It is with deep regret that we of the North learned of the passing of
Archbishop I. O. Stringer, a familiar and well-loved figure of the Diocese of Yukon, who died of heart failure in Winnipeg Tuesday. Archbishop Stringer was a student of Wycliffe College, Toronto and also a graduate of University College, Toronto.
In the month of May, 1892, as a young man he took upon himself the
responsibility of serving his Master in the mission fields and was ordained deacon at that time, going to the Arctic regions and becoming the first missionary to the Eskimo at the mouth of the Mackenzie River and Herschel Island. In July, 1898, he was made priest and laboured faithfully in these fields for eleven years, undergoing many privations and facing death more than once for the work and the One he served.
From 1903 to 1905 Rev. Stringer was Rector of Christ Church, Whitehorse, in the Diocese of Selkirk and on December 17th, 1905 was consecrated Bishop of Selkirk by Archbishop Matheson, Bishop Grisdale and Bishop Lofthouse, thus becoming the second Bishop of the Diocese of Selkirk (later in the year 1907, Yukon). In 1907 Bishop Stringer called the first Synod of the Diocese, established the Episcopal See and took up residence in Dawson. With Dawson as his headquarters, he was able to come in close contact with both the people and the problems of his flock and ministered first to two groups, namely Whites
and Indians.
As time passed the problem of mixed marriages caused him to found the institution known as St. Paul's Hostel in Dawson to see that the children of such unions received education. In the Spring of 1931 Bishop Stringer was elected Archbishop of the Diocese of Rupert's Land and in September of the same year was enthroned as the second Metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province of Rupert's Land.
Yukon missed her Bishop when he was removed to Winnipeg, but today the loss is even greater; it is not the loss of one diocese alone, but the loss of the whole Canadian Church. The peoples of the North, both white and Indian, bow their heads in tribute to the passing of a noble soul; one whose untiring efforts and work will endure
in this great Northern Empire for all time. And Bishop Stringer, beloved and mourned, goes to meet the Master with his work well done. What greater tribute?
