The Anglican Church of Canada should consider making major cuts to the size of its governance gatherings and committees, says the report of a commission tasked with reimagining its future.
The church is approaching a time of important decisions—one which Anglicans can and should embrace with hope, Archbishop Anne Germond, acting primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, told Council of General Synod (CoGS) in her opening remarks March 7.
Amid the rising international tensions and overwhelming flood of executive orders under the new Trump administration, it is the duty of Anglicans in Canada to speak up for the marginalized and vulnerable, says Canon Maggie Helwig, rector of St. Stephen-in-the-Fields Church in Toronto.
Not only multidenominational church researchers, but also parish and diocesan strategists and even interested lay people attended December’s second annual gathering of the Canadian Institute for Empirical Church Research (CIECR), a research institute at Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto. It’s a sign that in an increasingly uncertain faith landscape, people are looking for clarity and data to guide their decision-making, ministry and outreach, Canon Neil Elliot, the Anglican Church of Canada’s statistics and research officer, told the Anglican Journal at the event.
Archbishop John Stephens, newly elected metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province of British Columbia and Yukon, says he plans to continue predecessor Archbishop Lynne McNaughton’s work of increasing collaboration between dioceses within the province.
Mother’s Union has elected its first worldwide president from Canada: Kathleen Snow, a board member at the international Anglican charity and parish nurse at Christ Church Cathedral in Fredericton, N.B. She is the second president of the charity to come from outside the U.K., following her predecessor, Sheran Harper from Guyana, who has been president for the past six years, Snow told the Anglican Journal.
Deborah Barretto, director of Resources for Mission, the Anglican Church of Canada’s fundraising department (centre), sorts through donation envelopes with the department’s database administrators, Fe Bautista (left), and Grace Lança (right). Photo: Matthew Puddister
According to data available so far, attendance at Anglican Church of Canada Easter and Christmas services rose by 41 and 50 per cent respectively in 2023, even while average Sunday attendance fell by nine per cent over the same period—substantially faster than the decline of about 2.5 per cent per year before the pandemic, says the church’s statistics officer, Canon Neil Elliot.
The Indigenous Anglican church is beginning work on mental health ministries amid a national epidemic of suicides and overdoses in Indigenous communities, Archdeacon Rosalyn Elm, the church’s Indigenous ministries coordinator, told the Council of General Synod (CoGS) in November.
![“I [would be] basically telling you guys we would not be here in 2029” if asked to forecast national office finances for 2026-2029 given current trends, General Synod treasurer Amal Attia told CoGS. Photo: Matthew Puddister](https://i0.wp.com/anglicanjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/DSCF9490JPG.jpg?fit=800%2C543&ssl=1)
The Anglican Church of Canada’s national office has a balanced budget ready for 2025, Amal Attia, treasurer of General Synod, told Council of General Synod (CoGS) at its latest meeting in November 2024. While a plan has been approved to draw on reserve money to keep the budget stable through the year, some cost-cutting measures have already begun—including a gradual plan to reduce funding to the Council of the North—and more cuts will be needed in the years to come, she said.
The food bank at St. Mark’s Anglican Church in Halifax, N.S. is facing a “perfect storm” this year, says the Rev. Tammy Hodge Orovec, the church’s rector.
Canon David Garrett, dean of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Charlottetown has served a three-day prison sentence and paid a $1,500 fine plus a $450 victim surcharge following an Oct. 15 conviction for impaired driving, according to the Rev. Ann Turner, executive director of the diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. The conviction concerned an incident on Aug. 6 in which Garrett got into a collision that severely damaged the front of his vehicle at 1:37 pm and subsequently tested at 150 mg of alcohol in
Two provincial synods have passed a resolution to call on General Synod to review the impacts of cuts to Council of the North funding. The resolution, passed this September by the ecclesiastical provinces of Ontario and British Columbia and Yukon, follow a 2023 decision which would see the council’s funding reduced by $100,000 yearly, beginning in 2024, until its annual apportionment is equal to 25 per cent of the donations the national church receives through diocesan proportional giving.
“Do we still want a publication that holds up a mirror to the church?” the Rev. Cynthia Haines Turner, chair of General Synod’s communications committee, asked Council of General Synod (CoGS) in a Nov. 9 session on a primatial committee’s suggestion that the church stop funding the Anglican Journal. “Sometimes the picture we will see may not be flattering and sometimes it will be. But is that still a value for the church?”
Church leaders are seeking a new chair for the Jubilee Commission, a group of Indigenous Anglicans tasked with examining possibilities for funding the Indigenous Anglican church. The commission’s previous chair, Judith Moses, stepped down in April. Speaking to the Journal in September, Moses cited her age, diminished energy levels and the difficulty of doing the commission’s work with limited resources.
But problem more diocesan than national, bishop says It might be time for the church to hold weekend-only meetings and provide onsite child care even
National Indigenous Archbishop Chris Harper has announced he will slow down his schedule of travel in 2025 following two years of extensive visits to church communities across the country.
The church should stop to consider how the work done by General Synod or the ecclesiastical provinces would be replaced before it responds to a suggestion by a primatial commission to eliminate one of those levels of governance, Archbishop Anne Germond, acting primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, told members of Council of General Synod (CoGS) Nov. 9.
The national office has a balanced budget ready for 2025, Amal Attia, treasurer of General Synod, told members of the Council of General Synod (CoGS) Nov. 8.
Across the Anglican Church of Canada, governing bodies from the national to the diocesan level are in the process of reviewing, updating and in some cases introducing for the first time sexual misconduct policies.