Clergy Notes — Sunday, September 1, 2019

Have you read the interview with our new Primate Linda Nicholls in the Anglican Journal? In it Primate Nicholls speaks about change, challenges, strengths and finances. All things that we face at the parish level as well as in our own lives daily.

Here is an excerpt from the online version which I encourage you to read in full. Please pray for our new Primate, that she may be guided and supported by the Holy Spirit, and that we may support her in unity and truth.

“The Anglican Church of Canada’s new primate says her top priority will be a review of the church’s mission and ministry—a re-examination of its role that could result in “painful” change for some as the church adjusts to challenging times.

Linda Nicholls, bishop of the diocese of Huron, was elected the church’s 14th primate in Vancouver on July 13, partway through General Synod. She is the first woman in the history of the Anglican Church of Canada to hold the position.

In her first interview with the Anglican Journal as primate, two days after the installation, Nicholls said her first priority would be to get started on a strategic review of the national church’s ministry and mission. The review, mandated by General Synod after a vote July 14, is to be undertaken by the Council of General Synod (CoGS), which the primate chairs, and is to culminate in the presentation of a strategic plan to General Synod when it next meets in 2022.

The process, Nicholls said, is likely to bring improvements as well as change that some will find difficult.

‘I think people in general find it easiest to stay with what we’ve always done, because change is always painful—it doesn’t matter what change,” she said. “It means losses and it means gains. And sometimes we can’t see the gains because we’re too busy grieving the losses. And so, until we can see that the gains will be life-giving for us in new ways, we’re reluctant.’”

See you soon, Mother Lucy

Full article: https://www.anglicanjournal.com/new-primate-foresees-time-of-change-for-national-church/