Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 3, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba SE T T E R S T CARON AVE L O N S D A L E D R H A L L O N Q U I S T D R B O O T H D R S T U R G E O N R O A D S T U R G E O N R O A D GRACE HOSPITAL SC II P O R T A G E A V E N U E SC I Sturgeon Creek I Sturgeon Creek II Beautiful 1 Bedroom Suite Call Santana at 204.202.1870 NOW AVAILABLE Call Today! 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The RCMP issued an internal memo recently calling for members across the country to help ad- dress a shortage of staff in Manitoba and Saskatch- ewan by relocating for a few weeks this winter and spring. The “hard” vacancy rate in Manitoba, which ac- counts for unfilled positions and includes non-front- line jobs, hovered around five per cent a few years ago, McMurchy said, but has since tripled. Add to that so-called “soft” vacancies for things like par- ental or medical leave, and the number of empty slots is higher, especially in the North. “We’re running in some places at 50 per cent,” McMurchy said. Having to rotate people into areas of high vacan- cies is not unusual in northern areas of the country, but municipal leaders in southern Manitoba have complained of a recent spike in vacancies in their areas. Officials have cited several factors. Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore, in charge of Saskatchewan’s RCMP, has said a policy instituted two years ago that allows cadets to choose initial placements did not benefit Saskatch- ewan and Manitoba. The union representing front-line Mounties said Manitoba members are under severe workload stress and some have suffered burnout after a re- cord 58 homicides in rural RCMP-covered areas last year. McMurchy says the RCMP has begun prioritiz- ing new applicants from Manitoba in hopes that they will start their careers in the province. The union has said the force has also promised to speed up applicant processing — a complex task that includes thorough background checks — in or- der to get new officers in the field quickly. The RCMP is also looking at reviving recruit- ment advertising campaigns. — The Canadian Press NEWS I LOCAL / WORLD G EOFF Woodcroft announced he would soon be retiring as bishop of the Anglican diocese of Ru- pert’s Land; less than 24 hours later, he was at Victoria Hospital fighting for his life. Woodcroft, 63, got out of hospital later that week, in late October, with a life-changing diagnosis: Stage 4 colon cancer. Today, he is on long-term disability as he undergoes chemotherapy treatments. He will adminis- tratively remain bishop of the diocese until March 18. “Life changed overnight for me,” he said. Woodcroft had felt some discomfort and pain for a few months prior, but he believed it was not terribly ser- ious. On the day he got home from the synod, he felt something more serious was happening. “By evening, I was voiding blood. I went to hospital and collapsed in emergency. They called a ‘code blue’ on me. I was in bad shape,” he said. His life since that time has been “a whirlwind of big changes,” he said. “I lost everything I had been.” Support from his family — his wife, Jennifer, also an Anglican priest in the city — and from friends and col- leagues is getting him through the tough time. “People stepped right up,” he said. “God made sure the right people were there at the right time.” So far, he’s dealing well with chemotherapy. “I’m just fatigued all the time,” Woodcroft said, adding the tu- mour seems to be shrinking. At the same time, “I know how serious it is,” he said. “The average survival rate is three years, but as my oncologist says, ‘miracles do happen.’ I’m hoping and praying he’s right.” Woodcroft’s overwhelming feeling now is that of gratitude for the life he has been able to lead. That in- cludes his years of ministry following ordination as a priest in Ontario in 1990, his time as chaplain at St. John’s College at the University of Manitoba, then serv- ing as priest at St. Paul’s in Fort Garry and, in 2018, being elected bishop of Rupert’s Land, which covers southern Manitoba and northwestern Ontario. Highlights of his time as bishop include working with Indigenous Anglicans on issues related to recon- ciliation, and incorporating Indigenous spirituality and practices into the diocese. “That issue was at the forefront of my heart,” he said. Another significant event was the pandemic, which changed the way parishes operated, and how the dio- cese helped lead the way for Anglicans in Canada when it recognized same-sex marriage and affirmed LGBTTQ+ and transgender people as priests. “We ran ahead of the national Church on that... We did it as a pastoral response to people in the diocese.” Discipleship — how Christians can follow Jesus in daily life — was also close to his heart. “For me, it’s not about how many people go to church on Sunday,” he said. “I’m more interested in people be- ing the church with their neighbours, at work and in the community, being less parish-centred and more fo- cused on the world outside the church walls.” As for regrets, a big one is that his busy schedule as bishop didn’t give him enough time to practise what he was preaching in this area. “I wanted to show people what I meant by discipleship by doing it, not just by talking about it,” he said. Another area he wished he had more time to work on is what to do with old church buildings that are too cost- ly to maintain. “Buildings are legacy resources, gifted to us from previous