Two Peters elected officers of synod

St. Catharines, Ont.

General Synod elected two well-known members to its top legislative positions. They will serve as officers of General Synod for the next three years

Dean Peter Elliott of the diocese of New Westminster, who had been the deputy prolocutor of the General Synod, was elected prolocutor of General Synod.

The prolocutor is an officer of General Synod and chairs meetings in the primate’s absence.

Dean Elliott, who is 50, has been the rector of Vancouver’s Christ Church Cathedral since 1994. He has served as the chair of the planning and agenda team of the Council of General Synod and chair of a task force that negotiated a settlement concerning native residential schools. He also helped develop the new strategic plan – entitled Serving God’s World, Strengthening the Church – for the national church that was approved by General Synod. From 1990 to 1994, he was a member of the program staff at the church’s national office in Toronto.

Peter Irish, of the diocese of Fredericton, was elected deputy prolocutor. The one-time chair of the General Synod planning committee, chair of the agenda committee and member of the information resources committee, Mr. Irish is also a previous member of the Council of General Synod (CoGS) and just completed two terms as prolocutor of the ecclesiastical province of Canada.

The deputy prolocutor is an officer of General Synod and chairs meetings in the absence of the primate or the prolocutor.

The newly elected CoGS, which governs the church between meetings of the triennial General Synod, also met briefly at synod and elected two officers at large: Judy Darling, a lay member of the diocese of Ottawa and former member of the information resources committee and the mission co-ordination group, and Archdeacon Larry Beardy, executive archdeacon of the diocese of Keewatin and a member of the residential schools negotiating team.

The members of CoGS, as elected by General Synod, are listed at the left of this page and members of standing committees are listed below. Other appointments may be made to the council and standing committees by the primate.