St. Catharines, Ont.
Dean Peter Elliott of the diocese of New Westminster, currently the deputy prolocutor of the General Synod, was elected prolocutor of General Synod on the second ballot.
The election took place at the week-long meeting of General Synod, the triennial governing convention of the Anglican Church of Canada.
The prolocutor is an officer of General Synod and chairs meetings in the primate’s absence. Other candidates nominated by members of General Synod were Judith Darling of the diocese of Ottawa and Peter Irish of Fredericton.
Dean Elliott, who is 50, was nominated by Bishop James Cowan of British Columbia who said he is “exceptionally well-organized” and added that Dean Elliott’s “sense of humour can defuse tense situations.”
Born in St. Catharines, Dean Elliott is the rector of Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver since 1994. He is intimately involved with national church work, serving as the chair of the planning and agenda team of the Council of General Synod and chair of a task force on negotiating a settlement concerning native residential schools, among others. He also helped develop a new strategic plan for the national church that is being considered by General Synod 2004. From 1990 to 1994, he was a member of the program staff at the church’s national office in Toronto.
General Synod will elect its deputy prolocutor – another officer of General Synod – on Monday, May 31. By canon (church) law, the deputy prolocutor will be a lay person, since the prolocutor is a cleric.