Four new priests bring spiritual and practical gifts to the diocese

By Ana Watts
The Rev. Kevin Cross, the Rev. Dick Black, the Rev. Jasmine Chandra and the Rev. Michael Caines were ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Claude Miller at Christ Church Cathedral on March 28. All four were appointed to parishes when they were ordained deacons and remain in those placements. And all four traveled very different roads on the way to ordination. Left to right in the photo are Mr. Cross, Parish of McAdam; Mr. Black, Parish of Salisbury and Havelock; Ms. Chandra, Parish of Rothesay; Bishop Miller; Mr. Cains, Parish of the Nerepis and St. John; Bishop George Lemmon, preacher; and Dean Keith Joyce.

If ever there were a “typical” New Brunswick Anglican candidate for ordination, it certainly isn’t Kevin Cross. He grew up outside Detroit in what he describes as “a fairly typical Irish Catholic clan,” with an atypical Scottish nanny who he calls his spiritual director.

Kevin felt called to a religious vocation many times through his childhood and teenage years but when the time came, he opted to follow family tradition and enrolled in pre-medical courses at Tufts University near Boston. He abandoned those studies to concentrate on psychology and German, then concentrated on an engaging young woman by the name of Barbara who, like he, loved the ocean and nature. He calls their marriage another step along the path towards spiritual growth.

Kevin went on to do graduate work in clinical social work and established a private practice dedicated mostly to individual, family and group psychology. A few years later he decided to use his skills in the broader world of business, focusing on the problems of alcohol and drug addiction.

“However, once again, God had a different path in mind for me,” says Kevin. “Rather than a career in employee assistance, I was led to a career in human resources.”

His next change was faith rather than business based. He, Barbara and their sons Michael and Tim began to attend an Episcopal church. Once again heard God’s call to ordained priesthood, this time more strongly and passionately than ever before. As far as he is concerned, the timing was just right. He had the insight and compassion he needed to heed the call.

He continued to work while he studied at the Episcopal Divinity School. In his final year he left the business world and worked as a chaplain at a local hospital, often with adolescents and adults suffering from addiction and mental health issues, and he coordinated several award winning conferences on adolescents, addiction and spiritual care.

At the mid-point of his studies he received an invitation from Bishop Miller’s office to consider applying as a postulant for this diocese. He retains his interest in adoelescents with addictions.

If Kevin’s story is unique for this area, Michael Caines’ is quintessential. A cradle Anglican, he grew up in Trinity Church, Sussex where he was mentored by several Anglican clergy over the years. “I discovered as a young university student that there was nothing worth more than the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ and following him where he leads you.”

One of the places Christ let Mike was to Uganda. He and his wife Anna spent a year at Bishop McAllister School with Canon Paul Jeffries, teaching, building and filling the entire school with music.

He studied theology at Wycliffe College and was the 2007-08 Senior Student. Now he is the assistant curate in the Nerepis and St. John and enjoys using his leadership skills in full-time ministry.

He’s grateful to his parents, Daryl and Ann Caines, and his mother-in-law Kathleen Ford for all their patience and support. He reserves a special thank-you for his wife Anna Caines, “for being the most amazing woman in the world and for challenging me to be all that I can in Christ.”

Jasmine Chandra called her thank-you to the Parish of Rothesay for their warm and enthusiastic welcome “Across the Ocean, Across the Country and Finally Here.” Just like it sounds, it’s a pretty long and involved story.

Her parents are missionaries with a Christian radio organization and her family left for the mission field when Jasmine was still a toddler. “But before you start picturing us living in a grass hut somewhere on the African continent, you should know that we were in fact sent to Monaco. During our 12 years in Monaco my brother and I attended the local French speaking public schools and we have maintained our bilingualism to this day.”

Her family returned to Canada in 1994 — the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia to be precise — so Jasmine and her brother could complete their high school education in English. Their faith community was an Evangelical Missionary church in their neighbourhood and she credits the youth group there for getting her through her crazy, culture-shocked teenage years.

“As my faith and understanding of God gathered strength and depth, I started to think about how I could serve God with my life and my plans,” says Jasmine. She made study at Rocky Mountain Bible College in Calgary her first step. The same week she moved to Calgary her parents moved to North Carolina. Without her parents around to tell her where to go to church, she decided to go “shopping.”

“Over the course of a year and a half I attended about 30 churches from many different denominations. All my searching finally landed me in an Anglican church just across the street from where I lived. After just a couple of Sundays, I knew that I had found a spiritual home. I started getting involved in the parish and soon began hearing a call from God to become a minister.”

With a BA in Christian education and a counseling major from Rocky Mountain, she went to Toronto. “ I enrolled in the three-year Masters of Divinity program at Wycliffe College without ever having seen a female priest, though they were rumoured to exist.”

In her first year at Wycliffe she met Terence Chandra, a senior student from Fredericton. They were married a few weeks after she graduated. She got to know New Brunswick during an internship at the parishes of Waterford and St. Mark’s in Sussex Corner.

Like many young couples just starting out, finding work for both of them in the same field, in the same place at the same time was a challenge. When she first joined Terence he was in a curacy position in the Woodstock and Canterbury parishes. Then he was appointed priest-in-charge of the Parish of Andover. The only work Jasmine could find was as director of Camp Brookwood for the summer.

Last fall, however, everything fell into place. She was appointed to a two-year term as assistant curate at Rothesay, with responsibility for youth programs, and Terence was appointed priest-in-charge of the Parish of Simonds for a two-year term.

Like Michael and Jasmine, Dick Black is yet another Wycliffe graduate. Like Kevin, he has also already had a successful career in business. He’s well liked by the people of the Parish of Salisbury-Havelock where he has been since last July. They like him so much they rented a big bus to drive them all to Fredericton so they could be with him in the cathedral when he was ordained a priest. They almost missed it. The bus was held up by an accident on the highway and they arrived at the cathedral just in time to see the bishop lay hands on him.

Diocesan Communications
05 May 2009