
Andrea Mann appointed new general secretary of General Synod
Council of General Synod (CoGS) has appointed Andrea Mann, the Anglican Church of Canada’s Global Relations director, as the new general secretary of General Synod effective Oct. 13.
Matthew Puddister is an editor and staff writer for the Anglican Journal. Most recently, Puddister worked as corporate communicator for the Anglican Church of Canada, a position he has held since Dec. 1, 2014. He previously served as a city reporter for the Prince Albert Daily Herald. A former resident of Kingston, Ont., Puddister has a bachelor's degree in English literature from Queen’s University and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Western Ontario.

Council of General Synod (CoGS) has appointed Andrea Mann, the Anglican Church of Canada’s Global Relations director, as the new general secretary of General Synod effective Oct. 13.

Anglican bishops in Quebec are strongly opposing a planned law that would ban prayer in public spaces, warning it would further erode human rights while criminalizing people of faith.

Archbishop Shane Parker, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, has called Bishop of London Sarah Mullally’s appointment as the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury a “timely and inspired” choice for the primate of the Church of England and symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Winnipeg’s 141-year-old Holy Trinity Anglican Church, recognized by the federal government as a national historic site, is in the final stages of a heritage rehabilitation study carried out by two local firms to look at potential repairs estimated to cost $7 million.

St. Paul’s Bloor Street Anglican Church in Toronto approved, then revoked a booking by NDP leadership candidate Yves Engler for a room to host a political rally—after what both Engler and the leader of a Zionist group said was a pressure campaign by pro-Israel activists to cancel the event.

The Rev. Kris Gosse, whom Bishop of Western Newfoundland John Organ appointed as dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Corner Brook after the bishop fired former dean Catherine Short—actions by which the provincial metropolitan found Organ violated misconduct policies—has resigned as dean.

St. Anne’s Anglican Church in Toronto, which featured unique Byzantine Revival architecture and irreplaceable artwork by members of the Group of Seven before its destruction by fire on June 9, 2024, will be rebuilt as a more modest structure within the remains of the old church building, its interim priest-in-charge says—fulfilling purposes currently split between two separate buildings, the former rectory and the parish hall.

Robert “Bob” Boeckner, longtime trustee of the General Synod Pension Plan (GSPP) and a highly valued member of several national church committees dealing with finance, died June 30 at the age of 83, just days after attending the pension committee meeting at General Synod.

Bishop Charles Arthurson, who became the first Indigenous bishop in Canada upon his election as suffragan bishop of the Anglican diocese of Saskatchewan in 1989—a position he held until his 2008 retirement—died Aug. 30 in Prince Albert, Sask.

Bishop of Western Newfoundland John Organ, whom the provincial metropolitan found violated misconduct policies when he fired a former cathedral dean, has hired a new dean and will resign effective Oct. 1.

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.

A document aiming to heal the legacy of spiritual harm churches committed against Indigenous peoples, written by an ecumenical working group and presented to Sacred Circle Aug. 8, makes a set of “calls to healing” to churches—including implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Men who survived abuse by Ralph Rowe, a former Anglican priest and Scout leader convicted of 75 sexual crimes against children in northern Ontario and Manitoba, aim to create an advocacy and advisory council to promote healing, the 12th Indigenous Anglican Sacred Circle learned on Aug. 8.

The possible future shape of the Indigenous church began to take concrete expression Aug. 7 as the 12th Indigenous Anglican Sacred Circle mapped out representation based on language areas—an exercise that, along with a presentation on the Doctrine of Discovery by a representative of The Episcopal Church’s commission on Indigenous boarding schools, left many Sacred Circle members with difficult emotions to process.

The second day of the 12th Indigenous Anglican Sacred Circle saw members discuss what governance means in their own context as they advanced the concrete expression of what it means to be a self-determining Indigenous church.

The 12th Indigenous Anglican Sacred Circle opened Aug. 5 with a call by National Indigenous Anglican Archbishop Chris Harper for those gathered those gathered to take an active role in serving their communities, humbly spreading the message of God’s love.

Noah Tynes was halfway through skateboarding from Toronto to Vancouver, a solo journey to raise money for the Church of the Holy Trinity’s CommUNITY Hub program, when he spoke to the Anglican Journal on July 17 from Swift Current, Sask.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has moved in recent years from the realm of science fiction to a part of everyday life, incorporated into everything from search engines to virtual assistants to generative tools and used in a wide variety of settings, including the church. One rapidly expanding use of AI is in autonomous weapons systems.

Bishop of Western Newfoundland John Organ says he will not follow recommendations from his provincial metropolitan, who found that the bishop violated misconduct policies, to re-instate a fired cathedral dean and complete the last three months of his episcopate on sabbatical leave.

The primate and all Canadian Anglicans should write to government officials calling for a full and immediate arms embargo on Israel, General Synod said in a resolution it passed June 29, along with a second resolution expressing “support for those in the Land of the Holy One.”