Welcome, Donna Beek!

Donna Beek is the new archbishop’s secretary, having begun work in early December. She follows Cheryl Jacobs, who was promoted to synod executive officer after Canon David Peer retired.

Donna lives in Oromocto, and has spent much of her career in administration and logistics, much of it with the Canadian Armed Forces.

Donna has worn many hats: Army Reserves veteran, entrepreneur, single mother, Silver Cross Mother, and doctoral candidate at Tyndale Seminary in the field of thanatology, the study of death, dying, grief and loss. 

But something she’s never done is work for a religious organization, although she’s long wanted to.

“This part of my life is to be spent in service to God and the church,” she said. “I like being in a supporting role. By being here, I can help people and help the churches. I like learning how the church works, not just my own, but the diocese.”

EARLIER LIFE
Donna was born in Trenton, Ontario, where her father worked as a civilian on the base. She married a soldier and worked in administration for the military from 1983-2008, in Trenton, Baden-Soellingen (Germany), Gagetown, and Shilo, Manitoba.

Her time in Germany included a world-changing event.

“I witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall!” she said. “It was the 29th of November, 1989. It was an incredible thing to witness.”

At the age of 43, she joined the Army Reserves, serving from 2008-2010. She worked full-time at the Canadian Forces School of Military Engineers in Gagetown, in charge of personnel awaiting training. This included launching court martials and trials when necessary.

Donna endured another life-changing event in 2009 when her son, Corey Hayes, a soldier serving in Afghanistan, was killed. A year later, her marriage failed.

ON HER OWN
From 2010 to 2020, Donna lived in Toronto.

“I began my own business: tailor for the military, RCMP and the York Regional Police. I had 15,000 clients.”

You might think she’d have needed a fleet of assistants, but no, it was just her.

“It was busy. It was escapism. I was trying to outpace the grief.”

Seeking an outlet to work, she enrolled in Tyndale Seminary and earned a Masters degree in Theological Studies with a concentration in spiritual formation.

“I wanted to redirect my energies,” she said, adding she continued working at the same pace during her studies.

During the pandemic, she closed her business and returned to New Brunswick, to be closer to her children and three grandchildren.

She began work as a very overqualified pandemic-era Commissionaire, “keeping people out of buildings!”

Still with the Commissionaires, she ended up working at Base Gagetown, coordinating the training and safety of soldiers doing dry and live exercises.

In 2023 she decided to retire and return to Tyndale, studying for a Masters degree in Divinity, with a specialization in thanatology.

Did her son’s death influence her field of study?

“Yes, 110 per cent!” she said.

But she will not finish that degree, because in May she will enter Tyndale’s doctoral program, which is almost entirely online. 

Her research will focus on the concept of moral injury as it relates to soldiers, who could be the perpetrator of a moral injury in a theatre of war, or the victim of moral injury.

“My research is to build a pastoral care template for military chaplains to use with soldiers suffering from moral injury, attributable to military service.”

ANGLICANISM
Donna attended the United Church with her parents until she was 14 and they stopped going. So she began attending a Roman Catholic church with her grandmother and eventually converted.

But in her 30s, she became disenchanted with her chosen denomination, specifically on the issue of transubstantiation. 

“I said ‘I can’t do this.’ It freaked me out and I left the church. I didn’t go to church for a year.”

But she found her new home in Anglicanism when she attended a funeral and fell in love with the liturgy, the prayer book, and the people.

“Everything I liked in the Roman Catholic church was there, but all the things I rebelled against weren’t there. The spirituality is pure here.”

She attends Christ Church Cathedral.

In a unique and wonderful twist of fate, she recently learned that her new colleague, Ben Bourque, is married to Jenna, a friend of her son, Corey.

Jenna felt so strongly about her friend’s untimely death, that she and Ben named their second son Hayes, after Corey’s last name.

Welcome, Donna!

PHOTO CAPTION: Donna Beek is Archbishop David Edwards' new secretary, replacing Cheryl Jacobs, who has replaced Canon David Peer as synod executive officer.
McKnight photo