Bishop Chris Harper of the diocese of Saskatoon has been named the Anglican Church of Canada’s new national Indigenous Anglican archbishop and presiding elder of the Sacred Circle.
Harper’s appointment was announced by the national office the morning of Dec. 5. Harper succeeds Mark MacDonald, who resigned last spring after acknowledged sexual misconduct allegations. … Read more »… lire la suite »
Bishop Michael Hawkins, of the diocese of Saskatchewan, says he expects to resign from his position effective April 30, 2023 due to health problems he has been experiencing since a severe bout of COVID-19 in late 2020. … Read more »… lire la suite »
The Anglican churches in Nigeria, Uganda and Rwanda have effectively separated from the Anglican Communion by refusing to participate in the Lambeth Conference, says Archbishop Linda Nicholls, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada.
Like many other Canadian bishops, however, Nicholls also says she left this summer’s meeting in Lambeth, U.K. with a prevailing sense of hope for the future of the Communion.
Advancing reconciliation with Indigenous people will be a major test for King Charles III, prominent Canadian Anglicans say—with one bishop saying it could shape the influence of the monarchy for decades to come.
When we hear the word “apology,” we understand that it means one is sorry for a wrong that was committed. However, the Biblical Greek word that we get the word apology from, apologia, means something quite different. It conveyed to the early Christians a defence or reasoned argument for their hope. Peter used the term in a passage (1 Peter 3:15) advising his fellow Christians to be ready to answer anyone who asks what made them different from others who worshipped a god or gods. The answer, of course, was Jesus and His redemptive work. … Read more »… lire la suite »
The top concern of this year’s World Council of Churches (WCC) Assembly was unquestionably climate change, says Canon Scott Sharman, the Anglican Church of Canada’s animator for ecumenical and interfaith relations. … Read more »… lire la suite »
In his opening keynote address at the Lambeth Conference July 29, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby encouraged bishops from around the world to look beyond the internal conflicts that divide the church to the challenges facing the world as a whole. … Read more »… lire la suite »
A highly anticipated statement from the Lambeth Conference on same-sex marriage acknowledged that the Anglican Communion remains divided on the issue, and did not come out in support of one side or another. … Read more »… lire la suite »
Anglicans have an indispensable role to play as Roman Catholics start a two-year conversation on how to become a more “synodal” church, Pope Francis said at his first meeting with Archbishop Linda Nicholls, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada.
Nicholls met the pope at the latest meeting of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC), which took place in May at the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace in Rome. Due to the absence of Philip Freier, archbishop of Melbourne and Anglican co-chair of ARCIC who was attending the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia, the primate spoke on behalf of the Anglican side of the dialogue. Nicholls presented a formal statement on ARCIC from the Anglican perspective. ARCIC’s other co-chair, Bernard Longley, Archbishop of Birmingham, England, spoke on behalf of Roman Catholics.
“It was really very lovely,” the primate said of her meeting with Francis. “The pope is a very warm and gracious man who really pays attention to the people he’s with and gives you his full attention while you’re there.” … Read more »… lire la suite »
I can still remember my shock and dismay upon hearing that Jean Vanier, someone whose talks and writings influenced my thinking on Christian community, had been sexuality inappropriate and L’Arche, the organization he founded in 1964 for people with intellectual disabilities, was being transparent in acknowledging the damage this had caused and would continue to cause. … Read more »… lire la suite »
The visit to Canada by the Archbishop of Canterbury and meetings with Indigenous groups in Saskatchewan (See “‘Apologies are cheap … unless accompanied by action’”) were significant and vital steps on our path to healing. We thank him for his apology and for accompanying us briefly on our journey. But we do hope that he also recognized that Indigenous Anglicans have embarked on our own journey of self-healing. We are exercising our right to self-determination within the Anglican Church of Canada through the building of the Indigenous Anglican church, Sacred Circle. Building a new church in our own image is fueled by the tragic mistakes of the past. This self-governing assembly of Indigenous Anglicans is focused on healing, reconciliation and spiritual and cultural recovery and practice.
Regretfully, Canadian media failed to report on this aspect of our story; it is not even mentioned, for example, in an April 22 Globe and Mail column by Tanya Talaga, a journalist who frequently covers Indigenous affairs.
When Geronimo Henry stood up to speak at a May 3 meeting between Indigenous community leaders, residential school survivors and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby in Toronto, he told the story of his 11 years in the Mohawk Institute residential school near Brantford, Ont.
He told those gathered how he and other children had been locked in an empty “playroom” for hours at a time, gazing out the single window and wishing to see his mother drive up the laneway to bring him home.
He told them about when the city of Brantford built a dump out behind the school and he and the other boys would sneak out to rifle through it for food to supplement the school’s paltry fare.
And he told them that when Stephen Harper’s government issued an official apology for the residential school system in 2008, he used to take a printed copy with him to speaking engagements at universities so that when someone asked what he thought of the apology, he could take it out and rip it up.
“Why did it take the churches and the government so long to bring out this apology? Don’t they know the schools closed in 1970?” asked Henry. “That’s when they should have come and gathered us all up and said they were sorry. But they never.”
Canada’s Indian residential schools began to close in earnest after 1969 when the partnership between the federal government and the churches that had run them dissolved. The Mohawk Institute closed in 1970. … Read more »… lire la suite »
News of former National Indigenous Anglican Archbishop Mark MacDonald’s resignation due to sexual misconduct allegations has shocked many in the church, with Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders describing both emotional and practical challenges in coming to terms with it.
MacDonald resigned as national Indigenous archbishop and formally relinquished his exercise of ordained ministry April 20 following allegations of sexual misconduct.
