General Synod 2007: In Plenary

By Anthony Burton
Bishop of Saskatchewan
Chair of the Council of the North

Sir John A. MacDonald had a national dream to create a nation by binding East and West together with a ribbon of steel, a national railway. But the Old Chieftain never fully understood that our identity as a people was more than East and West alone. The idea of the North was something more profound, more spiritual, and more enduring. The North was our nation’s soul: it came to define us as a people in a way that commerce never could.

For Canadians, isolated northern communities have never been marginal or expendable. They mattered. In the high Arctic, in the vast forests of the Canadian Shield, in the solitude of Nootka Sound and the tiny aboriginal communities dotting James Bay and the Labrador coast, the dream of nationhood found its roots. What was Canada if not for its northern peoples, in the diversity of their cultures and landscape? The nation was much more than an alliance of southern cities squatting on territory that once belonged to peoples now displaced and forgotten. Canada belonged to every Canadian.

The General Synod was formed in 1893 to resource the Anglican mission in the north and west of the young nation. Since that time our identity as a national Church has been bound up with this project. Anglican mission was conceived of as a national mission, a ministry by the whole Church for the whole Church.

In recent years we have been at our best at times of crisis when we have raised up this original vision and drawn together. For example, I will always be proud of the Christian, big-hearted and generous response of the whole Church to the residential schools lawsuits.

I wish it didn’t take a crisis to prompt us to remember who we are. In the last few years there have been times when we have seemed little more than a fragile and factious alliance of competing interests.

Our loss of common purpose is plain for all to see in how we spend our money. Our budget is fragmented to the point of dissipation. We find it almost impossible to establish priorities and follow through on our decisions.

Worse, we have failed to learn one of the most important practical lessons of the residential schools crisis: an under-funded mission can be worse than no mission. That debacle was mostly staffed by good people who were placed in jobs guaranteed to burn them out if they didn’t quit soon enough. As budgets were eroded, staff who stayed at their posts were asked to do more and more with less and less. Many of them fell into alcoholism as they tried to make bricks without straw. The abuses were partly a consequence of financial decisions made far away.

Since 1993 cuts to the Council of the North grants have absorbed 73.10 per cent of the overall reduction of General Synod revenue. [1]

The consequent undermining of pastoral and sacramental ministry in remote and isolated areas has not been deliberate. But the Council of the North believes that it is time that the whole church reviewed its priorities.

As part of this review, the Council of the North asks that the whole church consider the effects of this massive decrease in actual dollars coupled with rising costs such as soaring energy, transportation, and insurance rates:

• During the period in question, the basic stipend has gone from $20,393 to $27,628 an increase of $7,235 or 35 per cent. Most of this increase has been to simply keep up with the cost of living. This has resulted in a significant reduction in the number of paid clergy throughout the Council of the North at a time when there is an increasing need for full-time, well-trained clergy. This has had several effects, which have been felt most severely in isolated, mostly aboriginal communities. Non-stipendiary clergy have to take on more and more work. This has resulted in increased burnout among clergy. In addition, a number of clergy have had to give up all or part of their secular employment in order to fulfill their priestly responsibilities. This has created a serious injustice within the church. Young people are reluctant to accept ordination because they are not prepared to accept the unreasonable sacrifices being demanded of current clergy. As a result, many ministries will have to be abandoned as those currently serving reach an age where they can no longer carry on.

• In order to maintain basic ministry, most Council of the North dioceses have had to liquidate all or significant amounts of their financial reserves. This has created a financial crisis for many dioceses which may soon threaten their existence

• As the support by the General Synod has decreased, there has been a corresponding decrease in basic diocesan programs. Lay reader training, continuing education for clergy, Christian education, stewardship, and congregational development have all been either eliminated or drastically reduced to the point where they are inadequate to the increasing needs.

• New emerging ministries cannot be undertaken. Many communities are undergoing rapid social and economic changes. Old structures and approaches are often inadequate to meet the new challenges. However, there are no resources to adapt old systems and develop new ones

• Many member dioceses, after having eliminated program work, have been forced to make significant reductions to their administrative structures. In some cases, these reductions have been so severe as to threaten to compromise the diocese’s ability to fulfill its fiduciary duty to provide adequate supervision and management. This has the potential to create significant legal as well as moral issues, not only for the dioceses concerned but for the General Synod itself.

The Council of the North believes that in order to maintain a reasonable level of sacramental and pastoral ministry, it is critical that we have funding strategies that provide for and maintain

• A bishop for each diocese
• Adequate staff to assist the bishop
• A realistic number of appropriately trained clergy for aboriginal and non-aboriginal congregations with these clergy being paid stipend commensurate with those paid generally in the Anglican Church of Canada

The Council of the North recommends that General Synod’s support grants be fixed at current level for the next five years and that the Council of the North be given permission and encouraged to launch collective fund-raising activities to supplement this income. It is also asking the General Synod to provide the necessary resources in stewardship and congregational development to assist all Council dioceses to move as close as possible to self-sufficiency.

