National Bishop Susan Johnson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and Archbishop Fred Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, share a New Year’s greeting with Lutherans and Anglicans across Canada.
In 2009 I visited Bethlehem in the Holy Land.
I remember bending over, as everyone must, to pass under the tiny doorway that takes you into the Church of the Nativity. I remember standing in Manger Square with hundreds of pilgrims from around the world.
Continuing a yearly tradition that has become a warm reminder of the full communion partnership enjoyed by their two churches, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC), and National Bishop Susan Johnson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) share a joint Christmas video message with Lutherans and Anglicans across the country.
Today the world mourns the passing of one of the greatest men of our times. Nelson Mandela’s life is the story of the prisoner who became the president of his beloved country. He is the icon of South African’s long road to freedom from apartheid. He is “the father of our nation”, writes Desmond Tutu, “the pride of our people.”
The following is a statement from Archbishop Fred Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Archbishop Michael Peers’ apology to the survivors of residential schools.
The news of Federal Government tests on the effects of malnutrition on aboriginal children throughout Northern Manitoba in the 1940s is appalling. To have used the schools as labs and the children as the subjects of experiment is so inhumane. It is another tragic chapter in the long once-hidden story of the Indian Residential Schools.
Comme d’innombrables autres Canadiens, j’ai suivi les nouvelles du déraillement d’un train, des explosions et des horribles incendies qui ont suivi. Votre communauté ressemble à une zone sinistrée, ravagée et dévastée. Mes pensées sont avec vous.
On this day when we commemorate the two “pillars of the church”—the apostles Peter and Paul—the heads of the Anglican Church of Canada, the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada are issuing “A Word to the Churches.”