Sacred Circle elected a new Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples (ACIP) Aug. 9 based on the old model of members representing ecclesiastical provinces, while setting the stage for a shift to elections based on regional language areas and land and water territories.
Archdeacon Travis Enright, ACIP’s chair of governance, led Sacred Circle through the week in sessions that proposed a change in the council’s representation and electoral process. Rather than electing ACIP members to represent the Anglican Church of Canada’s four ecclesiastical provinces, Enright put forward a model in which Sacred Circle would elect members according to 12 regional “Spiritual Council Fires.” He based these regions on historical nations, language areas and Canada’s land and waterways.
However, due to questions based on Canon XXII, which governs Indigenous ministries within the Anglican Church of Canada, about the legality of the change; authority of the canon in relation to Sacred Circle’s founding documents, the Covenant and Our Way of Life; concerns about splitting votes; and time constraints as the end of the 12th Indigenous Anglican Sacred Circle approached, members opted to elect a new ACIP based on ecclesiastical provinces and tasked it with paving the way for the change to election based on regional Spiritual Council Fires.
“The next piece of work for ACIP is to codify that regionality and then have concrete criteria for the elected body for how each region is going to be represented,” said Enright, who was also elected to ACIP. Understanding the financial implications of changing to a new electoral and representative system, he added, would also be a focus for the council going forward.
New ACIP members include the Rev. Sheila Cook and Bruce Charlie for the ecclesiastical province of B.C. and Yukon; Archdeacon Jacqui Durand and the Rev. Amos Winter for the province of the Northern Lights; the Rev. Catherine Askew, Kaleena Hanoski and Olive Elm for the province of Ontario; and the Rev. Silas Nabinicaboo and Crystal Bursey for the province of Canada. Returning members are Catherine Martin, Ruby Sandy-Robinson and Bishop of Moosonee Rod BrantFrancis. Advisory elders include Caroline Chum, Rosie Jane Tailfeathers, Donna Bomberry and Canon Murray Still.
The new council will hold its first meeting Oct. 20 to 22.
What are the Council Fires?
On Aug. 7, Enright first presented a map of 12 regions across Canada constituting the Spiritual Council Fires. He told Sacred Circle that while he could have chosen a different number of Spiritual Council Fires, he intentionally picked 12 to reflect the 12 disciples of Jesus and 12 tribes of ancient Israel.
In contrast to what Enright described as the “linear, synodically governed and bishop-led” governance of the Anglican Church of Canada, he proposed a model for Sacred Circle as being governed by the Council Fires and led by circle elders. He viewed the “circle” as the fundamental form of dialogue and relation for the self-determining Indigenous church within the Anglican Church of Canada. Enright illustrated his proposed governance model for the Indigenous church through an image of a circle made up of the presiding elder, i.e. the national Indigenous Anglican archbishop; the national Sacred Circle; ACIP; and the Regional Spiritual Council Fires, with Jesus at the centre.
Enright drew inspiration for the 12 regions from the Covenant and Our Way of Life, which he said are based on regional zones according to land and water. The documents refer to Indigenous people as “the Peoples of the Land and Waters” and states, “Our relationship to the Land and Waters and our way of being Nations is a guide and pattern for our discipleship, fellowship, and unity.”
For that reason, Enright crafted the regions based on historical nations, language areas and natural features of land and waterways. “That is a language that Our Way of Life uses a lot,” he said. “How are we supposed to govern ourselves in terms of jurisdiction based on the land, waters and language?”
Throughout the meeting, Enright made changes based on feedback from Sacred Circle, such as the mapping exercise in which members identified what they considered their own regions. On Aug. 8, members split into regional groups and discussed who was not at the table and how to include their voices; where urban Indigenous people belong in the model; and how they need to be represented at Sacred Circle and ACIP. They also had the opportunity to redraw borders to suggest changes.
In response to controversy over where Indigenous members in urban regions fit in this model, the latest model on Aug. 9 included among its 12 Council Fires two for urban members: one for Western Canada and one for Eastern Canada. However, the two urban Council Fires did not appear as physical regions on the map.
The 12 regional spiritual territories represented by Council Fires, as they appeared on the most recent version of the map, are: Coastal (Haida), Pacific (Salishan), Athabascan (Dene), Plains (Blackfoot), Missinippi (Cree), Mishamikoweesh (Oji-Cree), Moosonee (Eastern Cree), St. Lawrence (Haudenosaunee), West Arctic (Inuit), East Arctic (Inuit), Urban (West) and Urban (East).
Each Council Fire, according to Enright’s proposed model, would develop a selection process for representation to ACIP as well as the national Sacred Circle. With a current average of 150 members attending Sacred Circle meetings, Enright suggested that each Council Fire would select 12 members or delegates to Sacred Circle plus a lead spiritual coordinator, with three community elders, three clergy, three lay members and three youth. The result would mean a total of 156 Sacred Circle members representing the 12 Council Fires.
Proposals lead to lengthy debate
At the last session of the meeting on Aug. 9, some members raised concerns about Enright’s proposed changes. Chum drew attention to potential conflict with Canon XXII.
“What you’re asking us, I think, right now is … to change Canon XXII, and I don’t know what the right process is for changing Canon XXII … I think that maybe the process should have started with an actual plan of action and what was going to happen [before Sacred Circle],” Chum said.
Enright responded, “I’m not tied to this particular process. I was asked to come up with a process and [be] part of the consultation.” Over previous discussions about a new election process to ACIP and Sacred Circle, he said, it became clear that many people were absent from the conversation. “We decided that the biggest consultative group has to be Sacred Circle,” he said. “This is where it’s publicly talked about.”
In response to questions about whether Canon XXII takes precedent over the Covenant and Our Way of Life, Still said, “We always have to remember that that canon is in church and placed in the church. It can be revised and it is our canon to revise.”
BrantFrancis, however said Canon XXII stipulates that ACIP is to be constituted in accordance with ecclesiastical provinces, “Regardless of whether or not we like canon law, and regardless of whether or not we understand it, and regardless of whether or not we’d like to throw it all out the door, it still exists … That can be changed, absolutely, just like anything else,” he said. “But at this point today, we are still under that.”
Council may invite regional representatives in ‘hybrid’ model
After conferring with ACIP members, Enright said he was told Sacred Circle was required to elect people using Canon XXII, which is currently based on representation by ecclesiastical province. Conscious that Sacred Circle was running short on time, he proposed electing ACIP members by province, after which council could invite 12 regional representatives to participate at ACIP meetings in a hybrid model. Sacred Circle agreed by consensus and members gathered by ecclesiastical province to select three ACIP representatives each.
After election of the new council, Enright told the Anglican Journal he would likely reach out to the 12 regions to help them select representatives to attend ACIP meetings and participate in discussions about shifting to a new model of representation. “Then the next time, when they come to Sacred Circle, they have a much more clear understanding of what we’re hoping to do in the future,” he said.
As a new member of ACIP representing the province of B.C. and Yukon, Cook said she planned to focus on ensuring that Sacred Circle accommodates elders and that ACIP provides long-term clarity and vision for the Indigenous church.
When Sacred Circle members divided into discussions according to the 12 regions, Cook joined the Pacific region. She said Pacific members had discussed drawing a dividing line from north to south, rather than east to west as depicted on the map, which would have divided regions at the coast.
“We spoke about drawing the lines north and south, because the coast is the coast,” Cook said. She added that she was looking forward to seeing how ACIP and the regions could “formulate that map to come closer to people’s ideas of where we belong.”
