Winter remembered for his compassion

Dr. William Winter School for Ministry
Kingfisher’s Sheba McKay said the Dr. William Winter School for Ministry turned her life around for the better eight years ago.
“I was young — I don’t even think I was 20 at that time and that is where I found my hope and joy,” said the finance clerk at the band office. “You know how young people today have their struggles, somehow I found that there is a brighter life out there compared to what the world offered.”
After volunteering to sing gospel songs over the radio to comfort others every evening since the late William Winter passed away March 31, McKay is seeing a trend in the community.
“I see the young people starting to sing gospel songs,” McKay said. “I’ve just been trying my best to encourage my cousins for the last week ... to not stop singing.”
The Dr. William Winter School for Ministry was named after the late William Winter because he was so instrumental in obtaining ministry training for First Nations people.
“He was very instrumental in the development of the curriculum too,” said Anglican Church Bishop Lydia Mamakwa of the northern Ontario region of the Diocese of Keewatin. “He was one of the many teachers up to 2007, but when he could no longer get around he couldn’t come.”
The school has been offering the diploma in Indigenous Anglican Theology four-year accredited program to students from across the Diocese of Keewatin since 2003, with one-week sessions held every February and July.
“Prior to having these programs, our people were being serviced by non-Native missionaries who came and resided in our communities and would travel to the communities,” Mamakwa said.
The students meet at the Mission House in Kingfisher for the February session and at the Big Beaver Bible Camp across the lake from Kingfisher for the July session.
“It is a gathering, for some it is like a retreat because in July the school is by the Big Beaver House,” Mamakwa said about the sessions. “The atmosphere at the school is so peaceful – it’s away from everything else like the phone, everything that distracts us.”