Squaring the Circle

The 38th General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada formally opened with a service of Eucharist at the historic St. John's Cathedral, Winnipeg on the evening of June 19, at which retiring Primate Archbishop Andrew Hutchison gave his Presidential Address in place of a sermon. The time-frame for the service, which was already long on the pomp and pageantry of such occasions, was extended by the prelude of a first nations "smudging" ceremony, which was conducted by native elder Linda Bloom outside the Cathedral before the opening procession.

In his address, Archbishop Hutchison appealed to the central theme of General Synod, based on a song by Bishop Gordon Light of the Anglican Parishes of the Central Interior [of B.C.], "Draw the Circle Wide. Draw It Wider Still!" Much of what he said was a fairly predictable summary of the previous three years' activities. But despite his role as "pastor for the whole Church," which he described as "an awesome challenge," the archbishop could not resist commenting on the most contentious issue that Synod seemed likely to face -whether or not to authorize local dioceses to make their own decisions about the blessing of same-sex unions. He noted, for example, that "careful listening using the Anglican approach of Scripture, Tradition and Reason" would "be helpful." But he also observed, rather politically, that "the Church of England maintains full communion with the Church in Sweden...and with the Old Catholic Church in Europe" despite the fact that "both churches have authorized public rites of blessing for same-sex couples."

The main debate on same-sex blessings was scheduled for Saturday, June 23 at press-time, with key discussions on the Canadian churches' responses to both The Windsor Report and The St. Michael Report falling earlier in the week. The other major item on the agenda for General Synod was the election of new Primate on June 22.

With seven days of meetings running from 6.30 A.M. to 9.00 P.M., the patience and stamina of delegates seemed likely to be tested to the maximum. With a strictly controlled agenda and the rather directive stance taken by the Council of General Synod in presenting its own motions on some of the most contentious issues, it was also questionable how much time and opportunity delegates would ultimately have to work through the implications of very significant decisions.

The reality meanwhile remained that if General Synod decided, as its leadership plainly intended, to "draw the circle" wide by changing official policy on issues of human sexuality, the whole Canadian church would be faced with a further and potentially much more difficult challenge. How to "square the circle" of its increasingly strained relations with the wider Anglican Communion, if it further departed from the official Communion standards and expectations so clearly expressed in The Windsor Report and elsewhere?