Pentecost 22

REPORT TO CONGREGATION ON THE 119th SESSION OF SYNOD

The 119th Session of Synod this year commenced with The Opening Service on Thursday evening, October 17th at St. John’s Cathedral. Four members of St. Andrew’s Parish attended. Rev. Liz Richens, Isla Marsh, Norma Pittman and myself.

Worship set the stage for the Bishop’s Charge and Synod; the Bishop charged the Diocese to consider whether the Church institutionalism and temporal nature might actually impede the diligent work that God calls disciples in the world today to undertake. Another important Charge to members of this Diocese is to reflect on the environment of the earth as affected by human pollution, climate disruption, violence and greed indicating this is of God’s great concern.

I personally enjoyed the concluding comments of the Bishop who does not like the doom scenario of 2040 and said “I want God to shove me out the door, filled with courage, curiosity and deeply desiring to laugh out loud. He believes the gift of disciples fills the Church and working together much can be achieved.

Synod continued on Friday, October 18th. The format of this Synod was conducive to true delegate involvement and discussion. On commencement we were assigned seating in Discipleship Table Groups. The Diocese includes approximately 12,000 Anglicans registered on Parish roles and worshiping in 65 parishes. This declining population is represented in the Financial statements which when presented showed a projected deficit for 2024 of $145,000.00. The New Church and Development Fund is being utilized to fund two Diocesan Staff Members one of which is Ray Turnbull, Diocesan Discipleship Developer. The other is the Urban Indigenous Ministry Developer, Rev. Vince Solomon.

Sale of Property net for the period January 1, 2022 to date amounts to $2.8 million. In addition, church unions were commented on and of particular note was the use of the St Andrews/St Chads union as a success story!

Delegates began the formal part of the day in Discipleship Table Groups giving us an opportunity to meet members of other parishes and share meaningful discussion.  We were provided with a scripture reading for reflection and discussion. My takeaway of this exercise from my working group's discussion is that we are a Church in need of change to continue and thrive. with the Holy Spirit to guide us, we are a group chosen to come together with hopeful hearts that we can move in a direction that will help us to effect the changes necessary to continue our community outreach and ministry.

We ended the morning with round table discussions, with each table being provided with questions to explore around topics of; diocesan amalgamations, forced parish closures, why parishes do/don’t meet diocesan financial obligations, parish gifts we can share and possible ecumenical mergers or shared resources.

Five motions arising from the Bishop’s Charge were presented and carried. Rev. Liz was a prime initiator in three of these motions.

The first resolution has charged each Parish to discern and implement three actionable ways for the Parish to improve its stewardship of Creation during 2025 and report them to the Diocesan center for publication.  That diocesan committee look for examples indigenous and international of alternative models of institutional church.  That the canons or rules of the church be updated.  That more resources be provided to parish leadership for pastoral and spiritual health to prevent burn out. 

Ryan Turnbull our Diocesan Discipleship Developer since October 2023 discussed various learning avenues, such as the St. John's Hub partnership with CMU in respect of the provision of graduate classes, the avenue for a 2 year undergrad program, the ability to "audit" inexpensively any courses of interest in the undergraduate program' the return of the Wilmot Program in 2024 at St John's College, Friday afternoon book studies and the youth adult retreat this past summer at the La Rocha Boreal Ecology.

Antiblack Racism Committee was established in 2020 to address the need for Black Anglicans participation at various levels of governance in the Diocese of Rupertsland. They held their first ever conference in St Johns The biggest takeaway from this presentation was clear - the time has come for the white Anglicans to stop speaking for the black Anglicans; the focus needs to be on healing the tensions between these two groups; the black Anglicans have a voice and are perfectly capable of speaking for themselves and do not need the white Anglicans to speak for them; the ultimate goal is to move together as one body of Christ.

A very inspiring presentation from the priest of Pinawa Christian Fellowship.  This congregation is a blend of Anglican, Presbyterian, Mennonite, and United, The church was founded in Pinawa in 1963 at a time when the community was growing.  There were not enough people of any particular faith to have individual congregations, so it was decided that if they could work together, they could also worship together!  This multidenominational church has managed gather all differing views into one and has not lost sight of living within each denomination! They rent their space, have a congregation size of 25 - 30 parishioners whose age demographic is 55+.  They can afford a full time priest whose office is located in the mall and very accessible. 

Wechetowin Presentation -Wechetowin means people helping people in Cree and whose work involves Indidenous and Non Indigenous people supporting each other. Their initiatives include Community Food Pantry located outside Epiphany Indigenous Church, Care/Resource bags; friendly visits to people of the north visiting Winnipeg for medical procedures; Prayer ministry etc.

