Although it was Father Chris Tracey’s first parish and he spent only a little time in Saugeen Shores, given his background, he had a huge impact on the parish of St. Joseph’s and St. Patrick’s.
On Sunday, June 26th, the parishioners of the two parishes held a luncheon at St. Joseph’s to say goodbye to Father Tracey.
He grew up on a dairy farm in Wooler (ON) and then moved to Belleville in his teens. He was the first recipient of the Hank Binemma Music Scholarship, studied classical voice and musical composition at Western University.
As a young man, Tracey went into business and was employed as a Technical Sales Engineer for Bell Canada, MTS Allstream and CIBC.
Later in life however, with the support of family and friends, he entered into the seminary and was accepted into the Hamilton Diocese.
In the Spring of 2018, Father Tracey was ordained in to the Hamilton Diocese and went on to acquire a Master of Divinity Degree and CPE 1 Diploma from Cambridge Memorial hospital.
Having served as associate Pastor for the Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate in Guelph, he was assigned as Administrator of St. Mary’s in Cambridge before taking on his first parish in Saugeen Shores.
While in Saugeen Shores’ parish, he brought his technical background that enabled him to bring the diocese into the modern tech sector with a much-needed improvement to the audio and visual systems within the church.
In addition, among his talents as a lyric tenor with the Canadian Opera Company (COC), he also brought his vocal talents to the parish playing as an organist and choir director.
As of today, Tuesday June 18th, Father Chris moves on to Kitchener.
