“The healing of the nations”: General Synod diary, day 0
Posts and diary entries from the Anglican Church of Canada’s 2023 General Synod, meeting for part of that time conjointly with the Evanglical Lutheran Church in Canada. Earlier posts in this series are here.
Notable Bible passage from today: Revelation 22:2: “On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” I hadn’t realized this was a theme text for this gathering. But I was struck by it at this evening’s open Eucharist after spending the afternoon walking around Calgary and being struck by the different kind of trees from what I’m used to and the different scents they produce that linger in the air. The healing of the nations is so deeply needed!
A highlight from today: The opening smudging led by National Indigenous Archbishop Chris Harper, who situated this practice in indigenous and Christian traditions in a really compelling and wonderful fashion. In his sermon during the Eucharist, he said, “The church needs to be able to laugh at itself a little bit more.” It reminded me of one of my favourite sayings: the church needs to take the gospel seriously and itself lightly.
I took an enjoyable stroll along the banks of the Bow River this afternoon. It’s good to be in the west again. Have to fit it in the outside time while I can! The rest of this synod is going to be indoors.
A fascinating conversation on the ride in from the airport about churches, the housing crisis, and property redevelopment. We agreed that this is such a significant confluence of issues right now — lack of affordable housing, the church ownership of property, and churches in financial need. And it is also something that the General Synod will likely have nothing to say about this week. A helpful reminder that the General Synod is important but has only a particular role to play in the life of the church.
It was unplanned but I ended up sitting with folks from Yukon at dinner and then the Diocese of the Arctic at the Eucharist. It was good to be reminded of my own time living in the north many years ago. The wonderful late sunsets in Calgary, which will have us all going to bed too late, are another reminder.
I also met at dinner a delegate who is a farmer in Saskatchewan and we agreed the church has such a significant role to play in the vital conversation our societies need to have about the future of food. Another place where General Synod will likely be silent.
Church meetings like this have elements of a family reunion to them. I was delighted to see again Becky Coholan, who was part of the Montreal Mission Internship (a program we host at Dio) last summer and is now a youth delegate from Nova Scotia and was an integral part of this evening’s Eucharist. Excellent!
Someone could (and maybe has?) do an interesting study comparing how governing bodies of churches sit. In the United States, the House of Deputies is arranged, by diocesan delegation, at tables facing a front platform in a gigantic convention hall. In the Church of England, everyone is arranged in a purpose-built room in a horseshoe facing the rostrum. It seems like people sit wherever they like. In Canada, we are gathered in the august confines of a university student union building, seated at round tables, facing one another and not arranged by diocese.
I was reviewing the agenda again on the plane and struck by how General Synod is really a number of different things all rolled into one. There’s a strong element of internal focus on the national life of the church, in, for instance, the reports we read of various committees or in resolutions dealing with changing aspects of our governance. This is necessary business and the General Synod is the proper body to do this. There’s also external focus in that we have resolutions related to external matters, such as Israel and Palestine. The General Synod is the voice to speak on a national level for the church and articulate positions for church leaders to propagate.
There’s also what, for lack of a better phrasing, I’m going to call the rah-rah church agenda. We get a fair amount of time given over to reports from organizations like the Anglican Foundation of Canada and the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund. Given that these are separate organizations with separate governance structures, it’s not clear to me why General Synod needs to use floor time to hear from them — other than that General Synod is a gathering of a lot of well meaning Anglicans who could potentially be ambassadors at home for their work.
Speaking of other church organizations, what I always appreciate about church meetings is the chance to learn about all the para-church organizations out there doing great work. Regrettably, there’s only a limited amount of display space at this Synod so a lot of organizations aren’t here. But Dio is! Stop by our table to learn more about the educational programs we offer and how you can be a part (in person or online) of our creative learning community. (End of promo.)
The first official day of business is tomorrow. See you then.
