A Tribute to Canon Brent Stiller
From Bishop Charlie a tribute to our beloved partner in the Gospel, The Reverend Dr. Canon Gordon Brent Stiller, on behalf of the ANiC House of Bishops
As many of you may know on Friday, January 13th the Rev. Dr. Canon Brent Stiller, rector of St. Peter & St. Paul’s in Ottawa was promoted to glory. For many of us, we would have seen Canon Brent at Synod just a few months ago leading us all as our Host Rector, with joy and much life. To now hear that he has been called home is difficult to comprehend and accept. A sudden diagnosis of lymphoma just weeks ago lead quickly to his passing peacefully in his hospital bed.
Canon Brent has been a very influential and beloved presence in our diocese for many years as a priest, rector, Canon of Clergy Care, and dear friend. And so I have been commissioned by our Diocesan Bishop and our House of Bishops to mark his passing as best as I can and give thanks to God for his life with us.
Outpouring of Love
Pastor Michelle Terwilleger, Vicar of St. Peter & St. Paul’s Anglican Church wrote to the parish family of the death of Canon Brent, their Rector and Pastor, the very day he was promoted to glory and our Diocesan Bishop Dan Gifford later shared the news with all our ANiC Diocesan Clergy the next day. Since then there has been a great outpouring of love and prayer for his family and his parish, and even for our Diocesan family as well.
January 15, 2023, two days after Canon Brent’s death, was a Sunday. Online one could join St. Peter & St. Paul’s regular Sunday worship service. What a testimony to Canon Brent’s faithful ministry was that service! There was no mistaking even online that here was a church family in shock and grieving greatly but “not as those without hope”. The Gospel which Canon Brent had proclaimed week by week, his family and Parish family were now clinging to by faith, looking to Bible passages prescribed for that day and partaking of the sacrament, in these ways “encouraging one another” just as the Apostle Paul comforted us in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. And what a comfort knowing that in the very Gospel which Canon Brent faithfully proclaimed, he himself is now experiencing fully and completely being “at home with the Lord”. (2 Corinthians 5:4-8)
Then on Monday, January 16th the family posted a tender and beautifully written tribute to a man they obviously love so much, knew so well, enjoyed so deeply and in whom they are completely assured of his love for them and his safety and peace in heaven with Jesus.
Across the Diocese
Bishop Dan and all our bishops have been profoundly affected by Canon Brent’s passing. We have a deep sense of personal loss as well as loss for our whole Diocese, as so many of us from coast to coast have received great encouragement and help from this man.
And also we grieve his loss as a man who was made a Canon to give leadership for our Diocesan Clergy Care, which he tended to with such passion and wisdom (how wonderful to continue this ministry, the family has just helped set up a fund for Clergy Care in his name). His leadership included an extensive teaching and mentoring ministry which he has always offered as a parish priest to many beginning in ministry, but he had also just accepted an appointment as an adjunct professor of our recently launched Diocesan Theological College, Packer College.
Personal Reflections
For me, personally, I found Canon Brent to have a very special discernment. So often he seemed to just know what I might be feeling or thinking or quietly might be concerned about, and regularly by a text or a call he would reach and offer encouragement and prayerful support.
I also always enjoyed worshipping beside him, as he so obviously worshipped with his whole heart, as did King David.
He was a serious man of prayer. Whenever we had retreats at the Coptic Centre called, Valley of the Mother of God, Canon Brent was always there and fervently praying with us fellow clergy.
He was the perfect Canon for Clergy Care because standing with and encouraging clergy and their families was so much on his heart. In recent months, one of the things which was really bringing him joy was partnering with the Reverend Geoff Chapman of the American Anglican Council (AAC) Clergy Leadership Institute to form Clergy Care Groups which network pastors into safe and redemptive peer groups to pursue Christlike life together.
It is also of great significance to me that it was Canon Brent and his wonderful congregation of St. Peter & St. Paul’s who hosted our last two in person Synods, 2019 and 2022. That is extremely precious to me, for which I will always thank the Lord.
As I reflect on Canon Brent, I have known few with such a mix of gifts and skills: real, feet-on-the-ground, calling things what they are, tender and approachable as a pastor, incredibly competent in all he does, extremely funny, desperately leaning on the Holy Spirit, fully confident in the promises of God. And he is someone who loved the Anglican tradition, loved to see things done well to the glory of God (decently and in order), and through it all remained humbly approachable and ministered as a servant.
Canon Brent lived with the knowledge of the fragility of life and our mortality with courage, strength and grace and died peacefully.
And I heard a voice from heaven saying,
“Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Blessed indeed,’ says the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labours, for their deeds follow them!"
Revelation 14:13
Funeral Details
We grieve the passing of our friend and partner in the Gospel. We thank God for him and invite everyone to join his funeral service at 1pm on Thursday, January 19, 2023 either in person at St. Peter & St. Paul's or watch online. (Clergy, please come prepared to robe, the colour is white)
And as you do please pray and allow the faithful witness of this man of God’s life and ministry and passing to stir us up to more bold witness for Christ, our glorious hope in life and death.
Yours in Christ,
+Charlie
The Right Reverend Charlie Masters
Assisting Bishop and Bishop of Evangelism
on behalf of the House of Bishops