In 1983, it was still early days for women serving as priests in Niagara when the newly ordained Wendy Roy began to sweep away the cobwebs of complacency in the Church. She was in her early 30s, yet her resumé already pointed toward the ministry that would follow. Drawn to the cutting edge, she studied the student experience in McMaster’s new avant-garde Medical School, then worked with a McMaster surgeon researching breast cancer outcomes across North America. The work proved formative: Roy was named an author on the resulting publication, gained grounding in research methods, and developed the precision and integrity that would mark her future. Seeking broader outreach, she later became Coordinator of Ontario’s “Consumer Education Program for Disadvantaged People,” hiring, training and deploying summer students across the province while travelling by DC-3 and bush plane. By then, she was realizing her desire for outreach at a more personal level.
Roy approached Bishop John Bothwell about ordination to the priesthood, then enrolled in the MDiv program at Trinity College. Her developing self-awareness is evident in her own listing of her ministry interests: “mission, outreach, social justice, spiritual direction and women’s issues.” She was ordained deacon in 1982 and priest in 1983, serving first at St. James, Dundas, then St. Thomas’s, Hamilton, and finally as Executive Director of St. Matthew’s House.
Roy spent 19 years as executive director of St. Matthew’s House, creating programs, writing grant proposals, building partnerships with agencies and outreach groups, and receiving many awards that affirmed her commitment. Shortly after concluding that ministry, she suffered a massive stroke that removed her from active ministry and the floor of Diocesan Synods.
Roy died peacefully at her favourite place, the Haliburton cottage, on June 27, 2026.
I am indebted to her spouse, Dr. Dean Jeffries, PhD, for providing these details. They reveal her formative early adult years and the backstory of a life and ministry whose full force became clearer to me through my own encounters with her within the life of the Church.
What follows is more personal: a tribute shaped by my own experience of being ordained priest just five years after Roy. During seminary studies and early diocesan involvement, I became aware of her strength and presence. In those days, there were few women ahead of me in ordained ministry; Roy became one of the people who showed what was possible.
In parish ministry and at St. Matthew’s House, her compassion was unmistakable; at Diocesan Synods, so was her passion for justice. At the microphone, she was articulate, challenging the Church to examine its assumptions and widen its boundaries. She pressed for the just inclusion of women, including fair maternity leave and childcare supports. In those years, people diagnosed with AIDS were often shunned, and different expressions of sexuality were judged before they were understood. Roy challenged those assumptions and called the Church toward justice and compassion. On behalf of St. Matthew’s House, she reminded Synod of the needs of the hungry, unhoused and persecuted, advocating for those without a voice.
I sometimes feared her surgical analysis of our assumptions but came to see that such a reaction revealed our collective reluctance to remove our blinders. I respected her integrity, was captivated by her courage, and identified with her passion. In those moments, she was calling me to become more fully myself.
Bishop Asbil once told me that she repeatedly declined his appointment of her as a Canon of Christ’s Church Cathedral. She finally accepted when she understood the honour not as personal distinction, but as recognition of the importance of the work to which she had given herself.
In ministry, Wendy Roy was a tower of strength, embodying both the prophetic and priestly dimensions of the vocation we believe reflects the pattern of Jesus.
Well done, good and faithful servant!
A Tower of Strength: Remembering the Reverend Canon Wendy Roy
In 1983, it was still early days for women serving as priests in Niagara when the newly ordained Wendy Roy began to sweep away the cobwebs of complacency in the Church. She was in her early 30s, yet her resumé already pointed toward the ministry that would follow. Drawn to the cutting edge, she studied the student experience in McMaster’s new avant-garde Medical School, then worked with a McMaster surgeon researching breast cancer outcomes across North America. The work proved formative: Roy was named an author on the resulting publication, gained grounding in research methods, and developed the precision and integrity that would mark her future. Seeking broader outreach, she later became Coordinator of Ontario’s “Consumer Education Program for Disadvantaged People,” hiring, training and deploying summer students across the province while travelling by DC-3 and bush plane. By then, she was realizing her desire for outreach at a more personal level.
Roy approached Bishop John Bothwell about ordination to the priesthood, then enrolled in the MDiv program at Trinity College. Her developing self-awareness is evident in her own listing of her ministry interests: “mission, outreach, social justice, spiritual direction and women’s issues.” She was ordained deacon in 1982 and priest in 1983, serving first at St. James, Dundas, then St. Thomas’s, Hamilton, and finally as Executive Director of St. Matthew’s House.
Roy spent 19 years as executive director of St. Matthew’s House, creating programs, writing grant proposals, building partnerships with agencies and outreach groups, and receiving many awards that affirmed her commitment. Shortly after concluding that ministry, she suffered a massive stroke that removed her from active ministry and the floor of Diocesan Synods.
Roy died peacefully at her favourite place, the Haliburton cottage, on June 27, 2026.
I am indebted to her spouse, Dr. Dean Jeffries, PhD, for providing these details. They reveal her formative early adult years and the backstory of a life and ministry whose full force became clearer to me through my own encounters with her within the life of the Church.
What follows is more personal: a tribute shaped by my own experience of being ordained priest just five years after Roy. During seminary studies and early diocesan involvement, I became aware of her strength and presence. In those days, there were few women ahead of me in ordained ministry; Roy became one of the people who showed what was possible.
In parish ministry and at St. Matthew’s House, her compassion was unmistakable; at Diocesan Synods, so was her passion for justice. At the microphone, she was articulate, challenging the Church to examine its assumptions and widen its boundaries. She pressed for the just inclusion of women, including fair maternity leave and childcare supports. In those years, people diagnosed with AIDS were often shunned, and different expressions of sexuality were judged before they were understood. Roy challenged those assumptions and called the Church toward justice and compassion. On behalf of St. Matthew’s House, she reminded Synod of the needs of the hungry, unhoused and persecuted, advocating for those without a voice.
I sometimes feared her surgical analysis of our assumptions but came to see that such a reaction revealed our collective reluctance to remove our blinders. I respected her integrity, was captivated by her courage, and identified with her passion. In those moments, she was calling me to become more fully myself.
Bishop Asbil once told me that she repeatedly declined his appointment of her as a Canon of Christ’s Church Cathedral. She finally accepted when she understood the honour not as personal distinction, but as recognition of the importance of the work to which she had given herself.
In ministry, Wendy Roy was a tower of strength, embodying both the prophetic and priestly dimensions of the vocation we believe reflects the pattern of Jesus.
Well done, good and faithful servant!
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