University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Libraries & Cultural Resources Libraries & Cultural Resources Research & Publications 2008 "A Union Not for Harmony but for Strength": The General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada Reilly, Teresa; Knowles, Norman ABC Publishing (Anglican Book Centre) Reilly, T. & Knowles, N. 2008. "A Union Not for Harmony but for Strength": The General Synod of Anglican Church of Canada. Pp. 201-244 in Knowles, N. (ed.) Seeds Scattered and Sown: Studies in the History of Canadian Anglicanism, ABC Publishing, Toronto, Ontario. http://hdl.handle.net/1880/47923 book part Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca Seeds Scattered and Sown Seeds Scattered and Sown Studies in the History of Canadian Anglicanism Edited by Norman Knowles ABC Publishing • ANGLICAN BOOK CENTRE Kj ABC Publishing, Anglican Book Centre General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada 80 Hayden Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4Y 3G2 abcpublishing@national. anglican, ca www.abcpublishing.com www.pathbooks.com Copyright © 2008 by ABC Publishing (Anglican Book Centre) All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. Text set in Berkeley Cover and text design by Jane Thornton Cover photo: Chad Baker I Digital Vision / Getty Images Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Printed in Canada Seeds scattered and sown : studies in the history of Canadian Anglicanism I edited by Norman Knowles. Includes index. ISBN 978-1-55126-499-8 1. Anglican Church of Canada--History. I. Knowles, Norman James, 1963- BX5610.S39 2008 283'.71 C2008-905084-3 Contents Contributors vii List of Illustrations vix Map of Dioceses in Canada xi A Foreword Archbishop Michael Peers xii Acknowledgements xv Introduction xvi Section I: Foundations: Colonial Anglicanism 1 Chapter 1 "Who Shall Go Over the Sea for Us?": First Anglican Ventures into Present-Day Canada (1578-1867) M. E. Reisner 5 Chapter 2 "According to the Measure of the Rule": Laying the Foundations of the Church in Eastern Canada (1816-1867) M. E. Reisner 49 Chapter 3 "Some Moral Effect on the Population at Large": Western and Northern Canadian Anglicanism (1820-1914) Myra Rutherdale 79 Section II: Building a National Church, 1867-1945 107 Chapter 4 Citizenship, Worship, and Mission: Three Sources of Anglican Identity during the National Era Paul Friesen 112 Chapter 5 "By the Mouth of Many Messengers": Mission and Social Service in Canadian Anglicanism (1867-1945) Norman Knowles 148 Chapter 6 "A Union Not for Harmony but for Strength": The General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada (1892-1992) Terry Reiily and Norman Knowles 201 Section III: Canadian Anglicanism since 1945 241 Chapter 7 Uncomfortable Pews: The Church and Change since 1945 William Crockett 245 Chapter 8 The Garden of Women's Separateness: Women in Canadian Anglicanism since 1945 Wendy Fletcher 280 Chapter 9 "1 Suggest that You Pursue Conversion": Aboriginal Peoples and the Anglican Church of Canada after the Second World War Christopher G. Trott 321 Appendix: Primates, Metropolitans, and Diocesan Bishops of the Church in Canada 346 Index 360 CHAPTER SIX 1892-1992 "A Union Not for Harmony but for Strength": The General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada, Terry Reilly and Norman Knowles he first General Synod of the Church of England in Canada was Tinaugurated in September 1893 at the old Trinity College in Toronto. The bishops, priests, and lay delegates arrived via the newly completed national railway system to conclude an agreement that would unite the existing Ecclesiastical Provinces of Canada and Rupert's Land and the diocesan synods of New Westminster and British Columbia.1 The delegates adopted a solemn declaration and a statement of fundamental principles. Today, much amended and combined, these form the basis for our governance of the Anglican Church of Canada. Robert Machray, the Scots-born mathematician, educator, and Archbishop of Rupert's Land, was elected primate. This chapter examines the first 100 years of General Synod, primarily through the lens of the primates' addresses. These speeches provide insight into the state of the church, at least from the perspective of its chief spokesperson. The addresses also offer a window into the changing priorities, personalities, and leadership styles of the church's national leader. Although there have always been significant limits on the power and authority of the primate, most holders of the office have been able to exercise considerable influence over the direction and development of the church in Canada. Since the 1830s, diocesan bishops had faced three significant challenges: the increasingly voluntary nature of financial support for religion in the colonies, the need for greater lay participation in the life of the church to ensure sufficient financial support, and the effects of steadily "A UNION NOT FOR HARMONY BUT FOR STRENGTH" 201 decreasing financial support from