Communiqué from the Windsor Report Response Group

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The Windsor Report Response Group of the Anglican Church of Canada met in Oakville, Ontario January 26-27, 2005. The group was constituted at a meeting of the Chairs of Standing Committees of the General Synod to advise the Primate, in advance of the Primates’ Meeting in late February, about an appropriate preliminary response from the Canadian church to The Windsor Report, and then to oversee a longer term process of reception of and response to that report and its recommendations.

The task was to:

  1. reflect the response of the House of Bishops to The Windsor Report(October 31-November 4, 2004);
  2. reflect the response of the Council of General Synod to The Windsor Report (November 26-28, 2004);
  3. meet in December or January to gather responses from the church and provide advice to the Primate for the February Primates’ Meeting;
  4. examine The Virginia Report and the Canadian response to it in light of The Windsor Report and consider whether there should be a further response to it from the Anglican Church of Canada;
  5. encourage consideration of both The Windsor Report and The Virginia Report by the Partners in Mission Committee (March 3-6, 2005) and the Faith Worship and Ministry Committee (March 10-13, 2005);
  6. prepare a response, if desired, to The Virginia Report, for the consideration of the Council of General Synod (May 6-8, 2005);
  7. advise the Council of General Synod (May 6-8, 2005) about an appropriate process for longer term response to The Windsor Report

The Primate invited all members of the Anglican Church of Canada to make submissions to him. Members of the group read all of these submissions, in addition to considering the reflections of the Council of General Synod and the House of Bishops. 171 responses were received; 9 were from dioceses, 87 from laity, 51 from clergy, 13 from groups of clergy and laity, and 11 could not be identified as to order. They came from all ecclesiastical provinces (17 from Canada, 58 from Ontario, 34 from Rupert’s Land, 36 from British Columbia and Yukon, and 20 could not be identified as to geography). They represented a wide range of opinion both about the Anglican Communion and its structures as about the presenting issues that gave rise to The Windsor Report.

The group identified cogent comments from among the submissions and organized them as responses to questions put to the Provinces by the Anglican Communion Response Team. Dr. Patricia Bays, the chair of the group, will edit the material to create a working document for the Primate to take to the Primates’ Meeting. The group will confer in March about further steps. Responses to the Windsor Report continue to be received by the task group and will be taken into consideration in its future work.

Members were chosen from the Partners in Mission Committee, the Faith Worship and Ministry Committee, and the House of Bishops. They included Dr. Patricia Bays (Ottawa) the Rt. Rev’d Michael Bedford-Jones (Toronto), the Rt. Rev’d Peter Coffin (Ottawa), the Rev’d Dr. Tim Connor (Huron), the Rt. Rev’d Jim Cowan (British Columbia), Ms. Cynthia Haines-Turner (Western Newfoundland), the Rt. Rev’d Colin Johnson (Toronto) and the Rev’d Linda Nicholls (Toronto). Staff support was provided by Dr. Eleanor Johnson with the assistance of Canon Alyson Barnett-Cowan, Archdeacon Jim Boyles, and Archdeacon Paul Feheley.

For further information please contact Archdeacon Paul Feheley, Principal Secretary to the Primate (80 Hayden St., Toronto, ON M4Y 3G2; 416-924-9199 ext. 277.

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