Colin Johnson (bishop)
- For the first-class cricketer, see Colin Johnson (cricketer).
- For the Australian writer see Mudrooroo.
Colin R. Johnson is the current Anglican Archbishop of Toronto. He is an alumnus of Trinity College in the University of Toronto.
The Most Reverend Colin Robert Johnson is the 11th Diocesan Bishop of Toronto [1]. He is the chief pastor of some 400,000 Anglicans in the Diocese, with pastoral oversight of its 257 parishes. It is the largest Anglican diocese in Canada and one of the largest in North America.
Archbishop Johnson was elected suffragan bishop by diocesan Synod on April 23, 2003 at the Cathedral Church of St. James (Toronto) and was consecrated on June 21, 2003 to serve as the area bishop of Trent-Durham, the eastern region of the diocese. He was elected diocesan bishop on June 12, 2004, and installed as the 11th Bishop of Toronto on Sept. 12, 2004. He succeeded Archbishop Terence Finlay, who retired on June 4, 2004 after serving as diocesan bishop for over 15 years. Bishop John Strachan was the first bishop of Toronto when the diocese was created in 1839.
On October 15, 2009 Archbishop Johnson was elected Metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario. The Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario includes the dioceses of Moosonee, Algoma, Ontario, Ottawa, Toronto, Niagara and Huron. It extends from the Great Lakes in the south to the shores of James Bay in the north, and from Martin Falls (Ogoki Post) in western Ontario to Val D’Or in northern Quebec, and Cornwall, Ont., in the east. Collectively, Anglicans in the Province represent more than half of the Anglican population in the whole of Canada.
Archbishop Johnson succeeds Archbishop Caleb Lawrence of the Diocese of Moosonee, who has been the Metropolitan since 2004.
Born in 1952[1], ArchBishop Johnson was educated at the University of Western Ontario and received his Master of Divinity degree from Trinity College in 1977. He was made a deacon in 1977, ordained to the priesthood in 1978 and served a number of parishes in the Diocese of Toronto before becoming Executive Assistant to the Diocesan Bishop in 1992 and Archdeacon of York in 1994. He was awarded the degrees Doctor of Divinity (honoris causa) by Wycliffe College, Toronto and by Trinity College in 2005.
He is married to Ellen (Smith). They have three children: Andrea, Rachel and Timothy and one grandchild, Keira.