Get to know the people of Sorrento Centre

The Rev'd Michael Shapcott joined the staff of the Sorrento Centre in 2018. By simple math, as the Sorrento Centre is joyfully celebrating its 60^th anniversary in 2023, Michael will celebrate his fifth year in the glorious Secwépemc’ulucw – the traditional and unceded territory of the Secwepemc First Nation.

Michael is never far from his camera (the “eye of his heart”), where he seeks to visualize the deep wisdom of the words of Hildegard of Bingen: “there is the music of heaven in all things”. He is grateful to work with a dedicated staff team, a hard-working Board of Directors and many volunteers to manage the day-to-day operations and finances of the Centre. He is active in the life of the Shuswap region and beyond, working on a variety of initiatives locally, provincially, across Canada and internationally.

Ordained as a Deacon in the Anglican Church of Canada, Michael is well-known for a life-time of social and economic justice work focusing on housing, health and human rights, as well as human dignity and equity. In his work, Michael has managed national youth employment programs for Prince's Charities Canada, the Canadian charitable office of the then-HRH The Prince of Wales; led the housing and innovation practice at the Wellesley Institute think tank; co-ordinated community and university research partnerships for the University of Toronto's Centre for Urban and Community Studies; managed the development of hundreds of units of affordable housing through the innovative Rupert pilot project; and worked at street-level with adults who were homeless as a Community Development Worker at the Toronto Christian Resource Centre.

He spent ten years as a newspaper journalist – working as a reporter, editor and columnist at several Canadian newspapers. His post-secondary education includes the Faculty of General Studies at the University of Calgary, the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto, the summer programme of the London School of Economics and the Faculty of Divinity at Trinity College, University of Toronto.

Michael seeks to live deeply into the words of the 14th-century English mystic Julian of Norwich: “Be a gardener, dig a ditch, toil and sweat, and turn the earth upside down and seek the deepness and water the plants in time. Continue this labour and make sweet goods to run and noble and abundant fruits to spring. Take this food and drink and carry it to God as your true worship.”

He lives on the campus of the Sorrento Centre with the delightful Phoebe, our Branch Manager, who teaches Michael how to slow down and smell all the delightful smells that our world has to offer. He is the proud father of the talented and beautiful Nicole and Malcolm. Michael knows how to play the accordion and concertina, and attempts to do so as much as he is able.