Priest and Deacon Ordained on Holy Cross Day

Standing before Bishop Stephen London, their parishes, family, friends and members of the Diocese of Edmonton, the Rev. Lisa Wojna and Jordan Giggey publicly answered the call of Christ to begin their new ministries as priest and transitional deacon.

“Lisa and Jordan, this evening is the beginning of a journey in which you are giving yourselves to Jesus Christ to be workers in the vineyard of the kingdom, to be ambassadors of reconciliation, to be proclaimers of the Gospel, to be living icons of the mercy and love of God,” said Bishop London addressing the ordinands during the Holy Cross Day service, held September 14, 2023, at All Saints’ Cathedral in Edmonton.

“The Feast of the Holy Cross is particularly profound because at the heart of it is the cross of Jesus Christ, the great sign of God’s love for the world where Christ died for the sins of the world and reconciled the world to God,” continued Bishop London in his Homily.

“To see Christ on the cross is to say that God’s love does not only shine in perfect places to perfect people God’s love goes to the darkest corners to bring hope and healing and goodness and mercy. God is always the shepherd going to the margins. We go to the cross because it shows us that we don’t have to hide from God in our failures, and shame, and sin. Whatever we hide from other people, we don’t have to hide from God because God is already there. God knows inside God’s own heart your pain… and has compassion.”

The cross is also a reminder that the church is broken, he said. “We are coming out of a hard history where we know well that our church has not lived into the values of the Kingdom of God. We have run residential schools, we have denied the LGBTQ2+ community full inclusion, and we have often in history been a church of the wealthy and powerful…

“Yet we remember the cross leads to resurrection, said Bishop London. “Today we are in a profound and exciting time of reformation, and we see glimpses of God transforming our beloved church,” he said looking upward to the back of the cathedral, where stained glass windows, designed by local artist Brenda Malkinson in consultation with the Ven. Travis Enright (Archdeacon for Reconciliation and Decolonization) and Indigenous elders, let light through to the chapel. These windows are a “beautiful icon of renewal.”

Though the Rev. Lisa Wojna says she may have always felt God’s presence in her life, but it was not until she was driving past Taylor Seminary in Edmonton, at age 53, that “I recognised I needed to place effort behind that calling. I began the process of discernment in a serious way, aided by my priest at the time, the Rev. Susan Ormsbee. She has been instrumental in my journey throughout,” says Wojna, a member of St. Paul’s, Leduc. As a chaplain at Grey Nuns Community Hospital, Wojna hopes to now be able to “bring the sacramental part of my ministry to my Anglican patients when requested.”

“I always say that God took the scenic route with me,” says the Rev. Jordan Giggey, a theological student and member of St. Mary’s, Edmonton.

Giggey who was ordained as a transitional deacon says he, too, has felt called to ministry from the time “I was a small child going to mass with my dad at a Polish Catholic church.” Yet, he says during his adolescent and teenage years, “I spent a long time ignoring God's call.” 

Former Dean of Edmonton the Rev. Neil Gordon and, more recently, the Ven. Travis Enright, rector of St. Mary’s and St. Faith’s, Edmonton, were his “formational and instrumental mentors.”

Serving people through St. Mary’s food bank ministry and the Queer Beginnings queer-affirming community, as well as Queerly Beloved, a working group of the diocesan social justice committee, has enabled him to “etch out a space for those of us who had been pushed out, in one way or another, to reclaim our spirituality and have a welcome space.” 

Embracing his calling, Giggey often reflects on a message he shared with St. George’s, Devon when he served there during the summer: “When you choose to have that firm faith in the Lord's call and listen to what God is calling you to do, the Lord truly does provide.”

Holy Cross Day Ordination Sermon