Throughout the Synod there were short worship breaks with worship led by several groups in the diocese such as; Black Anglicans Anti Racism Group, LGBTQ2+ community, chaplains, and deacons.

Rev. Rod did a presentation about West Broadway Commons a new building project attached to All Saints parish.

It was by far one of the most uplifting sessions.  All Saints, a once viable, vibrant and thriving congregation found itself in a position of no Sunday School; an old crumbling structure with no funds to repair; all savings and investments used up with barely enough coming in to maintain the monthly bills.  They realized that they had to take steps toward a new horizon and the congregation was willing to find a solution to carry on the work of God.  They wanted a project that would serve all people of West Broadway and be environmentally friendly.  They partnered with all the right parties to get the project off the ground, inclusive of the 3 levels of government and the small congregation raised $600,000.  They have torn down the parish hall and along with U of Winnipeg build a multi story, mixed rental apartment, including complex is 97% full and was completed under budget. This endeavour helped them to have the funds necessary to fix and maintain the church itself AND replenish their savings and investments. In addition their congregation has grown substantially and they have approx 13 kids in Sunday school!

St Johns College Presentation discussed the college residence and the benefits of being a member of the college.  Synod delegates are encouraged to promote the college to the parish and anyone they know with university aged students.

Rupert's Land News presentation reminded us that magazine is published 10 x per year, and is always looking for more contributors.

11 additional motions were presented, but we only had time to deal with 8 of them.

The first dealt with the sale of parishes and property and recommended that 50% of the revenue be used to fund Indigenous ministry as a step toward reconciliation.  This proved quite complex and was deferred.  A second motion was to begin amalgamation inquires between diocese of Brandon and the Indigenous Spiritual ministry of Mishamikowees, with a final report by Synod 2026.  This was defeated.   The next was a very long motion with 6 sub motions regarding a diocesan response to the Palestinian Israeli conflict.  This motion created a lot of discussion and eventually was deferred.

The elections of the various diocesan positions for the many committees proceeded with only one tie causing a hic up.  The elected members will be posted on the diocesan website, but Rev. Liz was elected to Diocesan Council.  The other major announcement was the Bishop Geoff Woodcroft has announced he will retire effective June 1^st, 2025.

With this final announcement the Synod voted to adjourn.  If you have questions please talk to your Synod delegates.  More updates will come throughout the year and a fulsome report will be available in a month or so for your information.

REPORT TO CONGREGATION ON THE 119th SESSION OF SYNOD

The 119th Session of Synod this year commenced with The Opening Service on Thursday evening, October 17th at St. John’s Cathedral. Four members of St. Andrew’s Parish attended. Rev. Liz Richens, Isla Marsh, Norma Pittman and myself.

Worship set the stage for the Bishop’s Charge and Synod; the Bishop charged the Diocese to consider whether the Church institutionalism and temporal nature might actually impede the diligent work that God calls disciples in the world today to undertake. Another important Charge to members of this Diocese is to reflect on the environment of the earth as affected by human pollution, climate disruption, violence and greed indicating this is of God’s great concern.

I personally enjoyed the concluding comments of the Bishop who does not like the doom scenario of 2040 and said “I want God to shove me out the door, filled with courage, curiosity and deeply desiring to laugh out loud. He believes the gift of disciples fills the Church and working together much can be achieved.

Synod continued on Friday, October 18th. The format of this Synod was conducive to true delegate involvement and discussion. On commencement we were assigned seating in Discipleship Table Groups. The Diocese includes approximately 12,000 Anglicans registered on Parish roles and worshiping in 65 parishes. This declining population is represented in the Financial statements which when presented showed a projected deficit for 2024 of $145,000.00. The New Church and Development Fund is being utilized to fund two Diocesan Staff Members one of which is Ray Turnbull, Diocesan Discipleship Developer. The other is the Urban Indigenous Ministry Developer, Rev. Vince Solomon.

Sale of Property net for the period January 1, 2022 to date amounts to $2.8 million. In addition, church unions were commented on and of particular note was the use of the St Andrews/St Chads union as a success story!

Delegates began the formal part of the day in Discipleship Table Groups giving us an opportunity to meet members of other parishes and share meaningful discussion.  We were provided with a scripture reading for reflection and discussion. My takeaway of this exercise from my working group's discussion is that we are a Church in need of change to continue and thrive. with the Holy Spirit to guide us, we are a group chosen to come together with hopeful hearts that we can move in a direction that will help us to effect the changes necessary to continue our community outreach and ministry.

We ended the morning with round table discussions, with each table being provided with questions to explore around topics of; diocesan amalgamations, forced parish closures, why parishes do/don’t meet diocesan financial obligations, parish gifts we can share and possible ecumenical mergers or shared resources.

