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Tony Copple, CFP., MA Anglican, Lay leader
61 Highmont Court, Kanata (Ottawa), Ontario K2T 1B2 Tel: 613-591-3903 FAX:613-591-8943
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Tony was an
atheist for 15 years in his younger years, although he had been baptized and
confirmed in the Church of England. After being prodded by God for many years,
the breakthrough came on 19 June 1984 at Luis Palau’s Mission to London, when
Tony was strongly convicted by the Holy Spirit, and became proactive in his
faith journey.
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He came to
Canada in 1987, settling in Kanata, Near Ottawa, and joined Glen Cairn United
Church after a church shopping project in Kanata. He had several opportunities
to preach at Glen Cairn, and believes these were major stepping stones in ministry. He chaired several committees including stewardship
and worship. In 1997 Tony was invited to join an Alpha course, and almost
immediately Moderator Bill Phipps gave his famous interview to the Ottawa
Citizen proclaiming Jesus was not God. Tony was incensed and amazed, having
never before been exposed to liberal theology, and started the Moderator
website to battle this evil.
It was through this site and correspondence on these matters that he met and
married Laurie-Ann Zachar, MDiv, who is his spiritual director and with whom he
has shared almost all Christian leadership activities since. Laurie-Ann’s
passion is short term missions abroad. ·
In 2001,
after having taken on leadership roles in Alpha, Tony was asked to be an Alpha
advisor for Ottawa, a position he has held ever since. He was a prime mover
behind the 2001 Ottawa Alpha Conference, and has become known in Christian
circles in Ottawa primarily as a result of his Alpha leadership. ·
In 2002 he
left Glen Cairn United Church after a freemasonry episode
and (re)joined the Anglican Church, where Laurie-Ann had been worshipping for a
year. He was introduced to the Elmhurst Committee on Human Sexuality, and
then joined the executive committee of the Anglican Gathering of Ottawa, a
group positioned to oppose the current liberal direction of the Anglican Church
of Canada; see http://ago.ncf.ca
On May 19 2004 he launched the Same-Sex Blessings site,
later expanding it to include Same-sex Marriage. The fight continues
against liberal trends in all major denominations, which Tony is extremely
concerned about. In July 2005, Tony joined Laurie-Ann for the first
time on a short mission, to Migori, Kenya, bringing the Alpha course to a local mission centre, and showing the leaders how to run it.
In 2010 he led a Global Alpha Training mission to Freetown, Sierra Leone, with Lauri-Ann, Dwight McDougall and Richard Gilman.
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He was
educated at Cambridge University where he obtained an honours degree in
Engineering. He joined the Royal Navy, retiring as a Lieutenant Commander in
1971. Later he studied economics at London University. ·
He has
experience as the proprietor of several small businesses, including a Nu Skin distributorship still in operation. ·
Tony’s
professional career is as a financial consultant with Investors Group offering
financial planning for individuals and small companies, specializing in
government and private sector individuals involved in the hi-tech/software
industries, and also in the small business and entrepreneurial sectors.
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Tony says: God created, and visited Earth
in the person of Jesus. You may not believe it yet, but it's true,
nevertheless. He chooses who will be shown the truth, and the devil
works against him. Not to bring up our children with a love of Jesus
is the most serious crime we could inflict on future generations.
Atheists are fast becoming the new fundamentalists in their eagerness
to deny Christianity, and they will be made to account for it. Read Jeremiah.
Nothing an atheist could say could deflect me from Christ. The
ignorance of our faith by the population at large is a scandal. I
learned mine in the equivalent of daycare 64 years ago and I am so
grateful. I love you all, particularly atheists.
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Listen to how Tony spends a typical day. This was recorded for a piece of homework for Laurie-Ann in her studies at the Algonquin school of radio broadcasting in November 2010.
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