Sean Frankling, Author at Anglican Journal

This site, currently under construction at 300 Bloor St. West, was to be the shared headquarters of Canada's Anglican, Presbyterian and United Churches. Photo: Sean Frankling

Presbyterian church weighing options on 300 Bloor St. West office agreement

Sean Frankling December 24, 2025

The Presbyterian Church in Canada (PCC) has announced it is re-evaluating its course of action on a plan to share office space with the United Church of Canada following the Anglican Church of Canada’s withdrawal from that plan. “The PCC understands that important factors in the originally proposed ecumenical project have changed significantly,” reads a Dec. 12 press release.

Canon Michael Van Dusen (centre) demonstrates with supporters in front of Toronto’s St. Lawrence Market courthouse. Photo: Sean Frankling

Charge against Toronto deacon, climate activist withdrawn

Sean Frankling December 23, 2025

Crown attorneys withdrew a trespassing charge against Canon Michael Van Dusen Dec. 23, citing the arresting officers’ failure to provide their notes during discovery. Van Dusen was one of nine interfaith climate activists arrested during a sit-in climate protest at a downtown Toronto branch of the Royal Bank of Canada April 9, 2024. The court proceedings lasted about 20 seconds. Van Dusen had previously pled not guilty to the charge.

Demonstrators at a Dunedin, Florida rally memorializing Charlie Kirk’s life display religious messages and symbols alongside U.S. flags. Photo: Dave Decker/ZUMA Press Wire

Church in state: Christian nationalism and the politicization of faith

Sean Frankling December 17, 2025

The Rev. Lucia Lloyd, then of the Episcopal Church, watched the first Trump presidency with apprehension. Her friends told her there would be limits to what damage he could do, despite his discriminatory and hostile rhetoric toward women and minorities, but she remained concerned. One thing she found particularly horrifying, she says, was how many Christians were showing support for the administration’s most divisive policies.

Archdeacon Rosalyn Elm, Indigenous ministries coordinator for the Anglican Church of Canada (right), speaks at a panel with Archbishop Linda Nicholls, former primate of the Anglican Church of Canada (centre), and Canon Stephanie Spellers of The Episcopal Church (left). Elm says Indigenous Anglicans in her ministry are finding a way through the tension between colonial experience and Indigenous culture by synthesizing their own ways of knowing with the traditions of Anglicanism. Photo: Megan Varner

Communion’s future should draw on theological synthesis, say Canadian speakers at Atlanta symposium

Sean Frankling December 4, 2025

The Anglican Communion must empower diverse cultures to express the faith in their own terms, balanced with the deeper truths that make the denomination unique, say two Canadian Anglicans who served as panelists at a November talk on the faith’s future.

Enright, Askew elected ACIP co-chairs

Sean Frankling December 1, 2025

The Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples (ACIP) elected two new co-chairs Nov. 27: Archdeacon Travis Enright, of the diocese of Edmonton, and the Rev. Catherine Askew, of the Anglican Military Ordinariate.

Task force to pave way for national youth council

Sean Frankling November 30, 2025

The Council of General Synod (CoGS) has directed General Secretary Andrea Mann to form a task force and create terms of reference for a national youth council for the Anglican Church of Canada.

2026 budget cuts programming, funds pathways toward leaner church

Sean Frankling November 30, 2025

Mississauga, Ont. The 2026 budget for the Anglican Church of Canada makes cuts to line items across the board with exceptions for parts of the

CoGS appoints new chancellor, treasurer

Sean Frankling November 28, 2025

The Council of General Synod (CoGS) elected two new officers of General Synod Nov. 27, Chancellor George Cadman and Treasurer Beng Wee. Both were elected by unanimous votes.

National office negotiating exit from United Church lease, CoGS hears

Sean Frankling November 28, 2025

A law firm contracted by the Anglican Church of Canada is in negotiations with the United Church of Canada on the former’s exit from an $8.18 million lease on 300 Bloor St. West, Toronto, Canon (lay) Clare Burns, chancellor of General Synod, told the Council of General Synod (CoGS) Nov. 27.

The Rev. Catherine Short (centre), then-dean of St. John the Evangelist, Cornerbrook, performs a wedding in 2024. Short will return to the cathedral as priest-in-charge Dec. 1. Photo: Mike Goulding

Fired Newfoundland priest reinstated at cathedral

Sean Frankling November 13, 2025

The Rev. Catherine Short has been re-appointed to the position of priest-in-charge at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, Corner Brook in the diocese of Western Newfoundland.

