Since November of 2022, the Cathedral in Iqaluit has expanded it’s community ministry by offering the life-changing, Christ-centered 12-step program of Celebrate Recovery in the medium-security unit of Aaqigiarvik Correctional Healing Facility, the men’s prison.

Led by our hard-working and enthusiastic Cathedral Dean, the Very Rev. Chris Dow, this weekly group provides a Gospel-filled place where men can be open about their addictions, be honest about their struggles, share the realities of their past truamas, and commit together, with Christ’s help, to the twelve-step journey of healing.
“I am particularly encouraged by the Celebrate Recovery ministry in the prison”, says Chris. “It has great potential to bring healing to all of Nunavut.”

The inmates are serving terms of two years or less, and will return to their home communities. “All of them are repeat offenders, and in every case, they would say that alcohol was a major contributing factor to their crimes. The good news of the gospel breaks the chains of guilt, but, very practically, part of gospel ministry needs to include helping people break the cycle of addiction.”

Celebrate Recovery is a well-known recovery program, taking the familiar 12-steps made popular by Alcoholics Anonymous, and pairing them with the Beatitudes taught by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount as principles for living a life of wholeness and healing.

“Having English as a second language has its challenges, so it is important for this program to be made available in our own language, Inuktitut” says Bishop Annie Ittoshat. Addictions are a sensitive and personal topic, “and it is easier to express more freely when we use our mother tongue”, especially when working through the emotions and hurts that may have led to the addictions in the first place.

Thanks be to God, the case manager at the prison has noticed the positive impact of the program and has asked for the program to be extended to all units of the prison. “The demand is so high that I cannot currently keep up!” says Chris.

The Government of Nunavut has recognized the value of this kind of peer-support in the prison, and has committed $5000 toward the cost of the translation and publication of professional, well-designed, easy-to-use resources for leaders and those taking part in the program alike. The national leadership of Celebrate Recovery Canada has also pledged additional support, and will send a team to Synod 2024 to train clergy and lay leaders who want to take this life-changing program back to their own communities!
“I’ve seen the life-changing power of the gospel presented through the Celebrate Recovery program” says Archdeacon Alexander Pryor. “I was offered the chance to lead a group at just the moment when I, in my own ministry, needed to be reminded to be honest about my own struggles and to simply follow Jesus ‘one step at a time, one day at a time’. I want to see this program made available to every community in the Arctic”. After the program guides are translated, one of our diocesan goals is to hire an up-and-coming Inuit filmmaker to record elders’ own testimonies of recovery, forgiveness, and healing in their own language. “Hearing testimonies of God’s power to heal and save is an important part of the journey to recovery” says Archdeacon Pryor. “Celebrate Recovery provides great recordings of testimonies from the South, but how much more powerful to hear those testimonies from respected elders in your own region.”

Dean Chris Dow says “Seven CR participants at the prison come from the same small community of about 1,400”. “Think of the tremendous positive impact the transformed lives of even a few of these 7 men could have when they return to that community.” One especially keen participant, who has lost seven cousins and a sister to suicide, has said that he is determined to bring healing and save lives by sharing the transformation he has already experienced through Celebrate Recovery.