Dorothy Davies-Flindall elected Prolocutor of General Synod
Waterloo, Ont.
THREE-QUARTERS of members of the new Council of General Synod (COGS) will be serving in that capacity for the first time.
The council is the chief decision-making body between the triennial meetings of General Synod. Only nine of 37 COGS members elected at General Synod were also members during the past triennium.
However, five of seven officers of General Synod, who are also members of GOGS, held office in the previous triennium.
This means 14 of 42 members have previous COGS experience.
Each diocese is represented on COGS by a bishop, priest, or layperson, with the requirement that a new member must belong to an order different from that of their predecessor.
In dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of Canada six of eight members are new; in the province of Ontario all eight are new; in Rupert’s Land there are eight new members and in British Columbia and Yukon, four of six members are new. Each province also elected a youth member, all of them new.
In other elections, Dorothy Davies-Flindall was elected prolocutor or vice-chair of General Synod and an officer. She was chosen on the second ballot from a field of five candidates.
Ms. Davies-Flindall has been active in church life at diocesan and national levels for many years. She served on COGS, the Partners in Mission committee and was chair of the Primate’s World Relief and Development committee for seven years. She has also served on the General Synod nominating committee and chaired the agenda committee for the 2001 General Synod. She also serves on the board of directors of the Canadian Council of Churches.
Archdeacon James Cowan of the diocese of British Columbia was elected deputy prolocutor and will also serve as an officer of General Synod for the next triennium.
He served 20 years as a parish priest in Qu’Appelle diocese before becoming executive officer of the diocese of British Columbia. He has been a member of General Synod several times and served on several committees. He has most recently been co-chair of the joint Anglican-Lutheran working group that produced the Waterloo Declaration. Members of General Synod’s six standing committees were chosen from more than 225 nominees using a set of criteria designed to ensure balanced representation by region, age, gender, ethnic and indigenous and theological diversity.
In addition to committee members elected by General Synod, additional members are appointed by the Primate to help improve the balance of each group.
Synod also adopted a call for “more balanced representation reflecting the diversity of our church at all levels” and for “underrepresented and minority groups to be involved in the councils and committees of the church,” as a directive to COGS and a request to all dioceses and provinces.