{"id":58631,"date":"2025-09-19T19:31:31","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T22:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=58631"},"modified":"2025-09-19T19:31:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T22:31:31","slug":"from-newsroom-to-pulpit-former-journalist-begins-new-role-as-minister-in-fall-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=58631","title":{"rendered":"From Newsroom to Pulpit: Former journalist begins new role as minister in Fall River"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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OAKFIELD\/FALL RIVER:<\/strong> After 40 years in journalism, including 25 with The Canadian Press, a familiar voice in Canadian news has traded the newsroom for the pulpit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Tutton, the new minister serving St. Margaret\u2019s in Oakfield and its sister church in Fall River, said the shift from reporting headlines to guiding a congregation has been both gradual and deeply personal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a big change, going from being a journalist to being a reverend,\u201d he said. \u201cAt first, I just wanted to know more about the Christian faith, so I took some courses at the Atlantic School of Theology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was still working the morning shift at CP, then heading to class in the afternoon. I\u2019d be so tired, one professor admitted later she was irritated because I sometimes fell asleep in her class.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What started as curiosity became a calling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs I worked on the degree, my faith deepened, and I started to think, well, maybe I could be a minister,\u201d said Tutton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSomething deep inside called me to keep trying to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ordained in 2018, he initially balanced both worlds \u2014 filing stories during the week and leading worship on Sundays.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Rev. Michael Tutton sits in a pew inside St. Thomas Anglican Church in Fall River during an interview with The Laker News. (Healey photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Tutton\u2019s biggest challenge came in 2020 when he and Reverend Jody Clarke took on a six-month placement at St. Timothy\u2019s in Hatchet Lake and St. Paul\u2019s in Terence Bay. Then COVID-19 hit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt turned into two and a half years,\u201d he recalled. \u201cI sat with people as they died, placed ashes in burial grounds, and baptized babies while wearing a mask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThrough all of that, I came to really want to do ministry full time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, he applied to Fall River\u2019s Anglican parish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe say in my world the Holy Spirit moved,\u201d he said with a smile. \u201cI didn\u2019t even read the posting that carefully \u2014 I just saw an old church and a newer church, similar to what I had done before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey interviewed me twice and offered me the job. After 40 years as a journalist, I finally wrote my letter of resignation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The transition hasn\u2019t been without challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy first week back from holidays I had a kidney stone. So, I was trying to smile and be a nice minister while exhausted,\u201d he admitted. \u201cIt\u2019s overwhelming at first \u2014 so many things you could be doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut you must remind yourself: God provides. You can\u2019t do everything at once.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What excites him most is how involved the churches are in the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChurches don\u2019t get a lot of publicity, but they\u2019re at the heart of our community,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen someone dies, it\u2019s often the church ladies who make the food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese congregations also support food banks, provide meals downtown at St. George\u2019s, and run programs for children. Sometimes they forget how much they do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, the parish hosted an ecumenical service at Oakfield Park, bringing together several denominations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSomebody said, \u2018Why don\u2019t we just have our picnic together?\u2019 So we are,\u201d Tutton said. \u201cIt\u2019s a chance to show joy and togetherness, even if we worship in slightly different ways.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rev. Michael Tutton is the new minister at St. Thomas Anglican Church and its sister one in Oakfield. (Healey photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Looking ahead, he says he wants to build on that spirit of service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cI want to get to know people and find out what the community needs,\u201d he said. \u201cMaybe someone isn\u2019t that religious, but they play music \u2014 well, we need musicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaybe someone wants to help with food drives or fire safety boards. There\u2019s room for everyone to contribute.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For him, the change has been profound but rewarding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve gone from being on planes with prime ministers and covering Olympic Games to helping someone who\u2019s grieving or delivering food to a hungry family,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a change, but it brings things to a human level. That\u2019s also the beauty of local journalism \u2014 and now it\u2019s the beauty of ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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OAKFIELD\/FALL RIVER: After 40 years in journalism, including 25 with The Canadian Press, a familiar voice in Canadian news has traded the newsroom for the pulpit. Michael Tutton, the new minister serving St. Margaret\u2019s in Oakfield and its sister church in Fall River, said the shift from reporting headlines to guiding a congregation has been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58659,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,957],"tags":[2,6103,9252,33,9253,2010,1389,9254],"class_list":["post-58631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","tag-fall-river","tag-journalist","tag-michael-tutton","tag-oakfield","tag-rev-michael-tutton","tag-st-margarets-church","tag-st-thomas-anglican-church","tag-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/58659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}