That this General Synod, having gone on record as opposing Canadian participation in the proposed Ballistic Missile Defense Program of the US administration, request the General Secretary to communicate with dioceses by the time Parliament reconvenes in the fall of 2004, inviting them:
- to write to the government of Canada, expressing opposition, and
- to encourage parishes and individuals to do the same. CARRIED Act 85
Notes
Abstentions were noted from Cdr. David Cooper, Lt. Col. Rev. Canon John Fletcher, Archdeacon Karl McLean and the Rev. Canon John Steele.
1. Reaffirm the decision of the Council of General Synod in May 2000, formally to support the World Council of Churches' `Ecumenical Decade to Overcome Violence: Churches Seeking Reconciliation and Peace 2001-2010'
2. Work with partners in Canada and around the world to take up the call of the Decade to:
- Be and build communities of peace in diversity;
- Repent together for our complicity in violence;
- Analyse different forms of violence and their interconnection;
- Engage in theological reflection to overcome the spirit, logic and practice of violence;
- Embrace creative approaches to peace-building within the Christian tradition, local communities, secular movements, and other living faiths;
- Stand alongside victims of violence and to seek to empower those people who are systematically oppressed by violence;
- Act in solidarity with those who struggle for justice, peace and the integrity of creation. (from the Call of the Decade)
3. Promote a culture of non-violence that values love, compassion, and justice, and that rejects violence as a means of solving problems, and join with the Episcopal Church in the USA and other faith communities in observing the United Nations' Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World (2001-10).
4. Encourage dioceses and parishes to engage in learning and action throughout the decade on issues identified by the Council of General Synod in May 2000, and on other issues of war, peace-building, and nonviolence as they arise, with the assistance of the EcoJustice Committee, the Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples, the Primate's World Relief and Development Fund, and ecumenical organizations such as Project Ploughshares and Kairos - the Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiative. CARRIED Act 24
That this General Synod urge the Government of Canada to:
- Work urgently for the conclusion of an international ban on the manufacture, testing, transportation, and use of depleted uranium for military purposes;
- Take leadership toward the establishment of an independent international commission to investigate the medical and environmental consequences of contamination from the use of depleted uranium weapons;
- Continue and increase the efforts it has made to provide adequate disability pensions, counseling and medical care for Canadian veterans of the Gulf War and Balkans peacekeeping missions who are now suffering debilitating illnesses. CARRIED WITHOUT DEBATE Act 81
Notes
Abstentions were noted from Padre John Organ and Padre John Fletcher, Military Ordinariate.
In the continuing search for the fullness of life that Christ calls us to seek for all,
Be it resolved that General Synod urge the Public Social Responsibility Unit, and Anglicans at all levels of the Church, parochial, diocesan, provincial and national, to examine the economic priorities which are being acted on by their governments and their Church, related on the one hand to military expenditures and as well, personal patterns of consumption, investment and savings, and on the other hand to social expenditures; and
That this General Synod call the Church in the next three years to take specific collective and personal initiatives to address the growing needs of the poor and the dispossessed in their own communities, the nation and the wider world, working to redress the gross imbalance in spending in the present climate of increasing militarism.
1. Commit the Anglican Church of Canada, through its Ecojustice Committee (or its successor), to support the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons in its efforts to raise political will for the achievement of a Nuclear Weapons Convention. This convention would forbid the development, manufacture, testing, deployment, stock-piling, transfer, threat or use of nuclear weapons, lead to their reduction and elimination, and provide for verification of the same.
2. Request the chair of the Ecojustice Committee (or its successor) to direct a letter to ICAN [International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons] expressing our support for the demands of ICAN:
- Negotiation of Nuclear Abolition
- No new Nuclear Weapons
- Reduction of the likelihood of nuclear weapons use by
-- a No First Use policy
-- a No Launch-on Warning policy
-- development of more Nuclear-Weapons Free Zones (including one in Canada)
- Canada must call on NATO to revise its nuclear policy. Canada must promote No-Launch-on Warning and make sure adequate resources are directed toward nuclear disarmament.
That General Synod commend the present efforts to provide pastoral care to patients with AIDS and their families and affirm that they are entitled to full participation in the life of The Anglican Church of Canada. CARRIED IN ALL ORDERS Act 60
i) endorse the report of the Task Force on Violence Against Women for study and action, with particular reference to recommendations 1-6 on pp. 38-39 of the report;
ii) encourage dioceses
a) to provide the resources necessary to implement the recommendations of the report of the Task Force on Violence Against Women;
b) to report progress and suggestions to the Women's Unit for forwarding to the National Executive Council through the Program Committee prior to the 1989 General Synod;
iii) request the Committee on Ministry:
a) to bring the report of the Task Force on Violence Against Women to the attention of all Anglican centres of theological education in Canada with particular reference to the implications contained within the report for theological education; and
b) to request those centres to implement the appropriate recommendations and response strategies of the report.
Text
That the first word in Section (i) "endorse" be deleted and the word "commend" be substituted in its place. CARRIED IN ALL ORDERS
The motion now reads:
That General Synod:
i) commend the report of the Task Force on Violence Against Women for study and action, with particular reference to recommendations 1-6 on pp. 38-39 of the report;
ii) encourage dioceses
a) to provide the resources necessary to implement the recommendations of the report of the Task Force on Violence Against Women;
b) to report progress and suggestions to the Women's Unit for forwarding to the National Executive Council through the Program Committee prior to the 1989 General Synod;
iii) request the Committee on Ministry:
a) to bring the report of the Task Force on Violence Against Women to the attention of all Anglican centres of theological education in Canada with particular reference to the implications contained within the report for theological education; and
b) to request those centres to implement the appropriate recommendations and response strategies of the report.
The motion as amended was put and CARRIED IN ALL ORDERS Act 35