Deirdre Pike

Columnist at The Hamilton Spectator (Hamilton, ON)

Justice and Outreach @NiagaraAnglican. Leading EDI organizational change through Queer Positive Power. #2SLGBTQI Contributor to @TheSpec @HamCityMagazine

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Articles

The bridge builder and tennis player

3 weeks ago | thespec.com | Deirdre Pike

The most powerful American in the world right now is not the president but the pope. The Donald has been trumped by The Leo. Known for most of his life as either Rob, Bob or Padre Prevost, His Holiness Leo XIV is perfectly poised to be the first true “Pope of The Americas,” not the “American Pope” as most of the U.S. media incessantly repeats.
Love means nothing in tennis, but at Rosedale it’s everything

3 weeks ago | hamiltoncitymagazine.ca | Deirdre Pike

Formation of the tennis club at Gage Park dates back more than a century and it was once the largest club in Hamilton and among the largest in Canada. Whenever my partner complains about being a “tennis widow,” I simply remind her that she is the source of these temporary, albeit regular, separations in our relationship. Until November 2015, I was a twice-weekly, fair-weather tennis player at one of the not-so-bad, free courts the City of Hamilton offers in my neighbourhood.
Rainbow Kings and Queens: A royal legacy

3 weeks ago | hamiltoncitymagazine.ca | Deirdre Pike

More than 350 LGBTQ+ asylum-seekers from eight African countries have settled in Hamilton for a life of safety, acceptance and peace and are building of their own community. Herbert Ddiba can’t quite recall how he came up with the name Rainbow Kings and Queens. He knew he wanted to coin something quickly to begin connecting with LGBTQ+ asylum-seekers from his native Uganda and neighbouring Kenya.
Pope Francis never lost his joy

1 month ago | thespec.com | Deirdre Pike

I became a Catholic in 1978, at the age of 15. That same year, three popes passed through the See of Peter, something witnessed only twice before in the history of the church. Perhaps that serendipity is the source of my respect and fascination for the papacy. Pope Paul VI was the Holy Father at the helm when I started catechism in Grade 10. Eight months later when I was received into the church on Aug.
My ongoing attempts to queer up the Catholic Church

Sep 6, 2024 | thespec.com | Deirdre Pike

In my ongoing attempts to queer up the Catholic Church from the inside out, Renée and I stood together, hand in hand, at the back of my parish church in April and, with Pope Francis’ backing, received a blessing from the pastor. It was just one of the ways we celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in 2023. The big event was a renewal of our vows at the location of our first pronouncement, Christ’s Church Cathedral, the heart of the Anglican Diocese of Niagara.
PRIDE: From heaviness to hope

Jun 18, 2024 | hamiltoncitymagazine.ca | Deirdre Pike

As we celebrate Pride in Canada, it’s important to remember that in many parts of the world, LGBTQI+ people are unsafe and in danger. At least 50 people from Uganda and Kenya are now making a home in Hamilton. More than 50 gay, lesbian and bisexual asylum seekers from Uganda and Kenya have made Hamilton their home since late last fall after fleeing persecution, violence, and potential death for their sexual orientations.
Celebrating the stories of our mothers

May 9, 2024 | thespec.com | Deirdre Pike

This will be my second Mother’s Day without my mom, but unlike the first, I’ve found a good way to keep busy. I’ll be spending the weekend honouring her memory as part of a local production called “Listen to Your Mother.” Already a Subscriber? Sign in This national storytelling show first ran in 2010, directed by writer and performer Ann Imig, in Madison, Wis. It was comprised of original monologues to “give Mom the microphone,” which eventually made it into an anthology.
I didn’t have the pope’s blessing on my same-sex marriage, but the church’s “monumental” shift now brings me joy

Jan 30, 2024 | broadview.org | Deirdre Pike

When my partner asked me to marry her in 2012, I told her I would need to wait until the Pope agreed to same-sex marriage. It wasn’t just a punchline with a stall tactic. I was committed to our relationship, but I was also a practicing Catholic as much as I was a practicing lesbian. I had no idea what saying ‘yes’ would mean liturgically and I wanted to be married in my church. At the time, Benedict XVI was still Pope.
Wishing and hoping: You never know what might ease the pain for those dying

Dec 8, 2023 | thepeterboroughexaminer.com | Deirdre Pike

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Wishing and hoping: You never know what might ease the pain for those dying

Dec 8, 2023 | thespec.com | Deirdre Pike

I’ve had a song on repeat this week, waiting for one hope-filled lyric to come around again. “A long December, and there's reason to believe, maybe this year will be better than the last.” Already a Subscriber? Sign in This year has been a bit rough in our dwelling place, with grief as our new housemate. Fifteen days into January, my mom died. Her unexpected death at 88 came as a surprise, “like a thief in the night,” but it was not a total shock.