Team members aim to articulate an equitable church-to-church relationship
Archdeacon Travis Enright, co-chair of the Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples (ACIP), says Sacred Circle—the self-determining Indigenous church within the Anglican Church of Canada—is making progress working toward a model of representation and governance based on spiritual, cultural and linguistic ties rather than strict geographical borders.
He and other members of the Pathway 5 team are tasked with evaluating and improving the ways the Anglican Church of Canada and Sacred Circle “walk together to proclaim the Gospel and deepen and invite life in Christ,” in the words of the Creating Pathways document. The Anglican Church of Canada is currently undertaking six pathways outlined in the document to transform its organization and structures, with Pathway 5 seeking to clarify the partnership between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous churches.
The Pathway 5 team held its first meeting Aug. 24.
Enright hopes the team will be able to bring two things to the next meeting of Council of General Synod (CoGS) in November: an articulated concept of how the church-to-church relationship between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous churches will work; and a resolution to what some Indigenous Anglicans see as questions about how key documents lay out the jurisdiction of Sacred Circle.
Articulating the church-to-church relationship is about “how we move into what I would call an equitable relationship … moving from asymmetrical to symmetry,” Enright says.
He draws an analogy to the way dioceses in Canada relate to each other. Each diocese is a unique expression of Anglicanism which maintains a relationship of respect and cooperation with other dioceses, Enright says. The Indigenous and non-Indigenous churches could look at each other’s structures, spiritual practices and ways of relating to their members in a similar way.
The Pathway 5 team will also discuss how Sacred Circle members are divided into groups and selected to participate in governance.
General Synod’s Canon XXII on National Indigenous Ministry says members of ACIP and Sacred Circle are selected from dioceses where significant Indigenous ministry is taking place. However, Sacred Circle’s founding document, Our Way of Life, does not make the same requirement, laying out an understanding of belonging in the Indigenous church that emphasizes relationships based on language, culture and spiritual practice more than geographical borders.
Enright says he hopes the team can find a way of organizing participation in Sacred Circle that reflects these groupings. Recent ACIP meetings have found dividing people by diocesan borders does not serve this function, he says. As many Indigenous people find themselves moving to urban centres, Enright adds, many may still feel more connected to traditions from the land on which they originated.
George Cadman, chancellor of General Synod and another member of the Pathway 5 team, confirmed that formulating precise questions about how Canon XXII and Our Way of Life differ and what changes if any are needed to reconcile them is work that remains to be done.
