Through 2022, we continued to face the effects of the pandemic but as lockdowns gradually abated, we experienced a renewed sense of hope in returning to familiar patterns of life and work.
General Synod continued to work primarily remotely and online and we learned new skills of connecting through technology. Despite our hopes to hold General Synod in 2022 the grip of anxiety about COVID 19 led us to make the decision to postpone General Synod and Assembly with the ELCIC to June 2023. This meant that members of the Council of General Synod and all committees extended their terms for a further year and continued to work to bring forward the results of their mandates. Staff within the Coordinating Committees, Strategic Planning Working Group, Dismantling Racism Task Force, Jubilee Commission remained committed to the work needed.
Indigenous ministries completed work on the Covenant and Our Way of Life foundational documents for the emerging Sacred Circle, self-governing church within the Anglican Church of Canada in anticipation of Sacred Circle 2023. The Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples elected a new National Indigenous Anglican Archbishop, Archbishop Chris Harper. In our ongoing work of reconciliation, the Archbishop of Canterbury visited in April 2022 to offer an apology for the role of the Church of England in the early history of Canada that contributed to treaties not honoured and to the colonialism that infected the residential school system.
It was a year of hard work demonstrating adaptability and resilience in a challenging year! And throughout this difficult year, we discovered a renewed sense of faith and joy in our work and in God.
The Most Rev. Linda Nicholls
Primate