The Rev’d. Dr. John Oakes  has been in ordained ministry since 1997. He is currently Honorary Assistant Priest at St. Paul’s, Bloor Street, Toronto.  He began serving with the Anglican Church of Canada [ACC] in 1997 and his most recent incumbency was  as Rector of St. Mary`s, Richmond Hill, until April 2017.

John also became an accredited minister with the BC Association of the North American Baptist Conference in 2017.  He was Senior Pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church  2017-2021.  He retired from full-time pastoral ministry in September 2021, but continues part-time ministry in the Anglican Church of Canada.

John is also an active scholar, currently serving as adjunct professor in the Department of History at Simon Fraser University. From 2013-2014, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Divinity School and in 2012, a Visiting Fellow at Yale Divinity School. He has taught at Regent College and been an occasional lecturer at the Vancouver School of Theology.

John has a PhD. in History from Simon Fraser University (2008). He was also educated at Magdalen College, Oxford (B.A. and M.A. in Classics), Regent College (M.C.S. in Church History and MDiv.), University of British Columbia (M.A. in History) and Vancouver School of Theology (ordination studies).

Prior to pursuing a career in pastoral ministry and academia in North America, John worked as an investment analyst and as a journalist and editor in the UK. In the shipping and finance field, he wrote for Seatrade and Seatrade Business Review, among other publications, and edited the weekly newsletter, Seatrade Week, for which he managed a team of some 25 people around the world. From 1987 to 1989, he was editor of the interdenominational Christian magazine, Today (previously known as Leadership Today and initially, Crusade). 

Born in the UK, John immigrated to Canada in 1989 and is now both a Canadian and British citizen. His outside interests include sports, movies, politics and literature, but not necessarily in that order!