Five motions arising from the Bishop’s Charge were presented and carried. Rev. Liz was a prime initiator in three of these motions.

The first resolution has charged each Parish to discern and implement three actionable ways for the Parish to improve its stewardship of Creation during 2025 and report them to the Diocesan center for publication.  That diocesan committee look for examples indigenous and international of alternative models of institutional church.  That the canons or rules of the church be updated.  That more resources be provided to parish leadership for pastoral and spiritual health to prevent burn out. 

Ryan Turnbull our Diocesan Discipleship Developer since October 2023 discussed various learning avenues, such as the St. John's Hub partnership with CMU in respect of the provision of graduate classes, the avenue for a 2 year undergrad program, the ability to "audit" inexpensively any courses of interest in the undergraduate program' the return of the Wilmot Program in 2024 at St John's College, Friday afternoon book studies and the youth adult retreat this past summer at the La Rocha Boreal Ecology.

Antiblack Racism Committee was established in 2020 to address the need for Black Anglicans participation at various levels of governance in the Diocese of Rupertsland. They held their first ever conference in St Johns The biggest takeaway from this presentation was clear - the time has come for the white Anglicans to stop speaking for the black Anglicans; the focus needs to be on healing the tensions between these two groups; the black Anglicans have a voice and are perfectly capable of speaking for themselves and do not need the white Anglicans to speak for them; the ultimate goal is to move together as one body of Christ.

A very inspiring presentation from the priest of Pinawa Christian Fellowship.  This congregation is a blend of Anglican, Presbyterian, Mennonite, and United, The church was founded in Pinawa in 1963 at a time when the community was growing.  There were not enough people of any particular faith to have individual congregations, so it was decided that if they could work together, they could also worship together!  This multidenominational church has managed gather all differing views into one and has not lost sight of living within each denomination! They rent their space, have a congregation size of 25 - 30 parishioners whose age demographic is 55+.  They can afford a full time priest whose office is located in the mall and very accessible. 

Wechetowin Presentation -Wechetowin means people helping people in Cree and whose work involves Indidenous and Non Indigenous people supporting each other. Their initiatives include Community Food Pantry located outside Epiphany Indigenous Church, Care/Resource bags; friendly visits to people of the north visiting Winnipeg for medical procedures; Prayer ministry etc.

Throughout the Synod there were short worship breaks with worship led by several groups in the diocese such as; Black Anglicans Anti Racism Group, LGBTQ2+ community, chaplains, and deacons.

Rev. Rod did a presentation about West Broadway Commons a new building project attached to All Saints parish.

It was by far one of the most uplifting sessions.  All Saints, a once viable, vibrant and thriving congregation found itself in a position of no Sunday School; an old crumbling structure with no funds to repair; all savings and investments used up with barely enough coming in to maintain the monthly bills.  They realized that they had to take steps toward a new horizon and the congregation was willing to find a solution to carry on the work of God.  They wanted a project that would serve all people of West Broadway and be environmentally friendly.  They partnered with all the right parties to get the project off the ground, inclusive of the 3 levels of government and the small congregation raised $600,000.  They have torn down the parish hall and along with U of Winnipeg build a multi story, mixed rental apartment, including complex is 97% full and was completed under budget. This endeavour helped them to have the funds necessary to fix and maintain the church itself AND replenish their savings and investments. In addition their congregation has grown substantially and they have approx 13 kids in Sunday school!

St Johns College Presentation discussed the college residence and the benefits of being a member of the college.  Synod delegates are encouraged to promote the college to the parish and anyone they know with university aged students.

Rupert's Land News presentation reminded us that magazine is published 10 x per year, and is always looking for more contributors.

11 additional motions were presented, but we only had time to deal with 8 of them.

The first dealt with the sale of parishes and property and recommended that 50% of the revenue be used to fund Indigenous ministry as a step toward reconciliation.  This proved quite complex and was deferred.  A second motion was to begin amalgamation inquires between diocese of Brandon and the Indigenous Spiritual ministry of Mishamikowees, with a final report by Synod 2026.  This was defeated.   The next was a very long motion with 6 sub motions regarding a diocesan response to the Palestinian Israeli conflict.  This motion created a lot of discussion and eventually was deferred.

The elections of the various diocesan positions for the many committees proceeded with only one tie causing a hic up.  The elected members will be posted on the diocesan website, but Rev. Liz was elected to Diocesan Council.  The other major announcement was the Bishop Geoff Woodcroft has announced he will retire effective June 1^st, 2025.

With this final announcement the Synod voted to adjourn.  If you have questions please talk to your Synod delegates.  More updates will come throughout the year and a fulsome report will be available in a month or so for your information.