Winnipeg, Man. — MCC Canada is delighted to congratulate Winnipeg-based journalist John Longhurst for being named a member of the Order of Canada for his media contributions to Canada’s interfaith dialogue.
Longhurst, a former MCC Canada communications coordinator, is a freelance columnist at the Winnipeg Free Press and is also considered to be Canada’s only religion reporter at a major newspaper.
Throughout his career in communications and journalism, Longhurst has carved out a space in Canada’s media landscape to report on diverse faith issues in Manitoba and across the country. His reporting digs out stories like what the first mosque in Morden, Man., means for 150 families in the community, or how Indigenous and Muslim communities in Winnipeg are forging new bonds.
He says that faith-based groups and churches are usually busy working in communities, not promoting their work — like the Winnipeg church that opens its doors in the winter months to provide a warm place to sleep.
“Churches don’t send me press releases about the work they are doing. They don’t promote themselves,” Longhurst explains. But he sees faith angle everywhere. “The story I’m trying to tell is how faith is active and engaged and doing things in this province and in this country.”
When asked about the stories that have stayed with him, Longhurst speaks of his experience interviewing residential school survivors. He was invited to Rome in 2022 when an Indigenous delegation from Canada met with Pope Francis in Vatican City.
“I was able to be in Rome for that entire experience, which was amazing and moving. I was also able to go to Alberta [for the Pope’s apology] and interview survivors from the residential school system. Those have stayed with me,” says Longhurst. “Having people tell me what happened to them as little children in residential schools — it just breaks your heart.”
Longhurst began his career at MCC Canada in the mid-1980s as a communications and media relations coordinator, spending more than a decade with the organization. During his tenure, Longhurst succeeded in bringing MCC’s work into new spaces in the public sphere, says MCC Canada Executive Director Rick Cober Bauman.
“John forged a way to amplify the work of MCC to new audiences, and he left us a solid path to follow in media relations. He built up relationships with mainstream news editors across the country, which went a long way in establishing MCC’s reputation as a trusted source.
“I’m pleased that he continues to shine a light on stories of faith, community commitment and the bonds that tie us together as Canadians,” said Cober Bauman.
Longhurst was also one of MCC’s early digital pioneers, convincing the organization to create a website in 1997. This early website (now stored on an archive platform) consisted of only a few lines of text and a few bullet points.
“The web was hardly a thing at the time…you couldn’t upload photographs back then, and you didn’t have all the tools you have now,” said Longhurst. “I had to learn HTML. Everything had to be created manually. You physically put in the commands for paragraph breaks.”
It was thanks to what Longhurst describes as a “let’s try it” attitude in Canada that the website came to be. The organization offered a great atmosphere, says Longhurst, to learn and to develop a career.
“For me as a young person in my 30s, starting to grow in my career, MCC was a fertile place of creativity and imagination and a ‘Why not?’ attitude. I had executive directors and supervisors who had the approach of ‘Let’s give it a try’. It was a really engaging atmosphere. You could try stuff and see if it worked,” says Longhurst.
Religious Canadians continue to be one of the largest drivers of charitable giving and volunteering across the country. Longhurst points to this relationship between generosity, civic-mindedness and belief, and believes that faith still matters to many Canadians.
“I believe faith is still important to millions and millions of Canadians. If you look, you can find a faith angle in many stories, they aren’t hard to find.”