"Anglicans across Canada are being called to demonstrate -- in the 22 days following the closing event of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission -- that this ending is only the beginning of healing and reconciliation with Canada's Indigenous people. Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, and National Indigenous Anglican Bishop Mark MacDonald have issued a call to the whole church today to participate in #22days, a campaign that will stretch from the start of the closing of TRC event in Ottawa on May 31 [2015] to National Aboriginal Day on June 21 [2015]. 22days was first conceived of by a group of cathedral deans from cities in which a national TRC event was held and was 'heartily endorsed' by the House of Bishops" (p. 10). "The General Synod communications team has created a web page -- 22days.ca -- that will offer resources, including 22 videos featuring former residential school students and staff describing their experiences in the schools. The videos are not the typical 30-second sound bytes people are used to viewing on television, they are about 15 to 20 minutes each, in order to tell the stories in a more whole and sensitive way, said Anglican Video senior producer Lisa Barry. One video will be added daily to the website during the 22-day period and each will be accompanied by a prayer, written by various people in the church" (p. 11).
"The House of Bishops met in Quebec City from Oct. 24 to 29 [2013] with their counterparts from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and reviewed the Joint Assembly held by the two churches in Ottawa last July [2013]. Following the meeting Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, told the 'Anglican Journal' that generally Anglican bishops considered the time for the Anglican General Synod meetings within the five-day event too short to accomplish all that needed to be done and discussed. Prominent in the Anglican bishops' conversations were discussions of a controversial resolution that asks the Council of General Synod (CoGS) to draft a motion -- to be considered by the 2016 General Synod -- to amend the marriage canon. The amendment would allow same-sex couples to marry, with a conscience clause that would exempt any congregation, diocese, clergy or bishops who objected from participating. 'There's been a huge effort in the life of the church to talk about this as a pastoral response, not a change of doctrine, and now it feels like the ground has shifted', Hiltz said. The change to a question of doctrine creates difficulties in dioceses where bishops 'have worked really hard to hold all voices and all people together', and where some people are asking how this shift happened. The motion, he noted, came from individual members of General Synod". "News that Bishops David Parsons and Darren McCartney of the diocese of the Arctic attended the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in Nairobi in the hopes of creating partnerships to help with the diocese's debt crisis (see p. 2) and shortage of priests met with some consternation".
"When the House of Bishops met in Niagara Falls, Ont., from April 13 to 17 [2015], they discussed some contentious issues, including possible amendments to the marriage canon and a call from the Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples (ACIP) for significant changes to church structures. But Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, said there was, nevertheless, 'a spirit of hopefulness' at the gathering". "The bishops discussed the document, 'Where We Are Today: Twenty Years after the Covenant, an Indigenous Call to Church Leadership', in terms of what they thought needed more clarification, what they found encouraging and what they found challenging." "Hiltz observed that what underlies much of these discussions is the question, 'What is everybody's understanding of self-determination ?' This is a conversation that needs to continue, he said. People are not sure what self-determination will mean in terms of concrete changes, said Hiltz". "Bishops also endorsed the #22days campaign calling Anglicans to commit to working toward healing and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. ... Hiltz noted that Bishop Robert Hardwick of the diocese of Qu'Appelle shared plans to ring church bells for murdered and missing women and girls, and other bishops decided that could be done in all of their dioceses".