John Frederick Sovereign

John Frederick Sovereign passed away peacefully on Wednesday September 16th, 2020, after a short battle with pancreatic cancer.

John was born on April 3, 1949, in Fort William (now Thunder Bay), Ontario to Herbert and Irene (Beaney) Sovereign, and often spoke fondly of growing up in Conmee on the family farm. John met his wife, Allyson, in school and they married in 1975, later having two children. After graduating from Lakehead University School of Engineering, John worked on a number of jobs as a surveyor, estimator, and project manager. This included the Big Thunder Ski Jump, one of his proudest accomplishments. He eventually became a partner in Exucon Construction.

Throughout his life, John had a deep faith and involvement in the church. In 1993, he felt called to the ministry, moving to Saskatoon to attend Emmanuel & St. Chad. Graduating in 1996, his first posting was at St. John’s Anglican Church (Schreiber, Ontario), later also taking on Trinity Anglican Church (Marathon), Holy Spirit (Manitouwadge), Chaplain of McCausland Hospital, and Regional Dean. He made many deep and lasting friendships at this time, and had great memories of canoe trips, working with Camp Gitchigomee, hiking the trails, and music nights with friends. In February 2006 John became Priest in Charge at St. Thomas Anglican Church in Chilliwack, where he remained until his retirement in 2017. John brought compassion, humour, inclusiveness, and a deep love of music to his ministry.

To many community projects, John gave his caring nature, and a desire to learn, listen, and grow. He was honoured to be a part of the Mayor’s Task Force on Inclusiveness, Diversity and Accessibility, Inclusion Chilliwack, and had a deep commitment to Truth and Reconciliation initiatives & education, amongst others. He brought his compassionate heart to many and knew how very much work is left to do. John was very active in Rotary, and a recent recipient of the Paul Harris Fellowship, the highest honour given to a Rotarian.

In his retirement, John loved landscaping with his son, lending his voice and energy to advocacy, occasionally conducting services in the Fraser Valley, as well as hiking with family and friends through places like the Community Forest.

John was predeceased by his parents, Herbert and Irene, niece Erin, nephew Matthew, and sister in law Isabel. Survived by his wife, Allyson, son Brad (Brittany), daughter Sarah (Jamie), and grandkids Connor, Mary and John, as well as four brothers, and numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins, whom he loved very much.

John had a lot of heart for his community and made space for many meaningful friendships – he will be so missed. John’s greatest legacy would be that the work he felt so passionate about be carried on, and that we walk through life with a generous kindness and grace, meeting one another where we are, supporting people to become who they wish to be.

In lieu of flowers, John wished for donations to be made to a community initiative in his name - as the details of this are still in process, please email [email protected] for when further information becomes available.

The family will be having a closed service for John on October 24th, 2020 at 11 a.m. at St. Matthew Anglican Church. A livestream link will be made available for those wishing to attend online.