The General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada gathered June 23-29 in London, ON. I was delighted to be able to serve as part of the delegation from the Diocese of Kootenay, and to be gathered with representatives hailing from every Province and Territory across the country. For the church to be gathered in this way on a triennial basis fosters a deeper awareness of just how different the life of the church can be across this land, and of how those contexts inform the ways we live our faith in different places. We are shaped by the places from which we come, and to which we have subsequently returned. I certainly returned with a greater awareness of the mission of the whole church, in and for those various places. General Synod serves as a renewal of the sense of the unity of the church – that the church is the church, both in its gathering and in its dispersal. Both of these modes are essential to what it means to be the church. But what knits us together?
I encourage you to visit https://gs2025.anglican.ca/articles/ to read about all that unfolded – including of course the election of a new Primate in the person of Archbishop Shane Parker, and the affirmation of the pursuit of “transformational change” based on the “Creating Pathways Report of the Primate’s Commission on Proclaiming the Gospel in the 21st Century” (https://www.anglican.ca/wp-content/uploads/Creating-Pathways-report.pdf). But in the midst of the many and varied important matters at hand, the subtitle of that report speaks to what truly knits us together in the unchanging purpose of the church, no matter where it be found, from coast to coast to coast to border – to continue proclaiming the Gospel (Good News) in our time and place.
That focus on proclamation – on carrying Good News – is a simple reminder that the church’s vision is connected to every aspect of human life, from communities of faith, to any kind of community, and any kind of person or creature, wherever it be found. This breadth makes and keeps the church lively and interesting, even when it might seem regular and routine.
One of the ways we were reminded of this at this Synod was in the affirmation of a new Feast Day: the “Feast of the Creator” (see: https://gs2025.anglican.ca/resolutions/a122/). This corresponds to the “Season of Creation,” but it places the focus on the Creator at the heart of that season, and at the heart of the ecumenical relations of the Church as a whole, drawing on the longstanding place of this Feast Day in the calendar of the Orthodox Church. It also connects the dots from the credal confessions of God as “maker/creator of heaven and earth” to the ways we handle the whole of that creation. And it corresponds to the emphasis being brought to the life of the church by way of the Anglican Council of Indigenous People and its important document “The Covenant and Our Way of Life,” in which we are invited to the centre of all things with these words: “All of us, through our Baptism, join our Creator in placing the Gospel in the Centre of the Sacred Circle through which all of Creation is related.” (https://www.anglican.ca/wp-content/uploads/SC-covenant-owol_single.pdf, page 21). This connects worship and prayer to wisdom and action that is guided by an awareness of the whole of creation connected to (the) Creator, whether we are dispersed or gathered, and wherever we are across the land. In that spirit, perhaps the most important knitting together is found in the Gathering Prayer from the Sacred Circle:
“Creator, we give you thanks for all you are and all you bring to us for our visit within your creation. In Jesus, you place the Gospel in the Centre of this Sacred Circle through all of which all creation is related. You show us the way to live a generous and compassionate life. Give us your strength to live together with respect and commitment as we grow in your spirit, for you are God, now and forever. Amen.”
