Canada: Anglican Church to review governance structure after same-sex marriage change fails

Jul 18, 2019 by Jill

by Nicole Thompson, The Daily Courier:

One of Canada’s largest Christian denominations will spend the next three years considering whether to change its governance structure amid outrage that just two bishops’ votes stood in the way of having same-sex marriage recognized by the Church’s laws.

Some in the Anglican Church of Canada say the current system to alter doctrine and policy — which requires a two-thirds majority from three groups of delegates — unfairly gives the most voting power to a small group of bishops.

The denomination’s outgoing senior officers in charge of its tri-annual policy meeting said Tuesday that the Church will look at ways it can change its governance structure between now and the next General Synod in 2022.

“We acknowledge that it is not only ‘what’ we do at synod but, equally important, ‘how’ we do our work, and we confess and lament that some of the ways in which we deliberated in this session of synod caused alienation and hurt,” they wrote in a statement.

Cynthia Haines Turner and her deputy, Rev. Peter Wall, said the Council of General Synod would review the size, structure and composition of denomination decision-makers.

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