Rector
The Reverend Robert J. Mitchell
Tel: 416-769-5686, ext. 1
Email: rector@stolaves.ca
The Reverend Rob Mitchell was installed in July 2016 as St. Olave’s sixth Rector. Prior to coming to St. Olave’s, Rob served in parishes in Peterborough, Cookstown and Churchill, followed by St. Thomas’s, Huron Street in Toronto.
Born in Saskatoon and raised in a clergy family, Rob earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Saskatchewan. In 1999 he moved to Toronto to study theology at Wycliffe College. He was made deacon at St. James Cathedral in 2002 by the Most Reverend Terence Finlay, and ordained a priest in the same year by the Right Rev’d Douglas Blackwell. Rob is married to Caroline and together they are delighted to be a part of the St. Olave’s and Swansea communities.
Learn about Rob’s book These Our Prayers.
Deacon
The Reverend Dr. Jim Leatch
Email: jleatch@rsgc.on.ca
The Rev’d Dr. Jim Leatch has been a parishioner and chorister at St. Olave’s since 2012. He is also a long-time history teacher and Chaplain at Royal St. George’s College. In 2021 he was ordained by the Rt. Rev’d Andrew Asbil as permanent deacon at St. Olave’s.
Interim Director of Music
Jeremy Tingle
Email: music@stolaves.ca
Jeremy Tingle was first educated at Saint Michael’s Choir School, Toronto, after which he dedicated his life to sacred and liturgical music with special emphasis on the works of Anton Bruckner and Josef Gabriel Rheinberger. He has studied voice with Peter Barnes, the pipe organ with Dr. John Paul Farahat and Professor Kevin Komisaruk, and orchestral conducting with Ivars Taurins while attending the University of Toronto. In addition to serving as Interim Director of Music at St. Olave’s, he holds an appointment to the Schola Cantorum at St. Basil’s Catholic Parish and is the co-director of Ensemble ex nihilo. Active as conductor, organist, pedagogue and tenor across the Greater Toronto Area, he also possesses a deep interest in the art of historical organ-building.
Learn more about St. Olave’s choir.
Junior Church Coordinator
Siobhan Carmichael
Email: children@stolaves.ca
Siobhan Carmichael and her family began worshipping at St. Olave’s in 2016. Her children are regular attenders of Junior Church and Siobhan has been a strong supporter of St. Olave’s children’s ministry. She is also a member of the Second Century Mission Fund committee and passionate about social justice. Siobhan’s teaching experience includes the Godly Play program at St. George’s-on-the-Hill and a variety of classrooms, from elementary school up to university level. During the pandemic, Siobhan home schooled her children and further nurtured her love of teaching.
Learn more about St. Olave’s children’s program.
Honorary Assistants
The Reverend Dr. Pearce James (PJ) Carefoote
Contact through the parish office at 416-769-5686
The Rev’d Dr. Pearce James (PJ) Carefoote was born and raised in Toronto, and ordained a priest in 1988. He holds a doctorate in Sacred Theology in Church History from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium and a Master of Information Studies from the University of Toronto. He recently retired from a long career as the Head of the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto. PJ is the author of Forbidden Fruit: Banned, Censored and Challenged Books from Dante to Harry Potter and A Confusion of Printers: The Role of Print in the English Reformation. He has preached, celebrated and assisted at St. Olave’s many times, and made several educational presentations. PJ was appointed Honorary Assistant in February 2022.
The Reverend Canon Ruth Smith
Contact through the parish office at 416-769-5686
The Reverend Canon Ruth Smith is a ‘cradle Anglican’, educated in England and Canada, with an MDiv from Queen’s University Theological College. She was ordained in the Diocese of Ontario at age 60. Prior to that she was a Teaching Master in the Early Childhood Education Department at Loyalist CAAT in Belleville, and is still a Professional Member of AECEO. After ordination she served in three Belleville churches for three years while developing and teaching a course for Lay Pastoral Visitors throughout the Diocese. Following that she was incumbent in the three-point Parish of Kitley. She retired in 2005 and moved to Kingston where she served as Honorary Assistant at St. Thomas’ Reddendale. She has six children, 13 grandchildren, and (to date) two great-grandchildren. In 2011 Rev. Ruth was named an Honorary Assistant at St. Olave’s. Here she regularly reads the Gospel and offers healing prayers in the Chapel during 10:30 communion services, and is also an active member of the ACW (current president).
The Reverend Peter John Achiek
416-653-1174
The Reverend Peter John Achiek is the priest-in-charge of the Sudanese Community Church in Toronto which worships in St. Olave’s Church on Sunday afternoons and is a Designated Ministry of the Diocese of Toronto. Peter John started church activities in 1979 at age 13 and was ordained an evangelist in 1990 in Ethiopia as a refugee, where he also served as assistant to the pastor of the Episcopal Church (Anglican). In 1995 Peter John went to Kenya and started a Church in a refugee camp. He was ordained a priest in 1999 at St. Ngummo Nairobi, Kenya by Rt. Rev. Bishop Nathaniel Garan Anyieth, the former Bishop of Bor Diocese, the capital of Jongeli State in South Sudan. In 2000 Rev. Peter John moved to Canada as a refugee. He graduated with a diploma from Wycliffe College in 2004 and also has training in payroll accounting and nursing. Reverend Peter John was appointed Honorary Assistant at St. Olave’s in 2010.
The Reverend Diana Spencer
Contact through the parish office at 416-769-5686
Reverend Diana Spencer was born in England in 1935 and came to Toronto at 21 where she met and married her husband, and then promptly moved to Vancouver Island. In 1989 she graduated from the College of Emmanuel & St. Chad in Saskatoon and was named Incumbent of the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Ladysmith on Vancouver Island. She served there for seven years before retiring and moving back to Victoria. Rev. Spencer was the second woman to be ordained an Anglican Priest in the Diocese of B.C, the first full-time female parish priest in the Diocese, and, to the best of her knowledge, the first woman to celebrate the Eucharist in the Cathedral in Victoria. In 2012 she returned to Toronto to be with her son and his family. Rev. Spencer was appointed Honorary Assistant at St. Olave’s in 2016. She is an active participant in Wednesday Bible Study and regularly attends Sunday morning services.
Office Administrator, Judy Beal
Email: stolaves@stolaves.ca
416-769-5686
Judy can be reached during office hours, which are from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays, and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursdays.
Please email stolaves@stolaves.ca if you would like to be included in our email update list.
Sexton, Dave Webb
416-720-1163
Dave works Monday – Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Wardens and other key lay leaders
Many people volunteer their time and talents to help the church run smoothly. The following people can be reached through the church office:
- Rector’s Warden – Janice Douglas
- People’s Warden – Sharm Powell
- Deputy Rector’s Warden – Allan Taylor
- Deputy People’s Warden – Carol Ambler
- Treasurer – Annis Tebbutt
- Head of Servers’ Guild – Jon Ingall
- Altar Guild President – Dale Allen
- Property Chair – Sheila Tait, member, Order of the Diocese of Toronto
- Hospitality Committee Chair – Jim Shapland
- Envelope Secretary – Doug Hewitt
- ACW – Sheila Tait
To learn more about ministry contacts or to get involved, please contact the parish office.