Alexander Pryor

Pryor was born in a small coastal town in Newfoundland. He grew up attending church; at age 9, he began playing the organ for his local Anglican church, and by 12 was leading music during services. As a young adult, he was also licensed as a eucharistic assistant and subdeacon. Pryor attended Memorial University of Newfoundland, where he earned a B.Mus. in organ and a B.Mus.Ed. During his studies, he was music minister at the newly planted Anglican Church of the Good Samaritan in St. John's.{{cite web |title=Biographical Information |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250419122133/https://arcticanglicans.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Biographical-Info-INUK-ENG_Alex-Pryor.pdf |website=Arctic Anglicans |publisher=Diocese of the Arctic |access-date=10 May 2025}} He was also chosen as a youth delegate of the Anglican Network in Canada to the founding provincial assembly of the Anglican Church in North America in Bedford, Texas.{{cite web |title=ANiC delegates to the provincial assembly announced |url=http://archives.anglicannetwork.ca/pdf/anic_newsletter_052109.pdf |website=ANiC Newsletter |publisher=Anglican Network in Canada |access-date=10 May 2025 |date=21 May 2009}}

Receiving a call to ministry, Pryor then he went on to Nashotah House, where he obtained an M.Div in 2014. He was ordained a deacon in 2013 and a priest in February 14 at the Church of the Good Samaritan in a service presided over by Bishop Charlie Masters of the Anglican Network in Canada.{{cite web |title=Biddings and Bindings |url=https://issuu.com/blisslemmon/docs/the_pent_missioner_2015_web_version |website=The Missioner |publisher=Nashotah House |access-date=10 May 2025 |date=May 2015}} Pryor then spent five years working at Nashotah House, where he conducted the St. Mary's Choristers and the Choral Scholars of Nashotah House, established a workshop for church musicians, ran the chapel program with 14 weekly sevices and introduced sacred music and liturgical leadership into the seminary's hybrid-distance program.{{cite web |title=About Me |url=https://alexanderpryor.com/about-me/ |publisher=The Rev. Alexander Pryor |access-date=10 May 2025}}

In 2019, Pryor was called as rector of St. John's Anglican Church in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories. In 2022, he became executive archdeacon of the Diocese of the Arctic. The combination of significantly higher insurance and operating expenses, combined with a reduction in the mission funding provided for the diocese through the ACC's Council of the North, shaped Pryor's role in managing the diocese's finances.{{cite news |last1=Lochead |first1=David |title=Anglican churches struggle for funding in the North |url=https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/anglican-church-struggling-to-fund-its-buildings-in-the-north/ |access-date=10 May 2025 |work=Nunatsiaq News |date=February 16, 2023}} He was involved in planning the redevelopment of derelict church property in Apex, Baker Lake, Pangnirtung and other communities through the Anglican Arctic Development Corporation.{{cite news |last1=Puddister |first1=Matthew |title=Arctic diocese forms development corporation to offer housing, community spaces on church land |url=https://anglicanjournal.com/arctic-diocese-forms-development-corporation-to-offer-housing-community-spaces-on-church-land/ |access-date=10 May 2025 |work=Anglican Journal |date=March 19, 2025}}{{cite news |last1=Bimal |first1=Nehaa |title=Pangnirtung plans major redevelopment with Anglican church lands |url=https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/pangnirtung-plans-major-redevelopment-with-anglican-church-lands/ |access-date=10 May 2025 |work=Nunatsiaq News |date=April 14, 2025}} "The change in the funding for the Council of the North has made it so clear that now is the time to go forward with developing the land that we have across the North to make our churches more sustainable, so that we're not spending as much on utilities and maintenance for standalone church buildings when communities really have a need for office space and community hall space—and especially for housing, because we've got a housing crisis right across the North," Pryor told Anglican Journal.

Pryor also set up a low-power radio transmitter at St. Jude's Cathedral in Iqaluit, which allowed the cathedral to broadcast services, music and other programming in Inuktitut in the local area.{{cite news |last1=Sarkisian |first1=Arty |title=New Anglican radio station brings church to Iqaluit homes |url=https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/new-anglican-radio-station-brings-church-to-iqaluit-homes/ |access-date=10 May 2025 |work=Nunatsiaq News |date=October 2, 2024}} The project was funded by a grant from St. Paul's, Bloor Street.{{cite news |last1=Careless |first1=Sue |title=New Anglican Arctic Radio Has ‘Hearts Leaping for Joy’ |url=https://livingchurch.org/news/news-anglican-communion/new-anglican-arctic-radio-has-hearts-leaping-for-joy/ |access-date=10 May 2025 |work=The Living Church |date=September 30, 2024}} Pryor also co-wrote curriculum for the diocese's Arthur Turner Training School for clergy.

On May 9, 2025, Pryor was elected the diocese's seventh bishop at the diocesan synod in Edmonton, Alberta.{{cite news |title=Alexander Pryor elected bishop of the Arctic |url=https://anglican.ink/2025/05/10/alexander-pryor-elected-bishop-of-the-arctic/ |access-date=11 May 2025 |work=Anglican Ink |date=May 10, 2025}} Due to the high cost of travel in the Arctic, bishops from the Ecclesiastical Province of the Northern Lights were present to consent to the election, and Archbishop Greg Kerr-Wilson consecrated Pryor as a bishop alongside new suffragan bishops Jared Osborn and Ann Martha Keenainak on May 11.{{cite news |title=Alexander Pryor new diocesan bishop of Arctic; Anna Martha Keenainak and Jared Osborn suffragans |url=https://anglicanjournal.com/alexander-pryor-new-diocesan-bishop-of-arctic-anna-martha-keenainak-and-jared-osborn-suffragans/ |access-date=16 May 2025 |work=Anglican Journal |date=May 15, 2025}}

Pryor is married to Kristina; they have two children.

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Category:Living people

Category:21st-century Anglican Church of Canada bishops

Category:Anglican bishops of The Arctic

Category:Nashotah House alumni

Category:Memorial University of Newfoundland alumni

Category:People from Mount Pearl

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)