generations to find creative ways to use them today,” Woodcroft said. “It’s exciting to think of how we can use those gifts.” For him, this means encouraging Anglicans not to focus on buildings but to ask “what the Church is here for… the focus should be on serving the community. If a building helps us do that, fine. If not, let’s not be afraid to try something new.” All that is in the past. Right now, Woodcroft is focused on chemotherapy treatments — he wears a bottle pump for 48 hours every two weeks — and spending more time in prayer each day. “I wake every day in a posture of gratitude,” he said, adding he likes not being wedded to a computer, the phone and a schedule. “The cancer has given me a different sense of purpose and meaning… I’m at peace with whatever comes.” For Cathy Campbell, a retired Anglican priest, Wood- croft was positive, constructive and creative in the search for solutions. “He had a vision for the Church that was inclusive, respectful, and vital,” she said. Murray Still is co-chair of the Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples. He said Woodcroft “was very posi- tive” toward Indigenous people in the diocese, including them in leadership at synods. “He helped change the way we do business, incorpor- ating a more Indigenous way of being,” he said. “He is a good friend of Indigenous people.” Ryan Turnbull, who directs discipleship ministries for the diocese, said talking about that topic with Wood- croft was where he saw him “come alive… it was an ab- solute pleasure to work with him.” Simon Blaikie worked with Woodcroft as executive archdeacon for the diocese. For him, Woodcroft is a kind and compassionate per- son who “proved to be patient in often difficult circum- stances and consistently searched for the path that he believed Jesus would travel… I am confident that when Geoff stands before our Lord, may it be many years from now, that he will be greeted with, ‘Well done my good and faithful servant.’” faith@freepress.mb.ca MONDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2025 JOHN LONGHURST / FREE PRESS Geoff Woodcroft, the bishop of the Anglican diocese of Rupert’s Land, undergoes chemotherapy treat- ments at home. He has been diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer. Prayer for a miracle, reflecting on a good life JOHN LONGHURST Anglican bishop weathering cancer treatment on eve of retirement He said they could “strengthen security, broad- en the circle of peace and achieve a remarkable era of peace through strength.” The war began when thousands of Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostage. Over 100 were freed during a weeklong ceasefire in November 2023, eight have been rescued alive and dozens of bodies have been recovered by Israeli forces. Israel’s air and ground war has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to local health authorities who do not say how many of the dead were fight- ers. The war has left large parts of several cities in ruins and displaced around 90 per cent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million. Under the ceasefire’s first phase, Hamas is to release 33 hostages, eight of whom Hamas says are dead, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Israeli forces have pulled back from most areas and allowed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return to devastated northern Gaza while aid flows in. Negotiations on the second phase, which would end the war and see the remaining 60 or so hostag- es returned, are set to begin today with mediators from the U.S., Qatar and Egypt. “We started already engaging with the parties in order to define the agenda and to start engag- ing in those discussions,” Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said Sunday, adding that, “we hope that we start to see some movement in the next few days.” Trump’s Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, joined the yearlong ceasefire negotiations last month and helped push the agreement over the finish line. He met with Netanyahu in Israel last week and they were expected to formally begin talks on the second phase today. Trump, who brokered normalization agreements between Israel and four Arab countries in his first term, is believed to be seeking a wider agreement in which Israel would forge ties with Saudi Arabia. But the kingdom has said it would only agree to such a deal if the war ends and there is a credible pathway to a Palestinian state in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories Israel cap- tured in the 1967 Mideast war. On Sunday, Jordan said its king had been invited to meet with Trump at the White House on Feb. 11. Jordan also supports Palestinian statehood and has rejected Trump’s suggestion to relocate Palestin- ians from Gaza there and to Egypt. Netanyahu’s government is opposed to Palestin- ian statehood, and a key partner, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, has threatened to leave the governing coalition if the war is not resumed next month. That would raise the likelihood of ear- ly elections in which Netanyahu could be voted out. While the Gaza ceasefire has held for two weeks, Israel has increased operations in the occupied West Bank. On Sunday, the military said it was expanding an operation focused on the volatile city of Jenin to the town of Tamun and said it has killed more than 50 “terrorists” so far. — The Associated Press NETANYAHU ● FROM A1 Request for fill-in Mounties working in Manitoba: commander STEVE LAMBERT ;