CoGS highlights

In other news, Council of General Synod (CoGS) also:

• approved a motion asking officers of General Synod, “in consultation with staff, to ascertain present and future needs for office space for the national church and to make specific recommendations” at the March 2007 meeting of CoGS “regarding the use of the present site or the advisability of moving to a new location.” Archdeacon Dennis Drainville, of the diocese of Quebec, moved the motion, stating as rationale complaints from staff about conditions at the new offices at 80 Hayden St. “The group will simply study the issue. No decisions are being made,” he said;

• approved a motion from the house of bishops to amend the guidelines for electing a primate, giving potential nominees more time to think, pray and consult;

• approved a motion from the Council of the North requesting that a representative from its group be appointed to the national church’s task force on governance. The Council – a grouping of dioceses supported with mission funds from the national church – has expressed concern about how decisions are being made about its future by the task force without the group’s input. Archbishop Caleb Lawrence, co-chair of the Council and a member of CoGS, was subsequently added as a new member of the task force;

• endorsed the finalizing of the merger of the pension plans of General Synod (the national office of the Anglican Church of Canada) and the diocese of Montreal;

• heard that the board of directors of the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF) reported to CoGS that it has agreed to extend its HIV-AIDS campaign, Partnership for Life, beyond Dec. 31, 2006, as an education and fundraising initiative. This decision came after PWRDF surpassed its goal of raising $1 million in three years for the initiative.

• called upon the Canadian government to support as its priority the draft UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and its adoption by the General Assembly before the end of 2006. The Anglican Council for Indigenous Peoples (ACIP) requested action on the UN declaration.