By Cecilia Nasmith
COVID concerns made Cobourg resident Suzanne Lawson decide to skip the trip to Lambeth Palace in England a few weeks ago, where she would have joined 36 other accomplished individuals from four continents to accept her Langton Award for Community Service as part of the Archbishop of Canterbury's 2022 Lambeth Awards.
But the medal is in her hands now, and the citation that came with it cited her extensive background in non-profit governance and leadership as well as her service at every level of church life as an active volunteer, advocate and trainer.
“A passionate advocate for the voice of the laity in the councils of the Church, her exuberant joy in life and love for the Church are infectious!” it said.
In an interview this week, Suzanne singled out two other recipients with local ties. Bishop Philip Poole is a former chaplain at Port Hope's Trinity College School. And Archbishop Mark MacDonald (currently National Indigenous Anglican Bishop) was in Cobourg in 2004 shortly after Lawson's husband died as part of a workshop called An Advent Conference: Conversations Art Lawson Would Love to Have Been Part Of.
That would be The Rev. Canon Arthur Lawson, after whose passing she moved to Cobourg “because of the amazing Church of St. Peter. That has proven to be a marvellous faith community for me to become part of.”
Prior to that, the Lawsons were long-time Port Hopers, both alumni of Port Hope High School (and its honour roll). The future clergyman would be head of the English department at PHHS for 10 years, before the family moved to Toronto for a few years so he could study theology.
Suzanne would teach a year at PHHS, as well as occasionally as a sub. But those were the times when a mother stayed home with her children. She admits frankly she wasn't good at this.
“As my kids would tell you, I like them more every year they grow older,” she said.
“That is when I began my life of volunteering, which saved my life.”
Much of that took place in the church, and with the Canadian Cancer Society. She sold daffodils in front of the Beer Store and LCBO, became publicity director for the Port Hope Unit, and moved on to regional (and ultimately provincial) roles.
“I was given a huge opportunity by the Cancer Society,” she recalled.
“It was a time when they were paying attention to mentoring volunteers and volunteer leadership. They sent me to conferences, they gave us opportunities we would not have as a volunteer today.
“But it was early in the field of volunteer administration, which wasn't even named that at the time,” she recalled.
“A colleague and I wrote their first-ever volunteer handbook, and we just made it up based on the years we had worked with volunteers.”
The family's move to Toronto led to her first job outside of teaching, as Director of Public Education for what was then the Heart Foundation. She was the staff representative on the committee that would change its name to the Heart and Stroke Foundation – a controversial move at the time. She is proud of that effort, and of her work in strategic planning and developing the organization's volunteer structure.
After her years there, Suzanne moved on to become Executive Director for the Arthritis Society of Ontario. Four and a half years later, she shifted her focus and became Executive Director of Programming for the Anglican Church of Canada.
“Those were wonderful years,” she said, citing the changes both the church and society were undergoing in the 1990s.
“We were hearing stories from residential school survivors, who were Anglicans, coming to tell us what it was like, probably for the first time in their lives putting words to it.
“It was also as we were beginning to come to grips with how we would treat homosexual beings. I was watching major changes. We gradually did what we should always have done – accept God's people as God's people.
“Major systemic changes were happening in those years, for the Church and for society. I happen to have been connected to the church at that point, and then I went to ALS Canada as National Executive Director.
“In this process, I began to take far more seriously the fact that, all those years, I was in a profession that is now called volunteer administration or volunteer management.”
This applied on the job and at church – though in those days, they did not usually call church members volunteers.
“I have written and done workshops galore on volunteer administration in churches,” she said.
She also worked internationally with Marlene Wilson, a pre-eminent American writer and trainer in the field of volunteer administration, to try to reach out to as many Church leaders as possible to implement what were then such challenging concepts as screening volunteers.
“Which you wouldn't have thought of for a church,” she said.
“And way beyond police checks – screen them for the right job, make sure they are in the right place where their skills can be useful.”
During this period of time, Suzanne was one of the founding board members of the Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration, and became the second Canadian to receive their Certification in Volunteer Administration.
Throughout, she cherished the opportunity to work with wonderful mentors, in professional roles and in the Church, and she has especially fond memories of the late Right Reverend Terry Finlay, Archbishop of Toronto.
“It's an important thing to have mentors when you are in situations and realize you are a system changer, but that changing systems always upsets people. So it's helpful to have wise people who can help you figure out,” she said.
“They never gave me the answers, but to figure out together – you can become colleagues with your mentor by plumbing the depths of their life-long wisdom.”
This is Suzanne's third major award from the Church, following up on her Order of the Diocese of Toronto and a national award known as the Anglican Award of Merit that is usually only given to five people every three years.
Her new award is named after Stephen Langton of Canterbury, who played a key role in effecting the Magna Carta.
“An advocate for the voice of the laity in the councils of the Church,” Lawson said.
“It kind of speaks about speaking truth to power, which I have always been absolutely unafraid to do.”
As she interprets the Langton award, it acknowledges “a life lived aligned with Christian values in what we often call the secular world as well as the church.
“Often when you're a person of faith, you divide your life in this world. People say, 'Oh, you're a church lady.' In fact, my life as a person of faith has been actively involved in all the work I have done my whole life.
“It doesn't mean I am out proselytizing. It means I am living out values as I believe them from being a Christian. I find that concept of this award thrilling,” she said.
“What it is doing is saying lay people live in two places and live out their faith in two places.
“Ordinarily, an honour like this is most embarrassing, because I can immediately think of five people who have worked in extraordinary lives that deserve it more than I do. For instance, there are people who knit mittens all their lives for people, acting out of faith, and that's every bit as wonderful a ministry as I have been able to do.
“The difference is, I work in systems. I get noticed more because I work at many things, I have ideas, I work with groups of people to refine those ideas or contribute my ideas and my support to important things in whatever organization I am in, including the Church.
“I have been working in the Church my whole life to change systems,” she said.
“I will constantly be saying, 'And what do the people say?' and, “Why is only a bunch of bishops making decisions?'
“It's a hierarchy and, in my theology, we all have ministry. Some of them are bishops, and some of them are lay people, but we are all called to what we are to do.”
