St. Luke’s gathers for community work days where they share in the care of the community garden, the property, and the building, fostering a life of shared responsibility.
Guided by the Spirit, what had recently become an empty church on John Street in Hamilton, St. Luke’s found a renewed vitality through sustained missional development. The community has grown to 30 people bearing witness to Christ’s presence in our world.
As a designated diocesan mission, an advisory board has been appointed by Synod Council to help support the work of the ordained missioner, the development of a Mission Action Plan with Bishop Susan, a missional mandate and new ministry goals and benchmarks. These goals will help the mission to also develop a long-term financial plan, ensuring it will stay a thriving missional community in North End Hamilton for years to come.
Remembering Nicodemus