Helping in reviving Blayney Anglican Parish during the tumult of the pandemic lockdowns, the Reverend Wally Cox is heading north... very north!

After moving to the Central Tablelands five years ago, Rev Wally in late 2025 accepted an appointment as rector of St Paul’s Anglican Church, Edmonton in the Rocky Mountain’s western Canadian province of Alberta, beginning on Wednesday, April 1.

To thank him for he and his family’s efforts in renewing the local parish, a farewell luncheon is being held at Millthorpe’s Golden Memories Museum on Sunday, March 22.

Still a trainee minister from Moore Theological College when he made the move west from Sydney, Wally and his wife, GP registrar Jordan, settled into the rectory at Christ Church in Blayney with their young family at a time of ministerial upheaval in the Diocese and when the parish had been without a dedicated priest for nearly two-and-a-half years.

Church initiatives he took on included outreach to younger families, a weekly kids club, youth group, bible study groups, and kids church. A lover of dice, chance, skill, and daring, soon after he arrived, he also established a Blayney board game club for local aficionados of Monopoly, Scrabble, and Dungeons and Dragons.

Among Rev Wally’s other hobbies, he’s also an accomplished pool player… something he can presumably get plenty of practice in during the long Canadian winters.

“The church in Alberta actually approached me about coming over and taking on the parish,” he told 'Orange City Life'. “The offer is open-ended, so we don’t know how long we will be over there,” he added.

So, Wally, Jordan, and their four children, Edward, Augustine, Wesley, and Isabel, are off to the Rockies; where, a quick perusal of the Canadian equivalent of the Bureau of Meteorology indicates daytime maximums are at this time of year about 10C, with nightly minimums of about -1C; around the July averages in Blayney and Millthorpe.

With ministers of religion not exactly thick on the ground at the moment, various locums and fill-ins — including the Rev Linda Boss and the Rev Bob Cameron and other lay volunteers — will serve the Blayney Parish until a permanent replacement can be appointed.

The Sunday, March 22, event starts at 12 noon after the end of the Millthorpe service, with everyone invited, and guests asked to bring a salad or sweet, with meat provided… of which Wally, a long-time vegetarian, won’t himself be partaking.

FUN FACT: One thing the Cox’s won’t need on their Alberta excursion are rodent traps or those ultrasonic pest repellers you plug into a power socket on the wall. This is because the Canadian province — three times the size of Victoria — is the world’s largest rat-free human-populated area; due to an aggressive government-run Rat Control Program started in 1950.

Showing that eternal vigilance is the key, a continuing 'Rat on Rats' reporting initiative, matched to dedicated 'Rat Patrols', swoop on the very occasional sightings of the Norwegian invader (Rattus norvegicus) in quick order, in the intensely alpine region.