Sean Frankling

The Jubilee Commission launched its archival research project at Sacred Circle in 2021, which met at Six Nations of the Grand River, Ont. Here, then-National Indigenous Archbishop Mark MacDonald gives opening remarks to elders and members of the Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples. Photo: Anglican Video

It might be time for the church to hold weekend-only meetings and provide onsite child care even if it costs more, suggests the chair of a primatial commission.

Two provincial synods have passed a resolution to call on General Synod to review the impacts of cuts to Council of the North funding. The resolution, passed this September by the ecclesiastical provinces of Ontario and British Columbia and Yukon, follow a 2023 decision which would see the council’s funding reduced by $100,000 yearly, beginning in 2024, until its annual apportionment is equal to 25 per cent of the donations the national church receives through diocesan proportional giving.

Canon David Garrett, rector of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Charlottetown has served a three-day prison sentence and paid a $1,500 fine plus a $450 victim surcharge following an Oct. 15 conviction for impaired driving, according to the Rev. Ann Turner, executive director of the diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. The conviction concerned an incident on Aug. 6 in which Garrett got into a collision that severely damaged the front of his vehicle at 1:37 pm and subsequently tested at 150 mg of alcohol in 100 ml of blood on two police breathalyzer tests, according to a PNI Atlantic News article. Drivers can be charged in Canada if found to have 80 mg of alcohol or more in 100 ml of blood.

Church of Redeemer Common Table outreach carts are taken out near the corner of Bloor Street West and Avenue Road on church property by volunteers Bill Ryan, Peter Burgess and David Burt to bring food to members of the community in Toronto on Thursday morning, April 20, 2023. Photo: Michael Hudson

“I [would be] basically telling you guys we would not be here in 2029” if asked to forecast national office finances for 2026-2029 given current trends, General Synod treasurer Amal Attia told CoGS. Photo: Matthew Puddister

The Indigenous Anglican church is beginning work on mental health ministries amid a national epidemic of suicides and overdoses in Indigenous communities, Archdeacon Rosalyn Elm, the church’s Indigenous ministries coordinator, told the Council of General Synod (CoGS) in November.

According to data available so far, attendance at Anglican Church of Canada Easter and Christmas services rose by 41 and 50 per cent respectively in 2023, even while average Sunday attendance fell by nine per cent over the same period—substantially faster than the decline of about 2.5 per cent per year before the pandemic, says the church's statistics officer, Canon Neil Elliot.

Deborah Barretto, director of Resources for Mission, the Anglican Church of Canada’s fundraising department (centre), sorts through donation envelopes with the department’s database administrators, Fe Bautista (left), and Grace Lança (right). Photo: Matthew Puddister

Mother’s Union has elected its first worldwide president from Canada: Kathleen Snow, a board member at the international Anglican charity and parish nurse at Christ Church Cathedral in Fredericton, N.B. She is the second president of the charity to come from outside the U.K., following her predecessor, Sheran Harper from Guyana, who has been president for the past six years, Snow told the Anglican Journal.