Improving the Environment

"A graciously magnanimous church has a responsibility to both affirm moral standards and to ensure that its rules don't seem rigorous to the point of inhumanity," advised Archbishop John Sentamu of York in his address to General Synod, June 20. "Personally, I take an orthodox view on human sexuality," he continued, and because orthodoxy was "transformative," he was "persuaded that our sexual affections can no more define who we are than our tribe, ethnicity or nationality." But Archbishop Sentamu also noted that "I am driven to exasperation when Christians don't disagree well and Christianly."

The Archbishop of York's address was one of the highlights of a first full day during which General Synod also conducted a significant amount of business, including:

• receiving consolidated financial statements, which showed an operating deficit of nearly $500,000 for 2006 (compared with a shortfall of just over $1.1 million the previous year), largely as result of losses incurred by the Anglican Book Centre, which is now managed by the Lutheran publisher Augsburg Fortress.
• affirming continued financial support for the 11 church groups (10 dioceses plus the Anglican Parishes of the Central Interior) comprising the Council of the North at no less than current levels of roughly $2.4 million in 2006.
• approving a series of canonical changes affecting pension and other benefit plans, making limited changes in clergy licensing procedures, and allowing non-Anglicans in full communion with the Anglican Church of Canada to sit on national committees.
• merging the national Partners in Mission and Ecojustice committees into one with the added mandate of evangelism.

The two last sessions of June 20 were primarily devoted to in camera "conversations" on the topics of The Windsor Report, The St. Michael Report and same-sex blessings, finance and governance issues.

June 22 centred on morning and afternoon joint meetings with members of the General Convention of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada, focusing on environmental themes. Although skilfully interwoven in the context of a creative eucharistic liturgy, some of the content of these sessions was disappointing for theological conservatives. Especially offensive to some participants was the keynote address by Dr Sallie McFague of Vancouver School of Theology which while helpfully encouraging a more holistic view of environmental stewardship, was seen as unfairly critical of evangelical theologies of salvation.

The afternoon session ended with a memorable ceremony at which representatives from nine Canadian church organizations, including the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, as well as Anglicans and Evangelical Lutherans, publicly renewed their commitment to the covenant, A New Covenant: Towards the Constitutional Recognition and Protection of Aboriginal Self-Government in Canada. This document, which was first presented 20 years ago, calls upon the Canadian government to safeguard and enforce the rights of first nations, including their entitlement to self-determination with "an adequate land base."

(Editor's note: The above posting was revised June 22 to include a further update, as well as in light of comments received.)