Anglican Communion News Service - Digest News

31 January, 2005 - The Rt Revd Victoria Matthews of Edmonton returned to active ministry this month after seven months of medical leave due to cancer.

Bishop Matthews reassured members of her diocese that she went back to work "with the permission of my doctors" and that she was not overextending herself to avoid a relapse.

Her time away from the rigours of running a busy diocese was one of "reflection and healing," she said in a letter posted on the diocesan Web site. "I cannot begin to express my thanks for the prayers and loving support I received from the diocese of Edmonton, the wider Canadian church and the far reaches of the Anglican Communion."

In a lengthy interview with Edmonton Journal, Bishop Matthews talked about new insights she gained about life and death from her battle with breast cancer. She remarked in jest that after losing her hair to chemotherapy she had hoped "for red curls and I got grey straight."

Now cancer-free, she said that her recovery was five months earlier than expected.

Bishop Matthews discovered she had breast cancer in May 2004, only a few days before the meeting of General Synod, where she was supposed to have been the first woman nominee for primate (national archbishop) not just in the Anglican Church of Canada but the worldwide Anglican Communion. She withdrew from the primatial election and went into treatment (including surgery) right away.

Asked by the Edmonton Journal if she would consider running again, Bishop Matthews said, "One of the gifts of cancer is that your priorities change, so it's not even something I think about. It's not on the radar screen. I'm not a lady-in-waiting, waiting for some magical job to come before me. I'm here to live my life."

Article from the Anglican Church of Canada