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Welcome from the General Secretary

Dear General Synod Delegate,

Welcome to Assembly 2022 2023, and the 43^rd session of the General Synod!

As we gather with our Full Communion partners, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, we look forward to a successful week of seeking and furthering God’s mission in the Church and in the world. Assembly will provide us opportunities to meet new people and old friends, to learn more about our church and to deepen relationships with our Lutheran partners. We will have times of worship, study, fellowship, engagement with significant issues and the legislative business of the General Synod.

You come to Assembly formed by many factors in your life, from your family of origin, where you grew up, your education and faith formation, where you live now, your parish life and your diocese. As a member of General Synod you are called to bring these experiences with you and also to transcend them to seek the good of the whole Church, to discern what God might be saying in the reports, the resolutions, the debates and perhaps in the surprising encounters with other faithful Anglicans (and Lutherans!) who bring a different perspective. As we engage together in Bible study, table discussions, debates, and over meals we listen for the voice of the Spirit to guide us as we set the course for the next several years of the life of the General Synod.

All of this we do in a spirit of enquiry, openness, humility and mutual respect, seeking the best for each other and for our whole Church.

I have often said that the General Synod is the Anglican Church of Canada at its best. That’s only possible because of the love and care of the people who are the General Synod – people like you.

As you prepare for Assembly, please take some time to read through the reports in the Convening Circular, to familiarize yourself with the resolutions and to come rested and expecting to hear the voice of God. You will note that one resolution proposes introducing new Rules of Order and Procedure which will guide the formal parts of our meeting. Please take some time to familiarize yourself with these new rules. Please pray for a successful Assembly. And please do come to Calgary ready to be part of the Anglican Church of Canada at its best.

Thank you for your commitment of time and energy in preparing for Assembly, and for your faithful participation when we gather.

I look forward to seeing you in Calgary!

Yours in faith,

The Ven Alan T Perry
General Secretary

Matthew 10:40-42

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Rewards

40 “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. ⁴¹Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous, ⁴²and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

John 15:12-17

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. ¹⁶You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. ¹⁷I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

John 21:15-19

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Jesus and Peter

15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” ¹⁶A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” ¹⁷He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. ¹⁸Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” ¹⁹(He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”

Luke 11:33-36

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

The Light of the Body

33 “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a bushel basket; rather, one puts it on the lampstand so that those who enter may see the light. ³⁴Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but if it is unhealthy, your body is full of darkness. ³⁵Therefore consider whether the light in you is not darkness. ³⁶But if your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with its rays.”

Matthew 8:1-4

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Jesus Cleanses a Man

8 When Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed him, ²and there was a man with a skin disease who came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” ³He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be made clean!” Immediately his skin disease was cleansed. ⁴Then Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”