Roper, John Charles

Third Bishop of British Columbia; Second Bishop of Ottawa; Fifth Metropolitan of Ontario.

John Charles Roper was born in Sussex, England in 1858, and educated in Kent. He attended Oxford University, obtaining a B.A. in 1881, and an M.A. in 1884. He was ordained deacon in 1882, and served as curate of All Saints, Herstmonceux in Sussex, until 1883, when he was ordained priest. From 1883 to 1885, he was Chaplain and Theological Lecturer at Brasenose College, Oxford, then became Keble Professor of Divinity at the University of Trinity College in Toronto, Ontario in 1885. He received an honourary M.A. from University of Trinity College in 1886, and an honourary L.H.D. from Hobart College in Geneva in 1887. From 1888 to 1897, he was Vicar of St. Thomas' Church, Toronto, then returned to teaching as Professor of Dogmatic Theology at the General Theological Seminary in New York. He received an honourary D.D. from this school in 1898. In 1912, he was Consecrated Bishop of British Columbia, and was made honourary captain and chaplain of the 88th Regiment, Victoria Fusiliers in 1913. In 1915, he was translated to the See of Ottawa, where he stayed until he was elected Metropolitan of Ontario in 1933. He resigned the See in 1939, and passed away in 1940. He received various other honourary degrees while he was Bishop, including a D.D. (1913) from Oxford; a D.D. (1914) from University of Trinity College; a D.C.L. (1916) from the University of King's College in Windsor, Nova Scotia; and a D.D. (1917) from the University of Bishop's College in Lennoxville, Quebec.