Grateful for the gracious guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order held its first meeting in Canterbury, England from 1 to 8 December 2009.
As a special gift this season, anglican.ca features an online Advent calendar. On each day of Advent a new image and short reflection will be posted about the ministry that Canadian Anglicans are engaged in-both at home and overseas. Expect to be encouraged and challenged by what God is doing through this beloved church, from the Arctic to Tanzania.
The House of Bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada, along with the Conference of Bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, express our dismay and concern over the draft proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill currently before the Parliament of Uganda.
A draft of the Anglican Church of Canada’s strategic plan—Vision 2019—is now available online for discussion.
The following document was prepared by General Synod Treasurer Michèle George to assist members of the Council of General Synod (COGS) when they considered a draft budget for 2010 at the council’s fall meeting. The document provides some context and describes the process involved in developing the 2010 budget. It explains some of the implications of the decisions contained in the budget and looks as some possible strategies for working on the 2011 budget as well.
Each week fresh columns are posted onministrymatters.ca, the online magazine for Canadian Anglican leaders. These are the columnists and what they cover:
The fall meeting of the House of Bishops was held Nov. 2 to 6 at Mount Carmel Spiritual Centre in Niagara Falls, Ont., where we were joined by the Conference of Bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC). We were also joined by two Pastoral Visitors—Bishop Colin Bennetts, retired bishop of Coventry and Bishop Chad Gandiya of Harare. The Pastoral Visitors are partners from the Anglican Communion appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury to observe our proceedings and to report their observations to him as well as to offer reflections to us. We were enriched by their presence. We also always value the presence, experiences and contributions of our full communion Lutheran partners at our once-a-year joint meetings.
General Synod offices in Toronto have been experiencing email problems since late last week which might have delayed reception of emails sent to employees and departments. The sources of the problems were multiple and complex—in the words of IT manager Mariana Bell “a perfect storm.” We are hopeful that these email issues have now been resolved, although there will be another shorter outage on the weekend to put the finishing touches on the fixes.
We sincerely apologize for any inconveniences.
Canadian Anglicans have until Oct. 1 to submit responses to Vision 2019. Why not join with other parishes in marking Sept. 13 as Vision 2019 Sunday, and use that day to gather as many responses as you can?
How many Eucharists have you participated in? How many have you put together?
For those seeking to keep their planning fresh and thoughtful, the Rev. Dr. Paul Gibson offers Make Preparation, a rich collection of notes on liturgy preparation, available by free download from ABC Publishing.
Norwegian theologian and pastor Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit, 48, was elected 7th general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) today during its Central Committee meeting.
Having listened to the concerns of Christian partners and correspondents in Pakistan, NIFCON (the Network of Inter Faith Concerns for the Anglican Communion) is one of the main sponsors of a petition being drawn up asking the government of Pakistan to repeal the law against blasphemy. In recent years the threat of this law has often been often been used in unjust attacks upon the country’s vulnerable Christian minority, and it seems to have played a part in the recent incident in Gojra which led to the death of a number of Christians.
Canadian Anglicans are invited to pray for their brothers and sisters south of the border as The Episcopal Church’s General Convention gets under way today in Anaheim, Calif.
Twelve of Canada’s finest theologians explore issues relating to same-sex blessings in a series of essays now posted online. These essays by members of the Primate’s Theological Commission form the third and final part to the Galilee Report, which considered questions of human relationships and the blessings of same-sex unions.
Canadian Anglican leaders will join Aboriginal and government leaders in celebrating the National Day of Reconciliation on June 11, 2009. This marks one year since Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized for Canada’s role in Indian residential schools.