The Council of the North wants to make the wider church aware of the following:

• The Anglican Church of Canada has long had a commitment to provide sacramental and pastoral ministry to remote and sparsely populated regions of the country, especially in the North.
• Most of the congregations that make up the Council of the North are in First Nations or Inuit communities.
• Council of the North dioceses are finding it extremely difficult or impossible to continue to provide the pastoral and sacramental ministry required.
• The Council of the North has absorbed 73.10 per cent of the overall reduction of General Synod revenue during the period 1993-2006.
• The member dioceses of the Council of the North are working together to find ways in which sacramental and pastoral ministry can be delivered in as effective a manner as possible and are prepared to embrace radical methods to do so.
• The Council of the North is prepared to work co-operatively with the rest of the Church in exploring ways to address the financial crisis.
• Our first responsibility must always be the most effective proclamation of the gospel. All decisions must be made in the light of that primary goal.

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[1] In 1993 grants to the member dioceses totaled $3,551,000. In 2006 the total is $2,373,000 which is a decrease of $1,178,000. During that time the General Synod revenue decreased from $11,361,000 to $9,750,000, a decrease of $1,611,678.00 or 14%. In 1993, the Council of the North grants absorbed 31.3% of the revenue of General Synod, in 2006 they will absorb only 24.3% If the Council of the North had the same priority (31.3%) in 2006 as it did in 1993, even in our reduced circumstances the current grants would total $3,052,000 or $679,000 more than the actual current grants.

Ellie Johnson
Director of Partnerships
Over the past 18 months, the staff and members of General Synod’s Ecojustice and Partners in Mission committees have been developing a process to integrate the work of these two historically separate program units. Resolutions pertaining to this integration will be brought to the General Synod for approval next month. And if General Synod agrees, the newly integrated program will begin immediately thereafter, and the newly merged standing committee will hold its first meeting in the fall.

This integration is the outward expression of our evolving understanding of the church’s role in God’s mission: seeking justice with peace in partnerships of solidarity with those who are most vulnerable and marginalized, living in right relationships with one another, safeguarding the integrity of creation. We seek to inform our church’s collective missiology with this vision, and to encourage parishes and individuals to actively live the Christian Gospel of love toward abundant life for all in the created order.

Preparing for this merger has led to careful reflection on our use of the term “ecojustice”, and of the place of creation in our understanding of mission. Members of the Ecojustice Committee noted that in recent Anglican discourse on mission, mention of ecology has been included since 1996 as one of the “five marks of mission.” As a result, in considering the future committee, the doctrine of creation will itself become a focus of attention, and not just as a background to human life, but as a central expression of God’s divine action.

In addition to reflection, our participation in God’s mission of transformation is also advanced through experiences that enable Canadian Anglicans to travel to other parts of the world for visits or for work placements. Through the Volunteers in Mission and International Theological Student Internship and the Companion Diocese programs, many Canadian Anglicans have the opportunity to visit, study, and work alongside Anglicans, other Christians, and people of faith worldwide. Those who have this experience are forever changed. We are committed to continuing the programs that provide these transformative experiences.

What we are learning
As part of this exploration of the relationship of mission and ecojustice, we are asking the questions, “What does it mean to be an Anglican, to be the Anglican Church of Canada today, in our neighbourhoods, villages, cities, regions, and beyond? How are we living our faith daily, in relationships with one another, in responding to those in need, in speaking truth to powers and principalities about economic and social policies which undermine human dignity and threaten the integrity of creation?”

We have been assisted in this exploration by the church’s Anti-Racism discussion, exposure and training, in which we have participated over the past six years. We have learned a great deal, and now believe that until the sin of racism within our church is fully and completely exposed, all service in God’s mission is deeply flawed. We are learning that the existing structures and systems of governance in our church are hampering transformative change.

We are learning that the deep suffering and pain of former students of Indian Residential Schools, and their families and communities, continues to this day, and that healing will be a very long process. We are learning that it is very difficult for white, middle and upper class Anglicans to even acknowledge, let alone discuss the existence of racism within the church, and within themselves.

We are feeling energized by the proposed integration of mission and ecojustice into one program with one oversight committee. The energy is bubbling from anticipation of focused partnerships with other Anglicans around the world seeking justice, peace and the integrity of creation as mission in their local contexts and globally. We also find it a privilege and joy to send grants, mission volunteers and students in response to partners’ requests for practical resources and companionship. We are committed to building right relationships with other peoples and with the whole of creation.