James Ferry

The Reverend James Ferry is a priest of the Anglican Church of Canada. In 1992 he was removed from his parish after it was revealed that he was gay and in a relationship with another man.

Raised in the United Church of Canada, later a member of a Baptist congregation, Ferry joined the Anglican Church in his twenties. He studied at the University of Toronto at Scarborough, Tyndale University College (then Ontario Bible College), and Wycliffe College.

After a parishioner infiltrated his rectory, Ferry was exposed as living in a conjugal arrangement with another man. During the ensuing uproar Ferry's partner left him. A Bishop's Court found Ferry guilty of wrongdoing for not adhering to the policy that gay and lesbian clergy remain sexually abstinent. He was inhibited from functioning as a priest and later became affiliated with the Metropolitan Community Church, a gay and lesbian founded church which has taken an explicitly gay-affirming stance including the ordination of openly gay candidates for the ministry. He was later partially reinstated as an Anglican priest and now occasionally celebrates the Eucharist and preaches at the Church of the Holy Trinity.

Ferry published a book about his experience, In the Courts of the Lord, in 1994.

In 2006 Archbishop Terence Finlay, who had inhibited Ferry, married a lesbian couple in a United church, prompting Ferry to publicly demand an apology for Finlay's treatment of him.

Finlay's successor, Archbishop Colin Johnson, reinstated Ferry's licence on 26 June 2011 and appointed him an honorary assistant priest at the Church of the Holy Trinity.