The day began with Elder Larry Langlois offering a smudge and prayers outside the church.

Then everyone moved into the parish hall where Belle Bailey and Charmaine Leonard, who came to the event from Mādahòkì Farm, demonstrated two beautiful traditional dances. Bailey performed a Fancy Shawl Dance, and Leonard performed a Jingle Dress Dance. Afterward, they spoke and offered some insights from their Indigenous cultures and advice on how non-Indigenous people can learn more and work to contribute to reconciliation.

Everyone attending was invited to participate in a collaborative art project, adding their own designs to rocks that had been painted red, white, yellow and black. Then all the rocks were carried out into the parish garden to be arranged into the four quadrants of a medicine wheel, an important symbol in many First Nations cultures, which represents the interconnectedness of all life, the cycles of nature and a path to personal balance.

The parish offered bannock with strawberry jam and strawberry water as refreshments for all.

Perspective

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Following reports that communities were being evacuated and residents were arriving in Thunder Bay, Archbishop Anne Germond reached out to clergy across the Thunder Bay–North Shore Deanery to learn what assistance was already underway and how the Diocese could best support local efforts. Alongside Hope, the Anglican Church of Canada’s national relief and development agency, also confirmed that emergency funds were available to assist ministry responding to the crisis.

Those conversations quickly developed into a coordinated deanery-wide response. Working alongside local organizations and Indigenous partners already serving evacuees, Anglican parishes are focusing their efforts on meeting practical needs while ensuring that support complements the work already taking place on the ground.

The Matawa Training and Wellness Centre, one of several organizations welcoming evacuees to Thunder Bay, has become a central focus for the deanery’s response.

In a pastoral message shared with the deanery, the Rev. Elizabeth Sipos, Regional Dean of Thunder Bay–North Shore, invited Anglicans to respond in the spirit of the early Church. “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.” She stressed that many people have lost everything, fleeing only with their lives and, in some cases, their pets. She encouraged churches to be “a witness of Christ’s love, compassion and hope during this dark season.”

The Diocese of Algoma

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The team reviewed and provided feedback on draft liturgies, including a Cree Anglican Baptismal Liturgy with a decolonizing Thanksgiving over the Water, and a Rite of Acknowledgment of Baptism for a Stillborn Child. Once they are finalized, these liturgies will be brought forward for approval. The Rite of Acknowledgment will go to the Faith, Worship and Ministry Coordinating Committee for recommendation to the November meeting of the Council of General Synod. The Cree liturgy will be presented to ACIP at their meeting in October.

The Messenger

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The St. Barnabas young adults’ group, newly minted “Sanctum,” is led by young adults for young adults seeking a rich tradition of faith. The Anglo-Catholic tradition offers young people a tie to a deeply sacramental expression of Anglicanism. It offers something real and tangible in a world consumed by image and performance. As young people seek identity amidst the fractures, the sacramental life offers a connection and belonging that nothing else can. The group believes that fostering scriptural and theological integrity connects people.

Every week, they gather a little differently. The mainstay is the theology study group, in which they discuss scripture, theology and faith practice. The key point for outreach is the biweekly social group. Oftentimes, the group meets in local pubs or around kitchen tables. Other weeks, they’re having campfires, dinner parties and hiking excursions. Regardless of what they do, there’s a focus on ministry and creating a place where people feel they belong.

FaithTides

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“It wasn’t something that I had given any thought at all to,” she says.

But when she discovered she’d been nominated for one of five open spots on the committee, which meets between sessions of the full council to continue its work, a seed of excitement was planted.

“I thought it would be quite an opportunity. There are many things that I felt I could take to the table, and some ways that I thought I could be of help,” she says. “I had no attachment to the outcome. If it didn’t happen, it was absolutely okay.”

Later that week, when her name was the first read out, it took her a moment to realize she’d really been elected.

“It’s absolutely an honour and a privilege, because when you see the folks in the room and know that they’re representatives from 165 countries across the world, it’s quite the feeling,” she says.

Canon Gittens is one of the Anglican Church of Canada’s three delegates to the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), along with Bishop Riscylla Shaw and the Rev. Marnie Peterson, a priest in the Diocese of New Westminster. The ACC, which meets every three years, is one of the Anglican Communion’s four “instruments of Communion.” It includes clergy, bishops and laity from across the Communion who consult on matters related to mission, advocacy and Christian unity.

It’s also the only instrument of Communion that includes lay people. The other three instruments are the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference (a once-a-decade gathering of all Anglican bishops) and the Primates’ Meeting (a regular gathering of presiding bishops from each national or regional church).

Canon Gittens’ qualifications to serve on the standing committee are too many to name. Her involvement in parish, diocesan, national and international church ministry spans decades, alongside her work in healthcare administration. A member of St. Paul the Apostle, Rexdale, she has served with the diocesan Anglican Church Women, the Postulancy Committee, the Cast the Net steering committee, Diocesan Council and as a clergy coach. She is a founding member of Black Anglicans of Canada, chair of the national church’s Partners in Mission Coordinating Committee and a member of the Communion-wide advisory group for the United Society Partners in the Gospel.

“There’s a whole lot that I can pull from the skill sets, things that I have learned, things that I have lived,” she says. “I’m happy to use whatever skills, whatever tools I can use to help in the discussions.”

The ACC met this year from June 27 to July 5, dubbed ACC-19 – the 19^th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council. Much of the conversation was focused on the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals, a theological document that considers what it means to be the Anglican Communion today. The proposals lay out a framework for how Anglican churches can deepen their unity, with some specific suggestions for changes to the definition of the Communion and its structures.

After considerable discussion, ACC-19’s members affirmed the need for “relationships and trust to grow” amid these conversations and called for further dialogue across the Communion over the next three years.

“The overwhelming thought was that it needed more time for reflection and discussion. We will continue the discussion and the dialogue and report back to ACC-20,” says Canon Gittens.

She says that while divisions within the Anglican Communion were top of mind, delegates expressed their desire and hope that unity would continue despite different views on doctrine.

“People were truly listening and trying to understand where the differences of opinion came from. They listened and they responded very respectfully,” she says.

The analogy of family arose often around the table, she continued. “There are many different family members. There’s some that we disagree with and there’s some that do not attend family gatherings, but at the end of the day, we’re still part of the family.”

As her work on the ACC’s standing committee begins, Canon Gittens says she would like to be able to raise the profile of the work of the Anglican Communion and its commissions within the Diocese of Toronto.

“As much as we can share a lot, we can also learn from the others,” she says. “There is unbelievable work being done by the networks and commissions that many folks are not aware of. Those are ways for parishes and groups in our diocese to reach out, to connect and work together, because so much work is already happening.”

As Anglicans around the world continue to consider what it means to be bound together in a global communion amid division, Canon Gittens says she hopes those conversations continue closer to home, as well.

“The Communion might never be the unified group that it may have been at some time. But acknowledging that and working together, learning from each other, listening to each other, respecting each other, moving forward together – this is a time like no other time.”

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