Alan Cavin and Peter Gomes will become permanent deacons Oct. 7. (Catholic Vancouver Facebook)
VANCOUVER—Two business professionals are about to take a new step in their spiritual careers.
Alan Cavin and Peter Gomes will be ordained permanent deacons at Holy Rosary Cathedral Oct. 7 after four years of spiritual and theological formation.
“It’s been a long journey of studies and preparation and now we can see the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Cavin, the Director of Resource Development for Communitas Supportive Care. He’s also an active member of St. James Parish in Abbotsford, visits the sick at St. Paul’s Hospital every Sunday, and is in the process of becoming a volunteer for prison ministry.
“My compassionate way was seen as a weakness in the business world,” said Cavin, who worked in business for 25 years before he started working for Communitas, a non-profit that serves people with disabilities.
“In the ministry, I think it will be one of my strengths. God uses our personalities and how we are for his glory.”
Gomes, who has 30 years of experience as a professional accountant on his resume, is also looking forward to his ordination and new role in the Church.
“I feel very good, accomplished and happy,” he told The B.C. Catholic three days before ordination.
Gomes, a member of Our Lady of Fatima Parish, is actively involved in many Catholic groups, including the Charismatic Renewal and the Sri Lankan community. He has been helping to organize events on important Sri Lankan feast days and running weekly prayer gatherings since he landed in Canada in 2007.
Ordination “is not going to change normal day to day work a lot,” but it will “give me a boost, because with my knowledge and vocation, I can do more than in the past.”
Both men will carry on serving in their parishes and various ministries until they receive their assignments from Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, sometime after they are ordained. Their ordination Mass will be held at Holy Rosary Cathedral Oct. 7, at 2:00 p.m.