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.