User:Dclemens1971/sandbox/Jonas Allooloo

Allooloo was born in 1946 near Igloolik and grew up in a camp near Pond Inlet where his father was a a Christian lay leader. Allooloo attended a residential school for Inuit in Churchill, Manitoba and later studied at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, where he reported experiencing anti-indigenous racism.^[1]

Allooloo returned to the Arctic in 1972 and studied theology at the Diocese of the Arctic's Arthur Turner Training School (ATTS), then located in Pangnirtung. His theological studies triggered an interest in Bible translation.^[1] He was ordained as a deacon in 1974 and as a priest in 1975.^[2]

As a student at ATTS, Allooloo used an outdated translation of the Bible made by European missionaries that combined the distinct Eastern Arctic and Nunavik dialects of Inuktitut. Allooloo and a classmate, future bishop Andrew Atagotaaluk, would update the translation while using it for studied or during Morning Prayer liturgies at ATTS. Following Allooloo's graduation, he was invited along with other bilingual clergy to a Bible translation workshop in 1978. The workshop was led by prominent linguist and Bible translator Eugene Nida, and participants used Nida's techniques to translate the book of Ruth into Inuktitut. When the workshop ended, Nida selected Allooloo and Atagotaaluk to join the translation team for the Inuktitut Bible sponsored by the Canadian Bible Society. Fellow Inuk priest Ben Arreak was the project's coordinator, and Arreak's younger brother Joshua joined the team later.^[1]

Due to their primary vocations as priests, the translators gathered twice a year for a six-week in-depth session. Each team member would translate one book of the Bible and then receive feedback from others, while Canadian Bible Society Hebrew and Greek scholars would check the translation drafts against the texts' original languages. The team completed the New Testament by 1991 and began work on the Old Testament, which they completed in 2012. Allooloo said that the Old Testament was easier because the oral traditions of the Hebrew scriptures and the nomadic nature of Hebrew life was aligned with Inuit life. The completed Bible was dedicated on June 3, 2012, at the newly rebuilt St. Jude's Cathedral. Allooloo later worked on a children's Bible in Inuktitut.^[1]

Jeff Green, a translation official at the Canadian Bible Society, described Allooloo as "a very careful translator . . . skilled at evaluating the different English Bible versions he worked from and was deeply knowledgeable about Inuktitut dialects."^[3]

In addition to his translation work, Allooloo spent most of his ordained life serving in parish ministry. He was dean and rector of St. Jude's Cathedral from 2012 to 2018.^[4] He served on the Primate's Commission on Discovery, Reconciliation, and Justice for the broader Anglican church.^[5]

Less than two years after retiring as dean, Allooloo had become effectively homelessness in Iqaluit; he and his wife, Meena, faced a four-to-five-year wait for housing availability and lived with their daughter in staff housing.^[2] Allooloo's plight illuminated a challenge for retired Inuit clergy, who generally had access to a rectory while working but saw difficulty in securing costly housing upon retirement. The Allooloos obtained housing after receiving donations from Canadians who were shocked to learn about their situation, and the Anglican Church Women established a fund for retired clergy in the nine member dioceses of the ACC's Council of the North.^[1]

Allooloo died in February 2026 at the age of 79. He was survived by his wife, Meena; their four daughters and one of their two sons, as well as 13 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.^[1]