The Diocese of Yukon covers the Yukon Territory. It was formed in 1890, under the name of the Diocese of Selkirk, out of the northern portion of the Diocese of Mackenzie River. It was renamed to the Diocese of Yukon in 1907. Since 1943, it has been part of the Ecclesiastical Province of British Columbia and the Yukon having formerly been part of the Ecclesiastical Province of Rupert’s Land.
William Carpenter Bompas (1844-1906)
Bishop of Selkirk: 1890 – 31st Oct 1905
Isaac O. Stringer (1866-1934)
Bishop of Selkirk/Yukon: 17th Dec 1905 – Dec 1931
Metropolitan of Rupert’s Land: 1931 - 1934
Arthur Henry Soveriegn (1881-1966)
Bishop of Yukon: Jan – Sept 1932
William ‘Archibald’ Geddes (1894-1947)
Bishop of Yukon: May 1934 - 1947
Walter Robert Adams (1844-1906)
Bishop of Yukon: 1947 – 1952 (1st Archbishop of Yukon)
Metropolitan of British Columbia & Yukon: 1947 – 1952
Thomas Greenwood (1903-1974)
Bishop of Yukon: 1952 – 1962
Henry Hooper Marsh (1898-1995)
Bishop of Yukon: 1962 – 1967
John Timothy Frame (1930-)
Bishop of Yukon: 25th Jan 1968 – 15th Oct 1981
Ronald Curry Ferris (-)
Bishop of Yukon: 1981 – 23rd Feb 1995
Terrence Owen Buckle (1940-)
Bishop of Yukon: 1995 - present
Metropolitan of British Columbia & Yukon: 2005 - present
Isaac O. Stringer was born April 19, 1866 in Kincardine Township, Bruce County, Ontario. Just before graduating the University of Toronto in 1892, he met Bishop Reeve of Mackenzie River who was appealing for missionaries to the Inuvialuit of the Lower Mackenzie. Stringer was ordained deacon and made his way to Fort McPherson by wagon, steamer and ox-team.
Stringer was priested in 1893 and travelled extensively visiting Rampart House, Kittigazuit, and other Inuvialuit communities. He married Sadie Alexander in Ontario 1897, and the two returned to the north, where they lived and ministered until 1901.
In August 1901, Stringer, his wife and two little children left Herschel Island, sailing on a whaling boat to San Francisco, for a furlough in Eastern Canada. Stringer had developed snow-blindness, unable to return to Hershel Island, he accepted the invitation of Bishop William Carpenter Bompas to become rector of Christ Church in Whitehorse. When Bompas resigned in 1905, Isaac Stringer was elected his successor as Bishop of Selkirk.
The name of the diocese was changed in 1907 to Yukon. The first Synod of the Diocese was held in Christ Church, Whitehorse in 1907. Dawson was chosen as the See City, and in the autumn of 1907, Bishop and Mrs. Stringer and their children set sail on the river steamer for their new home where they remained until 1931 when Bishop Stringer was elected Metropolitan of Rupert’s Land.
The Rev. Canon Arthur Henry Sovereign of St. Mark’s Church, Vancouver, B.C., was chosen as the successor of Archbishop Stringer. Archbishop Stringer moved to Winnipeg but continued travelling on behalf of the church. In the autumn of 1934, he visited the Diocese of Saskatchewan and penetrated far into northern Indian settlements, which were reached by airplane. On October 30, 1934, while about to ascend the steps of Trinity Synod Hall, Winnipeg, Bishop Stringer collapsed and died.
William Bompas was born in London, England on 20 Jan 1834. After six years as a deacon Bompas left England in 1865 and spent the next 40 years in the Canadian North.
William Bompas was sent by the Church Missionary Society to the Mackenzie River where there were 2 established missions at Fort Simpson and 800 miles away Fort Yukon. He travelled the area by canoe, dog-sleigh and snow-shoe for the next 9 years until 1874 when he returned to England to be consectrated the first bishop of Athabasca in St Marys Church, Lambeth. In England he married then returned to his diocese which stretched from the Yukon in the northwest to border of Rupert’s Land in the southeast, a distance of about 2000 miles.
In 1884 his diocese was subdivided and Bompas chose the northern half of the territory becoming the first bishop of Mackenzie River. In 1890 his diocese was again subdived and again Bompas chose the nortern section becoming the first bishop of Selkirk (Yukon).
A prolific writer, his works included The Diocese of Mackenzie River (1888), Northern Lights on the Bible (1892) and The Symmetry of Scripture (1896).
Bishop Bompas resigned in 1905. He continued to live in the Episcopal Palace at Cariboo Crossing (Carcross), Yukon where he died 9 June 1906.