In a pastoral letter to the church, Archbishop Linda Nicholls, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, said MacDonald had acknowledged the sexual misconduct. His resignation took effect in accordance with Canon XIX on Relinquishment or Abandonment of the Ministry. The primate confirmed to the Anglican Journal that there are no allegations of criminal offences.
“This is devastating news,” Nicholls said in her pastoral letter. “The sense of betrayal is deep and profound when leaders fail to live up to the standards we expect and the boundaries we set. Our hearts hold compassion for human frailty and space for repentance while we also ache with the pain that such betrayal causes first to the complainant; then to so many others and to the life of our Church.” … Read more »… lire la suite »
The Council of General Synod (CoGS) has committed itself to improving the church’s practices in a range of areas including sexual abuse and journalistic governance in the wake of public allegations that senior church management failed to protect the identities of victims of alleged sexual assault by sharing last year an early draft of an article for an Anglican Journal sister publication. … Read more »… lire la suite »
The founding documents for Sacred Circle, the self-determining Indigenous church within the Anglican Church of Canada, have been revealed to the world.
On Feb. 27, Transfiguration Sunday, The Covenant and Our Way of Life were publicly released. Both documents had been distributed earlier to participants of the last two Sacred Circle gatherings, as well as to Anglican Indigenous networks and the Anglican Church of Canada’s House of Bishops. … Read more »… lire la suite »
A statement calling on the government of Canada and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to “immediately cease their occupation, arrests, and trespassing on Wet’suwet’en sovereign territory” has drawn signatures from 71 church leaders in in the Anglican Church of Canada and beyond.
The statement of solidarity with Wet’suwet’en Nation pipeline opposition was released by Toronto Urban Native Ministry in the diocese of Toronto. Posted Feb. 6, it was signed by several Anglican bishops, including National Indigenous Anglican Archbishop Mark MacDonald and National Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada Susan Johnson. Many more signatures have since been added via the web.
The statement notes the unanimous opposition of the Wet’suwet’en Clan Chiefs to the construction of the pipeline. It says that the “militarized forced removal of the Wet’suwet’an from their own territory” is in violation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) and is “consistent with the colonial practices of genocide,” and that the RCMP “does not hold the jurisdiction or right to arrest sovereign Wet’suwet’en peoples on their own unceded Nation and territory.” … Read more »… lire la suite »
The Anglican-Roman Catholic Bishops’ Dialogue of Canada (ARC-B) held its most recent meeting in the Toronto area from November 27-29, 2019. The annual meeting facilitates opportunities for the Anglican and Roman Catholic Bishops to share, learn, and discuss about their respective pastoral activities, update one another on the news from our churches, and further the aims of Christian unity in Canada. The Bishops specifically discussed issues relating to ecumenism, freedom of religion and conscience in Canadian society, interfaith partnerships, and various challenges and opportunities in chaplaincy ministry in military, corrections, and medical contexts. The ARC-B members were also joined for part of the meeting by the Roman Catholic and Anglican co-chairs of the Anglican-Roman Catholic theological dialogue of Canada (ARC) to discuss ARC’s current focus on the operations of synodical consultation and decision making in the two traditions. For several years now, both ARC-B and ARC have worked closely with one another, mutually enriching one another’s work and reflections. … Read more »… lire la suite »
Le Dialogue des évêques anglicans et catholiques romains du Canada (ARC-E) a tenu sa dernière rencontre dans la région de Toronto du 27 au 29 novembre 2019. Cette réunion annuelle est l’occasion pour les évêques de s’informer, de partager et de discuter sur leurs activités pastorales respectives, de faire le point sur l’actualité dans les deux Églises, et de promouvoir les objectifs de l’unité chrétienne au Canada. Les évêques ont notamment abordé des questions relatives à l’œcuménisme, à la liberté de religion et de conscience dans la société canadienne, aux partenariats interreligieux, ainsi que les défis et possibilités concernant l’aumônerie dans les forces armées, les services correctionnels et les milieux hospitaliers. Pendant une partie de leur réunion, les membres de l’ARC-E ont reçu les coprésidents anglican et catholique romain du Dialogue théologique anglican-catholique romain au Canada (ARC) pour discuter de la priorité actuelle de l’ARC sur le fonctionnement des consultations synodales et de la prise de décision dans les deux confessions. Il y a maintenant plusieurs années que l’ARC-E et l’ARC collaborent étroitement à enrichir mutuellement leurs travaux et leurs réflexions. … Read more »… lire la suite »
National Lutheran Bishop Susan Johnson and Anglican Primate Fred Hiltz will complete their ministry together as leaders in partnership of their respective churches this year. Hiltz announced last year that he would be stepping down at the end of General Synod this July and that a new primate would be elected to succeed him.
Hiltz and Johnson shared a common outlook during the 12 years they have worked together. In the same week in 2007, they were both elected head of their church at parallel assemblies held in Winnipeg. Since this coincidental beginning, they have both passionately modelled what each espouses: strong and growing Anglican-Lutheran relations. … Read more »… lire la suite »
Dipping his bicycle tires into the Pacific Ocean on the morning of Saturday, May 19, Bishop Rob Hardwick of the Diocese of Qu’Appelle officially began a cross-country pilgrimage to the Atlantic coast to promote unity, healing, and reconciliation within the Anglican Church of Canada.
Over the course of a planned 62 days, the 7,877-kilometre cycling journey will take Bishop Hardwick from Victoria, B.C. to St. John’s, Newfoundland, during which he will meet and pray with thousands of people in hundreds of congregations.
“I’m hoping to gather people’s comments, what they understand those three words [unity, healing, and reconciliation] to mean in their own lives,” the bishop said.
“Obviously in our church, we are fairly conflicted in some issues. So what does it mean to be a church of unity? What does it mean to be a church of healing and reconciliation as well?” … Read more »… lire la suite »