In the Canadian Anglican Church, April 2nd is the commemoration day of the Reverend Henry Budd, Sr. Henry Budd has a complex life story which has often been reduced to “the first ordained Indigenous Anglican minister in North America”.  Of course, that is true and should be celebrated.  However, Budd’s life, work, and ministry encompass much more than his ground-breaking ordination. Henry Budd was a passionate Christ-follower, who was also an educator, translator, farmer, community leader, husband, and father.  His story is full of trial and tragedy, as well as love for his community and his land. 

Budd served the Church Missionary Society (CMS) for 35 years and his duties were myriad and many!  He opened and ran schools, teaching in Cree and English. He ministered in his communities, leading prayers every day, multiple services on Sunday in both Cree and English, Wednesday night “lectures”, and presided at hundreds of baptisms, weddings, and funerals. Budd translated Scripture, hymns, and teachings into Cree, and taught multiple European missionaries the Cree language serving as translator when needed.  In addition, Budd worked the land, planting gardens and crops, raising cattle, working alongside his community in fish camps and hay field. He literally helped build the communities he served and he took many trips by canoe, dogsled, horseback, and on foot to serve other communities along the Saskatchewan River.

We know a fair amount about Budd’s life and ministry because as a CMS missionary, Budd wrote journals and sent them to England. These journals detailed his life, ministry, and some of his reflections. Obviously, as they were written to send back to the CMS in England, we can imagine that Budd shared what he believed his overseers would want to know. Sadly, we don’t have any personal correspondence that reflects Budd’s unedited thoughts – but we still can know a lot about Henry Budd’s life and ministry (for all of his life was ministry), as well as his belief system. We also learn much about the world of northern Manitoba during the mid- 19th Century from the perspective of a Cree man, which is truly remarkable!

Some of Budd’s later journals have been published, and Dr. J. Keith Hyde is finishing transcribing the rest of the unpublished journals to one day make them available to communities.  Look for that material in the near future.

Budd was an incredible man, serving in a complex time and place, but through it all, his commitment to Christ and the gospel was constantly shown in the way he served the people. We honour his legacy and pray that we would all find ways to emulate the best of who Budd was – a dedicated minister of the gospel who loved and served his community with the love of Jesus. Budd’s legacy continues on in the work, sacrifices, and ministry of his spiritual descendants – Indigenous clergy, as well as countless others who serve Christ and their communities as tirelessly as Budd did. Henry Budd College for Ministry is committed to training and supporting the ministry of Indigenous and northern leaders in furthering God’s kin-dom

Collect of the day:
Creator of light,
you called your servant Henry Budd
to labour as a father in the Spirit
among the people who gave him birth.
Make your Church, we pray,
a place of justice and dignity for all peoples,
that around the fire of your gospel
we may raise true songs of praise
in the communion of your love;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever, Amen.