[Episcopal News Service] In an announcement shared on social media, the Anglican Church of Canada said that its former primate, the Most Rev. Michael Geoffrey Peers, died on July 27 in Toronto, four days short of his 89th birthday. Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.

Peers served as primate from 1986 to 2004. Among the notable aspects of his term was an apology he made in 1993 to the the National Native Convocation for the church’s role in administering residential boarding schools for Indigenous children, which were designed to eliminate the children’s connection to their Indigenous culture and where abuse was common.

Peers’ apology said, in part, ” I accept and I confess before God and you, our failures in the residential schools. We failed you. We failed ourselves. We failed God. I am sorry, more than I can say, that we were part of a system which took you and your children from home and family. I am sorry, more than I can say, that we tried to remake you in our image, taking from you your language and the signs of your identity. I am sorry, more than I can say, that in our schools so many were abused physically, sexually, culturally and emotionally. On behalf of the Anglican Church of Canada, I present our apology.”