The Reverend Rodney Carter

January 15,1948 – May 30, 2010

Rodney Steven Carter was a CPE specialist and chaplain, minister and mentor, Director of the Restorative Justice Program at the Queen’s School of Religion and Regional Coordinator for the Correctional Service of Canada, teacher and guide for students, motorcycle rider and country and western enthusiast, husband and father, saint and sinner.

Rod Carter, born in Belleville in 1948 died on May 30, 2010. As a teenager, Rod and his cousin Bob – a brother to him – ran away from home to Toronto and lived on the streets for several months. It was a bond never to be broken.  Rod served in the army for a couple of years, between 1965-1967.  Still a young man in 1967, Rod was convicted of a crime and sentenced to 3 ½ yrs in a Federal Penitentiary.  After completing 18 months of his sentence, he was released on parole in 1968.  Upon his release, Rod found support both in his family and in his faith and decided to pursue an educational path.  On Sept. 27, 1969, he married Sally Canniff and their beautiful son Jeff – you do the math - was born a few months later on Feb. 9, 1970.  

He earned a BA from Trent University in Peterborough and went on to receive a Teaching Diploma in London, Ontario.  He taught school in London and Denbigh before his teaching career moved to the Northwest Territories where he taught native children. for a year.  It was during this time-frame, in 1977, that Rod was granted a Criminal pardon.

He and Sally felt a calling to ministry.  He started at the Vancouver School of Theology but felt their program was too structured.  So he withdrew and travelled across the border, landing at an Aboriginal retreat centre in the States.  He studied at the feet of an aboriginal elder and went on a vision quest.  More grounded and sure of his calling, he and Sally enrolled at Queen’s Theological College, now the Queen’s School of Religion. In 1984, he graduated with a Master of Divinity and was ordained at Bridge Street United Church in Belleville as a minister in the United Church of Canada. His wife Sally graduated in 1985 with her Bachelor of Theology from Queen’s. Rod was settled on the Cree Reservation at Saddle Lake and Good Fish Lake in Alberta (150 kms north of Edmonton), where he served for 4 years. This was a time that shaped his life-long commitment to work for right relations with his aboriginal brothers and sisters.

In 1990, he returned to the Kingston area to work with Correctional Service Canada, first as a Chaplain at Joyceville Institution for five years and then as Regional Chaplain for Eastern Ontario for another five years.  During this time, Queen’s established a Restorative Justice Program and Rod was seconded from CSC to become the Director of this new program in 2000.  A decade later, 490 students have participated in the Queen’s Restorative Justice Program, which has garnered national and international profile. His work had earned him many accolades over the course of his career, including most recently an Alumni Achievement Award from Queen’s School of Religion in 2009.

Rod was a man who lived life’s paradoxes. He was down to earth yet inclined heavenward. He moved where demons dwell, yet he was drawn to the light of life. He was a trouble-maker and shit-disturber, yet also a healer and hope-carrier. He was private yet connected; quiet yet impassioned; scarred yet real.  A temper quick to flare, yet a patience unending and tender.

His life touched so many lives. The ripple effects are strong.  His premature departure leaves an unspeakable void. Yet his candid disclosure of his depression, grief, pardon and restoration are sources of inspiration and comfort to all who seek reconciliation and hope.