The Faith Worship and Ministry Standing Committee of the Anglican Church of Canada met at the new Convent of the Sisters of St. John the Divine in north Toronto February 23-27, 2006.
Congregational Development The full committee was preceded by a day considering ‘congregational development’, a new area of priority for the work of the national church since General Synod 2007. A national conference on building healthy parishes is planned for spring, 2007.
Anti-Racism All committees of General Synod are having anti-racism training; Faith Worship and Ministry spent much of a day engaged in this learning.
The committee has a number of ongoing projects which were considered at the meeting but the principle matters for discussion were:
St. Michael Report The committee reviewed all responses received to date to the report of the Primate’s Theological Commission (on whether the blessing of same sex unions is a matter of doctrine); it will continue to compile the responses and report to the Council of General Synod. It hopes that all responses may be returned by December 31, 2006 so that they can be included in the compilation and assessment. The committee also gave some consideration as to how the report might be addressed at General Synod, and what sorts of decisions might ensue in relationship to it. The committee’s advice was given to the Officers of General Synod.
National Aboriginal Bishop At the request of the member of the committee who is its partner from the Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples, the committee had a ‘circle’ discussion of the proposal arising from the Sacred Circle for a national aboriginal bishop. The committee’s views will be shared with ACIP, the Council of General Synod, the Primate and the House of Bishops.
Covenant Two members of the committee produced discussion papers as a contribution to the process of developing a covenant for the Anglican Communion. The committee has invited the Council of General Synod to discuss the idea, making use of the two papers.
Reception The committee developed some proposals for the Council of General Synod regarding the way in which reports and resolutions coming from sources outside of the Anglican Church of Canada (Anglican Communion or ecumenical) be treated by our decision-making structures.
Code of Ethics The Ethics and Inter-Faith relations group has prepared: ‘We Will, with God’s Help: A Guide to Codes of Ethics for those authorized to practice ministry in the Anglican Church of Canada’; after further refinement this will be brought to the Council of General Synod in the fall.
Prayer Book Revision The committee decided to bring the following resolution ton the General Synod of 2007 (through the Council of General Synod): “That this General Synod directs the Faith Worship and Ministry Committee to prepare principles and an agenda for prayer book revision.”
French Liturgical Texts The committee welcomed and reviewed work by the Comité liturgique épiscopale francophone which has produced French texts for the Services of the Word and Night Prayer and has forwarded them to the Council of General Synod for approval for trial use and evaluation.
Principles for Liturgical Texts In the light of a proposed project for the electronic publication of liturgical texts for which the General Synod currently holds copyright, the Ministry and Worship Working Group prepared a discussion paper entitled ‘Principles to guide the preparation of platforms for the liturgical planning using the liturgical resources of the Anglican Church of Canada’. The paper was shared at the committee with the publisher of the Anglican Book Centre and was forwarded to the Communications and Information Resources Committee and the Financial Management and Development Committee; it is hoped that there will be a discussion at the Council of General Synod regarding policy in this area.
Guests The committee welcomed three guests who spoke about their work in areas related to the committee:
- Dr. John Gibaut of St. Paul University is a member of the International Commission for Anglican-Orthodox Theological Dialogue and he shared developments from that commission, which will soon publish a series of agreed papers.
- Bishop Ann Tottenham, retired Suffragan bishop of Toronto, reported on the work of the network enitled Theological Education in the Anglican Communion.
- Ms. Judy Steers of the Ask and Imagine program operating out of Huron College, who gave a power point presentation on the work of youth leadership development. Jude will begin serving on the staff of Faith Worship and Ministry beginning March 1, serving a quarter time contract to work primarily at making resources for youth ministry available on the web.
Next Meeting The committee will meet next in Sorrento, British Columbia, October 14-17, 2006.
