OUR NOTICES
Well friends, I am back from an exhausting, busy, and amazing week of business, connection, and fellowship. The 8 days in London Ontario, spent with about 400 other Anglicans was filled with moments of celebration and sorrows, discussion and disagreements, frustration and joy... and I am so thankful for all the folks I have met from Coast to Coast to Coast.
The 44th General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada began with a beautiful opening Eucharist at St. Paul’s Cathedral, and from there we entered into a few long days of business. We witnessed some wonderful presentations from organizations like the Anglican Foundation and Alongside Hope, and heard from ecumenical partners, The Rev. Dr. Betsy Miller - Director of the Moravian Church, The Rev. Michael Blair – General Secretary of the United Church of Canada, and Rev. Dr. Susan Johnson - National Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. We also had international guests with us all week, Rev. Michael Curry – former Primate of the Episcopal Church, Rev. Dr. Anthony Poggo – Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, and the Most Reverend Marinez Rosa dos Santos Bassotto – Archbishop of the Amazon. These leaders of God spent the entire week with us, and I was blessed to share conversation and fellowship with each of them during the course of the week and share a bit about ministry within our diocese.
But it wasn’t all presentations, greetings and fellowship. We also had big decisions and resolutions to work through as community. As a National Church, we voted to accept an update theological statement on the Deaconate, approved the “Creating Pathways” document commissioned by Primate Linda Nichols to reshape our National Church for the 21st Century, and once again affirmed our stance on creating safe space for marginalized communities such as the LGBTQ2IA+ and migrant communities, and passed a resolution encouraging the incorporation of Disability Theology… and of course we elected a new Primate, the Right Reverend Shane Parker.
I have come home from my time at Synod, exhausted in body but renewed in Spirit. Our theme for the week was from Isaiah that we would be renewed to soar on wings of Eagles, and I can say that while much change is in our future as a National church, we are also ready to soar. If you’d like to learn more about what happened at General Synod, the resolutions, articles from the National Church, Video clips and photos can all be found at https://gs2025.anglican.ca/
May we all keep those working for change in our beloved church in our prayers as we continue to move forward in hope.
Peace,
Kirsten +
WORSHIP SERVICE JULY 6TH:
Just a reminder that there will be NO service on Sunday July 6th at St. Mary’s, instead we are all invited to worship at St. Anne and St. Edmunds in Parksville for a combined worship service at 1pm! Please note we will be worshipping in the historic church of St. Anne so be sure to join us as all are welcome to attend.