When The Venerable Nancy Northgrave answered the call to serve in Mistissini, a Cree First Nation in northern Quebec, she didn’t know what to expect. What she found was a deeply spiritual, resilient community—and an experience that would leave a lasting mark on her ministry.
“Oh my gosh, I would do it again in a heartbeat,” she said. “I absolutely loved it. The people were very, very welcoming and friendly—far more accepting of the church than I expected.”
Mistissini, a community of about 3,000 to 4,000 people, surprised her in many ways. “I went with all my preconceived notions because of residential schools,” she admitted. “I presumed I’d only wear my clergy shirt on Sundays and be in plainclothes the rest of the time. But they wanted me to wear it everywhere. They were so excited to have a priest there—a visible symbol of their faith.”
That visibility opened doors. “Because I had the clergy shirt on, people wanted to talk to me. Strangers who had nothing to do with the church wanted to talk to me about God.”
Nancy was struck by the community’s strength and foresight. “Because of the 1975 James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (JBNQA), there’s no food bank in Mistissini—because they don’t need one. They’ve looked after their people so well.” She was impressed by their housing model: “You rent your house from the band council, and after 20 years—if you’ve taken care of it—those payments go toward your mortgage. You now own your house. Just smart stuff.”
She also saw a deep commitment to healing. “There’s a little community of tiny houses where people can go when they’re detoxing from alcohol or drug addiction. It’s a place to get a fresh start. I was so impressed.”
The church in Mistissini hadn’t had a regular priest in nearly seven years. “Their lay readers take the services. They’ve done the work to ensure that they continue to have Sunday services. Before I left, I blessed some extra bread and wine for them to use for communion to be administered by the lay readers from the reserved sacrament.”
She also served in a neighboring parish, two and a half hours away, where she led a funeral and baptisms. “The funeral was a two-day event. You do prayers with the family and the rest of the community the night before at the church, while people are still wandering around, visiting the casket, telling stories. There’s music, snacks, Gatorade, corn chips, desserts. It’s more than just liturgy—there’s a whole rhythm to how the evening unfolds. The following day is the full funeral service.”
With no hotel in town, she and her dog Farley were billeted with a local couple. “I don’t think they were crazy about my dog coming in,” she laughed. “Dogs are treated differently in the north. A dog is not supposed to be in the house—especially not in the bedroom!”
She also had to adjust to ‘Indian time,’ a term the community uses themselves. “The service was set to start at 10:00. Each week I would be asked to wait. At 10:10, I said, ‘It’s time to start, right Helen?’ She said, ‘No, not yet.’ At 10:20, she said, ‘OK, you can start now.’” But she came to appreciate the slower pace. “They sang each hymn very slowly, very prayerfully, almost like they were praying and savouring each syllable of each word. When I began to see that and honour that, I could better appreciate it. Why would you rush that?”
Each service included hymns and scripture in both Cree and English. “They are reclaiming their language and their culture. It is beautiful to see how they are working both their language and their traditions in with living their faith as Anglicans.”
On her final Sunday, Nancy shared how paddling in her kayak was a form of prayer. “When I’m out on the water, it’s just you and God and the wind and the waves. They agreed that God is in the middle of all that—the rocks, the land, the water. That’s core to their faith and their experience of God.”
Would she return? “Absolutely. A month was the perfect amount of time. I was missing my kids and my parish, but I would go again if my bishop and parish were open to it.”
She encourages other clergy to prayerfully consider a placement in the Diocese of Moosonee. “You need to go with an open mind. Things are very different from the way we do church. Your job is to embrace them, love them, and walk with them.”
In Today’s World…