Clergy for the Parish of March

The Reverend Karen Ann Coxon, Incumbent

The Reverend Karen Ann Coxon has been incumbent of the Parish of March since December, 2008 when she and her husband moved to the Ottawa area from Penetanguishene, Ontario.

A native of Nipigon in Northwestern Ontario, she grew up in Deep River and Ajax, Ontario where she attended primary and high schools.

In 1978 and1981 she graduated with a degree in Physical Therapy from Mohawk College and the University of Alberta.  She worked in the healthcare field in Alberta and Ontario as a professional physiotherapist from 1978 until 2001.

In 1995, she felt compelled to begin studying theology at the University of Toronto’s Trinity College. Describing herself as…..”one of God’s many millennium projects,” she earned a Master of Divinity degree in the year 2000.

Rev. Coxon then served first for three years as Assistant Curate at St Paul’s Anglican Church in Lindsay, Ontario.  She next became Incumbent (Rector) of the Parish of Penetanguishene, serving there for another five years before coming to the Parish of March.

She says the path of her life has been full of unexpected twists and turns, and she marvels at where God has brought her.

She is married to Mike and the couple are the parents of Genevieve, Matthew and Rebecca. They are also the proud grandparents of Donovan, and Brookelyn.

In her spare time, Karen enjoys typical Ontario recreational activities:  curling and skiing in winter; cycling and holidaying at Georgian Bay in the summer.

The Reverend Jessica Worden-Bolling, Associate Priest

The Reverend Jessica Worden-Bolling took up her duties as Associate Priest of the Parish of March effective July 15, 2010.

While she is primarily responsible for ministering to the people of St Mary’s, North March, and St Paul’s, Dunrobin, she frequently conducts services at St John’s, and helps deliver programs and activities across the entire parish. Prominently amongst these, she leads and coordinates the parish youth group program, Young@March, and started a Kids' Choir in November 2011.

A native Eastern Ontarian born in Cornwall, Jessica is the youngest of three daughters of now retired Archdeacon Gordon Worden and his wife Leslie.  She grew up in the 1980s and 90s, attending primary and secondary schools in Nepean and Carleton Place  —  during her father’s service with local parishes in these communities.

After completing her high school in Carleton Place, Jessica studied Canadian history and religion at McGill University in Montreal, graduating with a BA degree in 2004.

Musically talented (she plays both piano and guitar) and also pondering for a time a potential career in teaching, she ultimately decided to pursue her Masters in Divinity degree.  She completed it in 2007 at Huron University College (an affiliate of the University of Western Ontario) in London, Ontario. 

Jessica says she chose this path to the priesthood because she was drawn to help others in the ways that the Church had given her own life meaning.  Having interests in all areas of Ministry she felt God's Spirit was calling her to loving service in the role of a Priest. 

Prior to completing her university and college education, her varied community service activities had included working with children and youth with disabilities and helping with leadership duties at Christian youth camps.

She was for a time President of the Theology Students’ Council at Huron College and after that served a church-sponsored overseas internship in northern India, where she taught music at a school in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh.

While still a theological student, she worked for several months with the people of St Helen’s Anglican Church in Orleans, where she first met her future husband.

Following ordination, Jessica returned to her birthplace of Cornwall, to become Assistant Curate at Trinity Anglican Church in the Seaway city from June 2008 until just before her posting here to the Parish of March.

She continues to serve (has been since late 2009) as the Clerical Secretary of Synod, of the Diocese of Ottawa.

In a sense, Jessica is following in the footsteps of both of her parents:  Her mother, Leslie, is well-known across the Diocese for her years of work with the Anglican Church Women (ACW) movement at the Diocesan board level, as well as, latterly, through her part-time work providing staff support to the Screening in Faith program — which vets volunteers for church programs through such means as criminal records checks and other means that attempt to guarantee the safety of the vulnerable.

Jessica and her electrical engineer husband, Vance Bolling, were married in January 2010 and are residing next door to St John's Church on Sandhill Road, in the historic Parish of March rectory that, like St John's, was built in 1839-1840.

In her down time, she enjoys outdoor activities, gardening and experimenting with recipes.