England.2 By the 1890s, dioceses were also concerned about providing ministry to new immigrants, particularly on the prairies. Machray addressed these needs in his opening sermon. "When a mission might be expected to be approaching the ability of self-support," Machray observed, "it has to be divided, and a double call comes on our Mission Funds."3 Other challenges included the staffing of Aboriginal missions and the new residential schools, and supporting overseas missionaries, first in Japan, and later in China and India. Synods had already shown themselves to be an effective means of addressing the challenges confronting the church. Inspired by the success of synodical government in the United States, the bishops of the Canadian dioceses met in Quebec City in 1851 and drafted a resolution to the Archbishop of Canterbury, proposing the creation of colonial synods. When the resolution received an indifferent response from the archbishops Lambeth Palace office, a delegation of Canadian bishops travelled to London in 1853, where they joined other bishops from overseas to impress upon the archbishop the needs of the church in the colonies. Persuaded by the colonial bishops, the archbishop introduced into the House of Lords a bill authorizing the creation of colonial synods. Approved by the Lords, the bill was defeated in the House of Commons.4 That same year, the Bishop of Toronto, John Strachan, undeterred by this setback and confronting the serious financial crisis created by the dissolution of the Clergy Reserves, called a visitation of clergy and laymen from every parish in the diocese. The assembled clergy and laymen then proceeded to pass unanimously a resolution declaring that the meeting constituted the synod of the diocese and was duly authorized to transact business. In 1854 it approved a declaration of principles and constitution.3 The Diocese of Nova Scotia followed Toronto's example in 1855. Evangelicals in the church fiercely opposed the formation of synods, believing that this was a power grab by tractarian bishops determined to assert their influence and spread high-church liturgy and theology.6 Despite this opposition, other dioceses gradually followed suit and established their own synods. With the formation of diocesan synods, the need to provide for cooperation and coordination among dioceses became apparent. This need was satisfied in 1860, when the Dioceses of Quebec, Toronto, Montreal, Huron, and Ontario joined together to create the Ecclesiastical Province of Canada and named the Bishop of Montreal, Francis Fulford, as the first metropolitan. The first provincial synod met the following year and approved a constitution. Under its terms, the synod was empowered to exercise ecclesiastical discipline over both clergy and laity through the 202 SEEDS SCATTERED AND SOWN enactment of canons, provide regulations for the appointment of bishops, priests, and deacons and the creation of new dioceses, and promote "the further consolidation and united action of the whole of dioceses of British North America." In 1874 the Dioceses of Nova Scotia and Fredericton joined the province. The Ecclesiastical Province of Canada had been created by a confederation of pre-existing dioceses. A different pattern was followed in the West. In 1849 Letters Patent created the vast Diocese of Ruperts Land, which covered all of the territories that drained into Hudson's Bay. A diocesan synod was created in 1869, but it was clear that the diocese was too large for a single bishop. In the past, new dioceses had been created by Letters Patent from the Crown. Self-governing provinces such as Rupert's Land, however, had the authority to create dioceses in their own right. In 1873 the Bishop of Rupert's Land, Robert Machray, called upon the diocesan synod to pass a canon creating a provincial synod with the authority to create new dioceses. As creatures of the provincial synod, it was hoped that the new dioceses would share in a larger vision and be united by a common sense of mission. It was not long, however, before tensions emerged between the authority of the metropolitan and the provincial synod and the authority of diocesan bishops and their diocesan synods.7 In 1911 the Ontario dioceses left the Ecclesiastical Province of Canada and formed their own provincial synod. Intense divisions between high- and low-church factions prevented British Columbia's three dioceses from uniting in a provincial synod until 1915. In 1865, buoyed by their own experience of provincial synods and concerned for the unity of the church, following the controversial excommunication of the liberal Bishop of Natal, J.W. Colenso, by the Metropolitan of South Africa, Robert Gray, Canadian bishops appealed to the Archbishop of Canterbury to summon an international meeting of all bishops." Some went even further and envisioned a synodical-like meeting with clergy and lay representatives, but there was little stomach in England or the United States for the creation of such a super-synod with overarching authority.