For several years now, the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine in Toronto has opened its doors on New Year’s Eve to those who want to usher in the new year “in an environment of peace and quiet fellowship.”
Year in and out, it seems, Canadians get bombarded with the same kind of news about Christmas. By now, these headlines have become as familiar as a Christmas music loop, and they simply switch depending on the state of the nation’s economy: Canadians plan to spend less on gifts this Christmas…Canadians set to spend more on holidays.
As much as some quarters would have everyone believe, there’s no telling how the 2016 General Synod will act on a motion to change the church’s law so that clergy can marry same-sex couples.
In 1986, the United Nations awarded the people of Canada the Nansen Medal, its highest distinction for aid to refugees, for their “major and sustained contribution to the cause of refugees in their country and throughout the world for years.”
On June 6, when Mary Irwin-Gibson, the dean and rector of St. George’s Anglican Cathedral in Kingston, Ont., was elected bishop of the diocese of Montreal, the Anglican Journal published an online story that carried the headline, First woman bishop for Montreal.
Archbishop Fred Hiltz recently returned from an eight-day visit to the diocese of Yukon where, he said, alternative approaches to ministry have allowed cash-strapped local parishes to not only meet the needs of their communities, but to actually thrive.
Seven in 10 (70 %) of Canadians agree with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) finding that the Indian residential school system amounted to “cultural genocide,” according to a new Angus Reid Institute survey.
National Indigenous Anglican Bishop Mark MacDonald said he is hopeful that the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) outlining concrete actions that would respect the sovereignty and integrity of Canada’s Indigenous peoples would help Indigenous Anglicans’ own struggle for self-determination within the Anglican Church of Canada.
In a solemn ceremony marking the conclusion of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), Governor General David Johnston urged Canadians to seize a historic opportunity “to look back, and to look forward together” and to begin “a new chapter in the story of Canada and its diverse peoples.”
Addressing what it described as a “cultural genocide” inflicted for over a century on Canada’s Aboriginal peoples, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) on June 2 issued 94 wide-ranging “Calls to Action,” including the creation of a National Council for Reconciliation, a Royal Proclamation and Covenant on Reconciliation and an apology from the Pope for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in residential schools.
At the conclusion of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s (TRC) six-year work of collecting testimonies and facts around the Indian residential schools, its chair Justice Murray Sinclair urged Canadians to believe not only that healing and reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people can happen, but that “it should happen.”
On May 31, thousands of people took part in the “Walk for Reconciliation,” organized by the Truth and Reconciliation of Commission (TRC). The walk was meant to “transform and renew the very essence of relationships between Indigenous peoples and all Canadians.”
Many indigenous Anglicans have noted that this has been the inevitable, if not caustic, response of some in the church whenever they air a concern or demand change in order to address historical injustices, or even simply to make their ministries work better.
A working group is studying the Church of England’s recent decision to divest from thermal coal and tar sands to see how it can be instructive to the Anglican Church of Canada’s own investment policies.
April is here and for those fortunate enough to be surrounded by caring family or friends, there is much to celebrate-both sacred and secular.
(This editorial first appeared in the January issue of the Anglican Journal.) For over a decade now, many in the church have bemoaned the lack
The Anglican Journal‘s extensive and award-winning coverage of the historic Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) national events-from 2010 to 2015-has now been compiled into a single web page . Click here.
People who keep up with the news will, by now, be familiar with the name James Foley.
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