INTRODUCTION
The General Synod normally meets every three years for a session lasting several days. It held its 42nd session from 10 to 16 July 2019 in Vancouver. There were three items of business that particularly attracted the attention of the media, though a number of other important issues were also addressed during the session.Footnote 2
A SELF-DETERMINING INDIGENOUS CHURCH
Perhaps the most significant item of business for the Synod centred around a number of resolutions and actions advancing the concept of a self-determining Indigenous Church within the Anglican Church of Canada. This is part of a decades-long movement towards healing and reconciliation of relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians within the Anglican Church. As has become standard practice, Indigenous ceremony and acknowledgement of Synod's presence on Indigenous land were front and centre of the opening and closing services of worship.
An early resolution (A040) gave official member status to observers from the Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples (ACIP). In previous sessions of Synod, ACIP has been invited to send a number of observers to the General Synod. They were normally given privileges of the floor with permission to speak, but as non-members did not have the right to vote. With this constitutional amendment, ACIP is now able to send two clergy, two lay members and one young person as full voting members, as are other jurisdictions within the Church.Footnote 3 Upon the adoption of the resolution, the five ACIP observers were issued official members’ name badges and electronic voting terminals.
Governance of the Indigenous Church is set out in Canon XXII of the General Synod, which has been evolving over the course of several sessions, beginning with a description of the various instruments of governance (including ACIP, the Sacred Circle and the National Indigenous Anglican Bishop). As the Canon has taken shape, it has come to set out the relationship between the instruments and the wider Church. Several changes were adopted in this Canon at the request of ACIP (Resolution A050-R1), including giving ACIP the authority to adopt and amend its own constitution, and giving the National Indigenous Anglican Bishop the dignity of a metropolitan and the style of archbishop. Upon the adoption of this resolution, a ceremonial processional cross, in the style of the four existing metropolitical crosses and the primatial cross, was presented to the now archbishop.
During the Synod, Primate Fred Hiltz delivered an apology to the Indigenous Peoples for the spiritual harm caused by the Church's colonialist attitudes and policies, including but not limited to the attitudes that led to the operation of a number of residential schools as part of Government policy. The apology was officially accepted by representatives of the Indigenous membership.
Two other resolutions on the theme of reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples were adopted by General Synod. Resolution A080 encouraged all Anglicans to live a lifestyle consistent with reconciliation, and respectful of both the Land and the People of the Land. Resolution A081 added two new memorials to the liturgical calendar, one commemorating the 1993 apology given by the then Primate, Michael Peers, for the Church's participation in Indian residential schools, and the other commemorating a 1994 covenant developed by Indigenous leaders in response to the apology.
RELATIONS WITH OTHER FAITHS
Still on the theme of reconciliation, Synod adopted two other resolutions of note. The first was Resolution A123, making the Church a formal signatory to the document ‘A common word between us and you’, offered by Muslim scholars a decade ago as a call to reconciliation between Muslims and Christians.
The second, Resolution A051-R2, was to give first reading to a change to the Canadian Book of Common Prayer (1962). An effort to deauthorise a prayer for the conversion of the Jews had failed at first reading in 2016. In the intervening three years, a new prayer for reconciliation with the Jewish people had been developed by Anglican liturgical and interfaith scholars in consultation with the Canadian Rabbinic Caucus and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. This prayer is intended to replace the prayer for the conversion of the Jews in the Book of Common Prayer once the resolution is given second reading in 2022.Footnote 4 An imam and a rabbi were present and addressed the Synod regarding these two resolutions. Both were adopted nearly unanimously.
RELATIONS WITH THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH
Since 2001, the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada have been in full communion, a relationship that will be familiar to members of the Porvoo Churches. At about the same time, the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America entered into their own full communion relationship. Although the four Churches have been building on these relationships over the years, the full communion agreements have not been commutative, leaving each of the four Churches in communion with two of the other three but not the third. Resolution A151 gave approval for the Anglican Church of Canada to enter full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, a process which will be completed when the latter Church's Governing Body meets in August 2019. It is intended that the four-way relationship will be completed upon the requisite action by the Episcopal Church's General Convention in 2021.
AMENDMENTS TO THE CANONS
Synod gave second reading to a number of housekeeping amendments to the Declaration of Principles and the Canons on Discipline (Canon XVIII) and the Supreme Court (Canon XX), first reading having been given in the 2016 session. Changes to this legislation required a two-thirds majority in each of the three orders at two readings over two successive sessions of Synod.
The most controversial item of business was a proposal to amend Canon XXI on Marriage to provide for solemnisation of marriage between persons of the same sex. This proposal had been narrowly adopted at first reading in 2016 and returned to General Synod for second reading. The Chancellor of General Synod had previously pointed out that the Canon in its current form neither defines marriage nor prohibits solemnisation of same-sex marriage, and thus the proposed changes were to four incidental references to the couple as ‘husband and wife’ or ‘man and woman’ (whereas most of the references are already to ‘the parties to the marriage’). In addition, it was proposed to require the bishop's authorisation to solemnise a same-sex marriage. After a long debate, the motion failed to achieve a two-thirds majority in each of the three orders. It will continue to be a matter of controversy as to what this failure means, given the chancellor's opinion, but in the days immediately following General Synod a number of dioceses have taken the position that, since same-sex marriage is not prohibited by the Canon, their clergy are free to solemnise marriage between persons of the same sex on the same basis as solemnisation of marriage between persons of opposite sexes. One diocese, Edmonton, has issued a gender-neutral version of the standard marriage rite from the Book of Alternative Services.
THE NEW PRIMATE
Finally, a major event at the General Synod was triggered by the announced retirement of Archbishop Fred Hiltz as Primate, requiring the election of a successor. In Canada, the process for election of a primate begins with a meeting of the Order of Bishops a few months in advance of the General Synod, at which they nominate three or more candidates from among the current bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada. During the General Synod session, the Orders of Clergy and Laity meet together to elect a primate from among these candidates. A simple majority in both orders is required.
The Rt Revd Linda Nicholls, Bishop of Huron, was elected as the 14th Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada on the fourth ballot, becoming the second woman to be a primate in the Anglican Communion and the third female archbishop in the Anglican Church of Canada, all three of whom are currently in office (the other two being provincial metropolitans). Archbishop Nicholls was officially installed as Primate at the Synod's closing service.
NEXT MEETING
General Synod will next meet in 2022 in Calgary, Alberta. As was the case in 2013, that session will be held as part of a joint assembly with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada's National Convention.
