Father Jimmy Tompkins

"It is not enough to have ideas, we have to put legs on them".

In Father Jimmy, his ideas live again--an inspiration and a tool for those who want to make a difference today. Tompkins was father of the regional library system and of co-op housing in Nova Scotia. He was also the spiritual father of the co-op movement in Nova Scotia. When he insisted that the university should serve the average person, his bishop banished him to parish work among Nova Scotia's poorest fishermen. Once over the shock, Tompkins encouraged cooperation, self-reliance, and adult education--testing the roots of what became the Antigonish Movement. Angered by injustice, fortified by compassion and faith, Tompkins and his cousin, Father Moses Coady, used the power of their roles to get people to make a difference in their own lives.