Note 52 (of 92) by MICHAEL INGHAM on June 6, 1995 at 09:47 Eastern (4420
characters).

Monday - a long and eventful day.

It began as usual with Worship and Bible Study in small groups. The plenary
session began at 10:00 am with further discussion about the proposed plan
for restructuring the national church. The Review Group - a small group of
delegates invited to listen to the feedback from the weekend discussions -
had produced a response to the concerns and questions being raised, and a
proposed further revision of the Plan. This was now put to the vote.

The first amendment came from supporters of the Anglican Journal, our
national newspaper. They successfully moved an amendment to the Plan which
guaranteed an "independent editiorial policy" for the paper (instead of
'independence in editorials' which had been proposed). Synod decided
against reducing the paper to a house organ, but it will now come under the
supervision of the national church more directly than hitherto, if the
"Structure" proposal goes through tomorrow, which means the Journal will
have to reflect national church policy and program work more than before.

Second, an amendment was successfully moved by native people and the
Council of the North to ensure continued support for stewardship education
and fund raising among the assisted dioceses. The Plan had proposed to
eliminate stewardship education from the national level, but it was
restored - at least for the supported dioceses - after speeches about
hardship in the rural and isolated areas and the impossibility of
self-sufficiency in many parts of Canada.

After that, the Plan was approved without further changes.

All through these proceedings, interrupting debate where necessary, the
Synod held elections for the positions of Prolocutor and Deputy Prolocutor
of General Synod. These are the senior officers of the Synod after the
Primate. The process sometimes set our teeth on edge, since it was hard to
switch between clause-by-clause debate of the detailed Plan to the names on
a changing ballott. But after much effort, the Synod elected as Prolocutor
Mrs. Rendina Hamilton QC from Kelowna BC, and the Rev. Ben Arreak from
Pangnirtung NWT as Deputy. I think people felt considerable pleasure at
both these elections - a lay woman and an Inuit priest.

This afternoon, debate continued on resolutions. You can read about them in
GENERAL SYNOD 95 NEWS, but the principal item was approval of the Interim
Eucharistic Sharing Agreement with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Canada, which commits us to work toward full communion with the Lutheran
Church by 2001, and now permits Lutheran pastors to celebrate Anglican
Eucharistic rites, and vice versa, with episcopal permission.

This evening we held the hearing on homosexuality, long expected and with
much anxiety. It was televised live to local sites in Montreal, Toronto,
and Vancouver through Vision TV. I confess I was surprised at the way it
turned out. Most of the speeches were in favour of a change in the church's
historic position, with only a few traditionalist voices expressed. The
comments were, almost without exception, civil and respectful, revealing
both Anglican diversity and Anglican restraint. I had expected a stronger
representation of the conservative position, but either those holding these
views were listening and withholding comment for the moment, or else there
is a new spirit of change abroad in the church.

Few bishops spoke, but one who did was the Primate - from the floor
and acting as a member of the General Synod and not its President. He
remarked at greater length than in his earlier Presidential Address about
the church's debates in the 1960s and the distinction between doctrine and
discipline, or faith and order. He called for unity in the real sense - a
koininia in Christ which is not the same as uniformity - and spoke of gay
and lesbian Christians as "colleagues, classmates, friends" i.e. not as
strangers.

Yours truly spoke in the hearing as well, partly because the House of
Bishops was largely silent and did not wish to give an account of itself,
and partly because I didn't want the Primate to be out there all alone as
the sole episcopal voice. Fortunately, one of my colleagues from
Newfoundland joined us as well.

A long day, and hell to pay, no doubt.

+ Michael Ingham, Bishop of New Westminster
  Vancouver, BC
  Written on Mon, Jun  5, 1995 at 10:29 pm PDT at General Synod, Ottawa,
  Internet: MICHAEL_INGHAM.parti@ecunet.org