Chateauguay, Montreal
Should Canadian Anglicans be able to break through the impasse on sexuality, “it could well become a vibrant model of the kind of renewed Christian community that has much to teach the wider church,” say two U.K. pastoral visitors.
Bishop Chad Gandiya of Harare, Zimbabwe, and Bishop Colin Bennetts, the retired bishop of Coventry, were deputized by the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to accept an invitation to attend the House of Bishops last November in Niagara, Ont. Archbishop Williams is seeking ways to heal divisions across the Anglican Communion.
The visitors’ report, discussed at a January meeting here of the House of Bishops, also noted that General Synod 2010 is bound to be “a watershed both for the [Anglican Church of Canada] and for its wider relations with the Anglican Communion”…no matter what decisions may be reached.
The visitors said they were “very encouraged” by the general desire that the church be more mission focused. They noted “…a very positive approach to church growth, a strong commitment to ministry among indigenous people and a determination to deliver better, more integrated forms of theological education both for ordinands and for laity.”
They called Archbishop Fred Hiltz one of the church’s “greatest assets” and said the Anglican Church of Canada “punches way above its numerical weight when it comes to involvement in affairs of the Communion,” a commitment that the visitors found “deeply moving.”
