At the time of his election in 1993, Bishop Anthony Burton was the youngest bishop in the world-wide Anglican Communion, and the youngest Canadian bishop that century. Nearly fifteen years later he is the second-youngest of the Canadian bishops, though now one of the most senior and experienced of them. He has just concluded a term as Chair of the Council of the North (representing a third of Canada's dioceses and 85% of its geography). He serves as Co-Chair of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue and as the Episcopal Visitor to the South American Missionary Society, as well as patron or officer of a variety of institutions, societies and organizations. At last year’s Canadian General Synod he was elected to its executive committee, the Council of General Synod, and has since been elected by that Council to its small planning committee. Until his appointment to the Church of the Incarnation was announced, he was generally expected to become Archbishop of the Ecclesiastical Province of Rupert’s Land following the retirement of Archbishop John Clarke from that office this summer.

Born and raised in Ottawa, Bishop Burton studied at the University of Toronto, Dalhousie University, and Oxford University. He was ordained in the Diocese of Nova Scotia, where he served in two parishes on Cape Breton Island, at which time he married Anna Erickson, a native of California. They moved in 1991 to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, where he served as Dean and Rector of St. Alban’s Cathedral. They have two children—Caroline (13) and Peter (11). Bishop Burton has many interests, including church growth and choral music. He is an enthusiastic runner.