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It’s Happening in Inuvik!

By Bishop Alexander Pryor


Last time we wrote about Inuvik, we said “our prayers are being answered!”. And they were.

After five years of silence, after a church building sitting empty, the Lord led the way to the re-planting of a Gospel-sharing, community-focused Anglican church in Inuvik, NT. People started calling: “Is it time to reopen the church?” “I think Inuvik needs an Anglican church again”.

And now, less than a year later, something remarkable is happening.

A group of women are engaging in a close conversation, with two of them embracing while others appear to listen or reflect in a community space.
A group of ten people sitting around a table in a community room, smiling and waving. They have books and writing materials in front of them. A cross is visible on the wall in the background.

A Church Alive Again

From February 26 – March 1, I gathered with the people in Inuvik.

We didn’t just have one service – we had a weekend of prayer, worship, testimonies, and teaching. Even as the the heating system failed on Sunday morning, we crowded into the mission house and worshipped anyway, sharing in the Lord’s body and blood at His table, and installing Jenn Knight as the new Ministry Coordinator for the re-planting work in that place.

Honestly, the heating failure didn’t feel like a setback. It felt like a reminder.

This is how the Church begins.
Simple. Joyful. Dependent on God… and packed full of life.

A religious ceremony taking place indoors, featuring a man in a red and white robe holding a book, a woman in a beige robe holding a chalice, and a man in a purple robe in the background.
A collection of various shoes and boots arranged on a floor in a hallway, with a door visible in the background.
A man dressed in ceremonial robes, including a red stole, speaks from a lectern in a modest room. There are wooden doors and a chair visible in the background.
A diverse group of people gathered in a cozy indoor setting, participating in a communal singing activity. Some individuals are holding songbooks, while others are engaged in singing along with a person playing the guitar.
A group of people gathered indoors, holding songbooks and engaged in singing or a discussion, with a focus on cultural or community activities.

An Anglican Church – Gone back to the basics.

Something great is taking shape in Inuvik.

It’s still Anglican worship – grounded in scripture and sacrament, flowing out of the richness of our tradition. But there’s a real focus on the real presence of God in and through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Testimonies. Healing prayer. An openness to discover gifts and test them out, fueled by our cooperation with the Holy Spirit.

People are hungry for it – and they’re responding.

Hope – and a Window that won’t stay open forever.

There is a real buzz in Inuvik right now. People are coming out to whatever is posted as happening at the re-opened church. Younger adults are showing up. A core of volunteers and prayer leaders is forming.

This is not just a re-opened church hoping to survive.
This is a re-plant with real momentum.

So we’re asking for your prayers, because moments like this don’t last forever. There is a window right now where the church can either step forward boldly into Gospel-sharing mission and empowering the young people to discover their calling… or slowly drift back into the usual small-town Anglican church patterns of bake-sales and vestry meetings that produce a predictable result right across the country: closure.

Or, as I’ve come to put it: proclaim and enable… or God will thankfully and rightfully raise up someone in our place who will!

But good things are happening – and we know that means there will be spiritual forces that will come against this God-given growth. We need your prayers!

Prayer Request: The Building is our Greatest Opportunity… and our Greatest Risk.

God has given us one of the best church buildings in the entire diocese.

  • Large sanctuary
  • Commercial kitchen
  • Classrooms and meeting space
  • Right in the center of town

It could become a hub for ministry! A weekday café and gathering space, a place for families, youth, and community connection, a visible, daily presence of the Gospel in Inuvik

But there is a problem. Heating that building through an Arctic winter is extremely expensive.

If we do nothing, the building becomes a burden.
If we act boldly, it becomes an incredible asset.

Exterior view of a wooden building with a staircase, set against a snowy landscape; a spire is visible in the background.
Exterior view of a wooden church with a cross, featuring a set of stairs, white railings, and potted yellow flowers in the snow.

The Plan – and the Urgency

Right now, the Diocese is subsidizing the operation of the church plant – something that I have committed to as Bishop, because the Lord made it so abundantly clear that it’s His will to have an gospel-sharing, community-focused church in the Anglican tradition there in the heart of that regional hub. That’s something we’ve committed to for this season, but it can’t be forever.

By the end of May, we are praying that God will give us a clear plan for how this building will be used Monday-Saturday.

Will it be a coffee shop? (Thanks be to God, I know where we can get an automatic espresso maker!). Will it be that the classroom is rented out to be an office for an organization or professional like a counsellor? (That would be pretty awesome!). Maybe right now there’s a dance teacher planning to move to Inuvik along with her husband who has been relocated there for work and who wants to open a dance studio that would be perfect for weeknights in the church hall… God knows!

Pray for wisdom, creativity, discernment… and a plan that is working by October 1 when the boiler starts gulping fuel again!

A snowy scene featuring the Anglican Church of the Ascension sign, indicating Sunday service time, with buildings and a Canadian flag partially obscured by falling snow.

Why this matters

Inuvik is not just another town.

It is a regional hub, the meeting place for the people and cultures of the Mackenzie Delta – Inuvialuit, Gwich’in, and those from around the world who now call the Arctic their home. It’s a place from which the Gospel can spread out throughout the entire region.

And right now, God is doing something here. We can see it; we can feel it; we are stepping forward trusting in His plan and provision.

How you can help:

Please pray:

  1. For Jenn, as she leads in a new context
  2. For a strong, prayer-filled core team to emerge
  3. For wisdom, creativity, and boldness in this critical season
A woman standing at a podium with a microphone, speaking passionately, in a room with a light-colored background and a purple cloth on the podium.

If you’re up for an adventure, talk to Jenn about how you can help. The Mission House is set up to receive helpers; the wooden siding on the church is in desperate need of scraping and painting, but the local folks also need to go out on the land in the short summers to fill their freezers.

Exterior view of a weathered wooden house with peeling paint, snow on the ground, and visible power lines.

Of course, donations never go astray during a time of re-planting.

But money only goes so far. What we really need are your prayers!

Send Jennifer a message (jennifer.knight@yfc.ca) or check our Inuvik Anglican Church on Facebook and send us a word of encouragement to let us know you’ve got our back in prayer!

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