Voice and Vote

The Anglican Church of Canada’s governing body, General Synod, today agreed to add two nominees from the Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples (ACIP) as full voting members of the Council of General Synod (CoGS).

The move constitutes “one more step in bringing our indigenous members into full partnership,” said General Synod chancellor (legal adviser) Ron Stevenson of the diocese of Fredericton and author of the resolution that introduced the proposal and amended a section of the church’s constitution.

“For several years, the Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples has been represented at meetings of the Council of the General Synod by two ‘partners’ who have had voice but no vote,” said the resolution’s explanatory note. ACIP nominees elected to CoGS, the church’s governing body between General Synods, will become voting members.

General Synod also approved a resolution adding a nominee from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) as a full voting member of CoGS. ELCIC is a full communion partner of the Anglican Church of Canada. The resolution noted that while the ELCIC and the Anglican Church of Canada have been in Full Communion since 2001, the ELCIC has been represented at CoGS by a “partner who has had voice but no vote.”

General Synod also approved resolutions on the “no debate list” that:

requested the primate appoint a Commission on Theological Education and Formation for Presbyteral Ministry, which shall report to CoGS and the House of Bishops.

called on Parliament, the Canadian government, not-for-profit and private sectors and Canadians in general to adopt policies that will establish “a national strategy to ensure adequate and affordable housing for all Canadians.”

called for a national strategy to “reduce or eliminate poverty in Canada by 50% over the next 10 years and to substantially reduce the growing gap between rich and poor by 2020.”

mandated the Faith, Worship and Ministry committee to “continue to facilitate, support and report on national and international, inter-diocesan conversations regarding human sexuality and mission that began in the 2007-2010 triennium.”

authorized CoGS, “at such time as it considers appropriate, to apply for continuance of the General Synod as a corporation under the Canada Not-for-Profit Corporations Act.”

recognized 2011 as the 400^th anniversary of the Authorized Version (the King James Bible) and directed the faith, worship and ministry committee to prepare information and liturgical resources for use on its anniversary commemoration.

directed the Faith, Worship and Ministry Committee to create a Task Force for Liturgy that will develop “a set of principles for the revision of (the church’s) contemporary language liturgical texts.”

directed the Faith, Worship and Ministry Committee to conduct a study “examining the canonical, theological and liturgical implications, as well as the potential effects on the mission and witness of the Anglican Church of Canada, of the cessation of the solemnization of matrimony by the clergy of the Anglican Church of Canada and of the adoption of the European model of blessing those civil marriages that conform to a canonical definition of marriage as the normative practice of the Church…”

revised the mandate of the Partners in Mission/Ecojustice Committee.

expressed its support “for a world free of nuclear weapons, and asks the General Secretary to convey our position to the Government of Canada.”

requested the General Secretary to “give consideration to the establishment of a General Synod Youth Secretariat and make a recommendation to CoGS at its November 2010 meeting.