Built in the 1970s to resemble an igloo, St. Jude’s Cathedral was severely damaged by arson in 2005 and rebuilt by 2012. Photo: Alexander Pryor

Arctic diocese could lose cathedral, bishop says

Sean Frankling November 4, 2025

Parishioners at St. Jude’s Cathedral in Iqaluit are in danger of losing their place of worship if the congregation and the diocese of the Arctic cannot find solutions to several pressing financial problems, says Bishop Alexander Pryor. An outstanding tax bill with the City of Iqaluit, rising insurance rates, high operational costs and the by-now familiar problem of congregational decline—each exacerbated by the unique challenges of life in Northern Canada—have combined to threaten the parish’s ownership of the cathedral.

Archbishop Laurent Mbanda, primate of the Anglican Church of Rwanda and chairman of GAFCON, declared GAFCON the true Anglican Communion October 16. Photo: GAFCON

Scholars ponder denomination’s future after GAFCON pledge to ‘reorder’ Anglican Communion

Sean Frankling October 31, 2025

In the wake of the declaration by a coalition of conservative Anglican provinces of its intention to reorder the Anglican Communion around itself rather than Canterbury, two Canadian scholars with years of experience in the global South take different views on how much the apparent schism will divide the denomination in theory and in practice.

A final draft of the policy is to be presented to a special meeting of Ontario’s executive council for approval in early December, says provincial executive officer Alex Pierson. Image: People-Images/Shutterstock Composite

Ecclesiastical province of Ontario drafts misconduct policy

Sean Frankling October 16, 2025

By year’s end, the ecclesiastical province of Ontario may have a new misconduct policy to cover the conduct of staff, clergy and bishops when they are doing work or holding meetings at the provincial level.

Bishop Anthony Poggo, secretary general of the Anglican Consultative Council, waters a Communion Forest tree in Mombasa, Kenya. photo: diocese of Mombasa in the Anglican Church of Kenya

Seeds of Change: Tree planting’s place in global climate change advocacy

Sean Frankling October 15, 2025

The pages of Scripture are rife with roots and branches. From the fruit trees in the Garden of Eden to the Tree of Life to the wood of the Cross itself, trees appear constantly.

"We have a task before us in this triennium and I believe that there’s been a unique alignment of persons and bodies and motions to enable this work to happen," Archbishop Shane Parker, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, told the Council of General Synod in a speech outlining the three pillars of his strategy for that work. Image: Matthew Puddister

CoGS approves ‘pathways’ task force, draw-down from savings to deal with ‘cash crunch’

Sean Frankling October 9, 2025

The Council of General Synod (CoGS) has approved key elements of a strategy for streamlining and updating the church, including a task force dedicated to pursuing the six pathways for change recommended by a primatial commission along with other groups working on the national office’s property, programming and staffing.

“He stood his ground, he knew what was right, he kept his word, and he kept things honest,” says Hamel's wife, Margo Hearne. Photo: contributed

Recognizing ‘a warrior against evil’

Sean Frankling October 3, 2025

Those close to Hamel remember him as a tireless advocate for local, national and international causes. He fought for everything from Indigenous land rights to the abolishment of apartheid to natural conservation and the wildlife sanctuary he helped found near Masset, B.C.

Outgoing Bishop of Montreal Mary Irwin-Gibson says she hopes the church will focus on growing disciples and responding to local needs. Photo: Erika Jacinto

Irwin-Gibson to retire as bishop of Montreal

Sean Frankling September 24, 2025

Bishop Mary Irwin-Gibson of the diocese of Montreal will retire Oct. 5 after a 44-year career in the church—including 10 years as diocesan bishop of Montreal.

A scene shot in Toronto's Little Trinity Church shows Firecracker (Misty Tucker Gray) praying in an over-the-top parody of a religious political ad in Season 4 of Amazon MGM Studios' The Boys. Photo: courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios

Stained glass on the silver screen

Sean Frankling September 17, 2025

When St. Clement’s Anglican Church in North Vancouver, B.C. got a request to use their building for filming a TV production going by the name “Megasword” in 2024, says the Rev. Helen Dunn, the church’s rector, it was the church’s first time being approached for a film rental.

Spreading the ‘aroma of Christ’: A lay academic takes the helm at Wycliffe

Sean Frankling September 10, 2025

This summer, Kristen Deede Johnson became the first non-ordained principal of the University of Toronto’s Wycliffe College, a fact which she says points to the school’s willingness to try new approaches to the traditional work of theological education.

Canon Alyson Barnett-Cowan (left), former president of the Canadian Council of Churches and Archdeacon Edward Simonton (right), vicar general and archdeacon of the diocese of Quebec have each been awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal for their respective work in ecumenical dialogue. Photos: Provided

Anglican ecumenists awarded King Charles III Coronation Medal

Sean Frankling September 8, 2025

Two prominent Anglican ecumenists were awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal June 20: Canon Alyson Barnett-Cowan, former president of the Canadian Council of Churches and Archdeacon Edward Simonton, vicar general and archdeacon of the diocese of Quebec. They were nominated by the Canadian Council of Churches and the Anglican Orthodox International Theological Dialogue, respectively.

Sean Frankling

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