Archbishop Linda Nicholls, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, opened the 43rd Session of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada today in Calgary, Alberta.
In her primatial address, Archbishop Nicholls referred to the Anglican community as a diverse gathering of individuals with varying backgrounds and experiences—from Indigenous people to descendants of early settlers to relative newcomers, the Church is “dispersed in a wide array of settings and circumstances, urban, suburban, rural and isolated, from coast to coast to coast”.
Given the diversity of the Church, the Archbishop continued, deep listening to one another is a necessary component of our interdependent relationships, along with the willingness to share. “As a national church, we have committed to sharing resources including from local to diocese, diocese to internal province and to the national church, and the national church in turn sharing through ministries both locally and globally—including redistribution of funds to support parts of the church here in Canada that need assistance. There is a circle of relationship in that sharing based on our commitment to one another: local-provincial-back to the local.”
In closing, the Primate acknowledged that the Anglican Church of Canada is entering a time of transformation; in discerning our future mission, resetting our priorities and our strategies for achieving them, examining our governance structures, evaluating our resource requirements and opportunities and finding ways to support Sacred Circle, the emerging self-determining Indigenous Church.
A brief summary of key work of the quadrennium through General Synod:
- Dismantling racism
- Development of a strategic plan for General Synod
- Sacred Circle, affirmation of the Covenant and Our Way of Life
- Working toward full communion with the Moravian Church in Canada
- Visit by the Archbishop of Canterbury to share in reconciliation efforts
- Safe Church and the review of the General Synod Misconduct Policy
- Lambeth Conference
