The first joint meeting between the Anglican Church of Canada’s Council of General Synod (COGS) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada’s National Church Council (NCC) began on the evening of March 31 with a Eucharist celebrated by Susan Johnson, National Bishop of the ELCIC. The Rev. Richard Leggett preached. Following the Eucharist, the Anglican and Lutheran councils met jointly. Bishop Johnson and Archbishop Fred Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada each delivered brief updates on where their two churches are in the context of strategic plans and finances.
From April 1 to 3, the executive councils of the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) will hold their first joint meeting in Mississauga, Ont. This meeting of the ACC’s Council of General Synod and the ELCIC’s National Church Council marks an important step in deepening the full communion relationship between the two churches.
Ten days have past since the major magnitude 9 earthquake which happened in regions from Tohoku to Kanto on the 11th March. The major tsunami, which hit Japan immediately after the earthquake, reached a huge area from Hokkaido to Kanto. The tsunami, which was over 10 metres, brought complete destruction to many towns and villages along the coastline.
On a warm and windy afternoon, the bishop of Cuba is inspecting tomatoes. Dressed in a crisp purple shirt, she bends into a garden patch and finds a tomato as big as her hand. She weighs it, plucks it, and holds it up—the first fruit of a new crop.
On the 11th of March at 2:46pm, the biggest earthquake ever to hit Japan struck just off the coast of the Tohoku region. This caused a tsunami and fires that brought massive devastation to a very wide area. This unimaginably strong earthquake triggered an explosion at the Fukushima No.1 nuclear reactor. The people living in the area around that and the No. 2 reactor have been evacuated. The stories and images constantly broadcast by the media have left people lost for words, unable to describe the sheer scale of the unbelievable devastation caused by the earthquake, tsunami and fires.
Common Ground, the first Canadian ecumenical youth ministry forum, aims to equip and inspire these men and women. From May 31 to June 5, 2011, close to 150 youth leaders will gather in London, Ont. for worship, workshops, speakers, and hands-on learning experiences. The conference is for all who minister among youth, whether professional youth ministers, camp staff, volunteers, or clergy.
The year 2011 marks 10 years of full communion between Anglicans and Lutherans in both Canada and the United States. In 2001, the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) signed the Waterloo Declaration. In that same year The Episcopal Church, USA, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America signed a similar agreement, Called to Common Mission.
For Lent 2011, the Anglican Church of Canada is offering a special series of podcasts: “A Journey from Lent to Easter—From Creation’s Dust to Resurrection’s Light,” written and presented by Sister Elizabeth Ann Eckert of the Sisters of Saint John the Divine (SSJD). The series includes nine podcasts, spanning from Ash Wednesday (March 9) through Lent to Easter Sunday (April 24).
From February 24 to 27 2011, nineteen bishops of the Anglican Communion met in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The Provinces represented were: Botswana, Burundi, Canada, England, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Southern Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, and the United States. This meeting had its origins in the Lambeth Conference of 2008, at which some significant partnership relationships and commitment to further dialogue had been made.
The most knowledgeable and refined presentation imaginable can be blown out of the water by the single question “Where is God in all this?” if no answer is available. Answering the question well is critical, especially when “all this” skirts the secular world—as the work of the Department of Philanthropy does.
In these days, the world is witnessing massive protests pressing for change in governance in a number of nations throughout the Arab world. In Libya the demonstrations are being brutally crushed by the military on orders of the President. Many have been killed and hundreds seriously injured. Terror fills the hearts of thousands of people. Their relatives throughout the world anxiously await word of their fate.
In the aftermath of a 6.3 earthquake that has devastated the New Zealand city of Christchurch and seriously damaged the Anglican Cathedral, the Archbishops and Standing Committee of the General Synod/te Hinota Whanui of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia has issued the following statement:
Indigenous Anglican leaders in northern Manitoba have committed to developing an area mission that would include sections from the dioceses of Brandon and Keewatin. At a Feb. 12 meeting in Opaskwayak Cree Nation, Man., representatives from 25 Anglican churches agreed that by Dec. 31, 2011, they would raise more than $34,000, establish a regional sacred circle gathering, and elect a bishop.
The Canadian Primate, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, said he witnessed “great hope” during his annual visit to the Iglesia Episcopal de Cuba, Feb. 3 to 10. He and a delegation of Canadian staff attended the church’s diocesan synod in Havana, and then visited several parishes in the central eastern part of Cuba.
Keira Constable remembers when she first felt the need to fight against injustice. She was four years old and her aunt had introduced her to a Rwandan university student who escaped the 1994 genocide. The student told her that in Rwanda, people were killing other people because they belonged to a certain group.
