General Synod will likely shift toward supporting programming developed and delivered across diocesan networks rather than delivering that programming itself, says Archbishop Shane Parker, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada.
The change is emerging as a part of the church’s restructuring process toward a leaner national office, he says. The process involves asking what functions can only be served by the Office of General Synod and which ones can be handled at other levels of the church.
The national office has other roles only it can play, such as supporting the office of the primate—but it should otherwise focus on building functions that visibly support parish and diocesan work, Parker says. This is in line with the “three Cs” that a previous primate’s commission identified as the core functions of General Synod, he says.
“When we focus on those core functions of ‘convene, connect and communicate,’ it’s clear that’s a very different approach to a national church than being a place which is doing a lot of programming in and of itself,” the primate says. Dioceses are already doing work in areas like justice, advocacy, worship and service, Parker says, and the national church can support them by facilitating networks to help them benefit from each other’s specialties.
“Let’s say diocese A has a very strong financial development function, for example,” he says. “How do those resources get used by dioceses where there isn’t a large staff focused on fundraising? It’s a matter of active engagement and sharing and support at multiple levels.”
The need for this de-centralization is one of the early themes emerging as the primate and other church leaders proceed on the restructuring mandated by General Synod at its June 2025 meeting, Parker says.
Meanwhile, the co-chairs of the Transformation Task Force approved by the Council of General Synod (CoGS) in October tell the Journal the task force has formed two subgroups dedicated to pathways two—management overview and restructuring—and four—communications.
The co-chairs are Canon (lay) Andrew Stephens-Rennie, former CoGS member for the ecclesiastical province of British Columbia and Yukon, and Canon (lay) Janet Marshall, director of congregational development for the Diocese of Toronto. They say the task force and other subgroups still in formation will examine the areas for change laid out in the Creating Pathways document and return to CoGS with recommendations on how to proceed.
That process will involve heavy consultation and conversation with the groups affected by each pathway, including Sacred Circle and the Council of the North, proceeding at “the speed of relationship,” they say. That phrase reflects a desire to ensure those affected by the church’s decisions have a voice in those decisions, Stephens-Rennie says.
“We’re bringing together groups to discern so that we get to the place where we can say, ‘This seems good to the Holy Spirit and us,’ and we can move forward and say, ‘Maybe this isn’t perfect, but it’s good enough to try.’”
