Archbishop Linda Nicholls, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, has announced that she will step down from her role on September 15, 2024.

The canons of the Anglican Church of Canada require primates to retire upon reaching their 70^th birthday. Archbishop Nicholls will reach mandatory retirement age in October.

Archbishop Nicholls was elected as the 14th Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada on July 13, 2019. She was the first woman to hold the office in Canada and only the second in the Anglican Communion.

Prior to her election, she served as Bishop of Huron (2016-2019) and Area Bishop of Trent-Durham in the Diocese of Toronto (2008-2016). She was also Coordinator for Dialogue for Ethics, Interfaith Relations and Congregational Development at the Anglican Church of Canada’s national office. She spent almost twenty years as a parish priest in the Diocese of Toronto.
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Late last week we learned of the death of Archbishop Michael Peers, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada from 1986 to 2004. Our deepest condolences are extended to his wife, Dorothy, and his extended family.

Although +Michael retired as primate nearly twenty years ago, the legacy of his leadership continues in so many aspects of our life as a church. He often told the story of how he came to be a member of the church as a non-church attending young adult through the simple invitation of someone else. ‘Come and see’ was the invitation that brought him into the doors where he found, in faith, what he was seeking. He reminded us not to underestimate the power of invitation!
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The conversation about medical assistance in dying (MAID) in Canada began out of a desire to ease the transition to death for terminally ill people experiencing intractable pain and suffering. After discussion and debate, Canada in 2016 legally permitted access to MAID for adults facing imminent death due to terminal illness, if they were deemed to be suffering intolerably.

In this debate some Anglicans have held an uncomfortable position, recognizing both the sanctity of life as a gift from God to be treasured and protected and the possibility that profound suffering and pain might be considered valid reasons to end one’s life. The church’s 1998 report and study guide Care in Dying stated that support for physician-assisted death constituted a “failure of human community.”
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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.

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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.”
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The Anglican Church of Canada (ACoC) has elected Linda Nicholls, the Bishop of the Diocese of Huron, as its next primate. She will become the first woman to hold this position in the ACoC and only the second female primate in the Anglican Communion.

The election, held during the Church’s General Synod at Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver on 13 July, began with five nominees. Bishop Linda was elected on the fourth ballot, with 64 per cent of lay votes and 71 per cent of votes among the clergy.

Speaking shortly after the election, Bishop Linda said: “you have bestowed on me an honour that I can hardly imagine, and it is terrifying. But it is also a gift, to be able to walk with the whole of the Anglican Church of Canada from coast to coast to coast.”
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