He arrives at his destination to learn that his beloved died calling his name. In 1943, the see city was moved to Regina and in 1973, St. Paul's was given full cathedral status. Like several of his predecessors, Bishop Wallace is coping with a declining number of parishes. His immediate predecessor, Bishop Eric Bays, wrote in the Saskatchewan Anglican newspaper in 1997 that there were just over 100 points, or congregations, in the diocese, down from 250 in 1959. The population of Saskatchewan itself has stayed constant at about one million for at least two decades, he noted.
Prairie geography presents certain unique challenges.
For instance, the greater parish of Oxbow in the southeast corner of Saskatchewan is bigger in area then the whole Diocese of Niagara. Niagara has about 110 parish clergy, but Oxbow has not had a full-time parish priest since 1988. To that end, the diocese is developing local ministry teams where one or two members are identified for ordination by the local people, he said. They train at home through correspondence courses offered by the College of Emmanuel and St. Chad in Saskatoon and through some study within the diocese. One bright note, Bishop Wallace said, is that he's seen a renewed interest in ministry, with eight people coming to see him recently to talk about ordination.