Canadian primate’s commission recommends cuts to ‘top-heavy’ church structures
[Anglican Journal] The Anglican Church of Canada should consider making major cuts to the size of its governance gatherings and committees, says the report of a commission tasked with reimagining its future.
The church is about a quarter the size it was in 1967, but its governance groups remain the same size, the commission’s chair, Archdeacon Monique Stone, told Council of General Synod March 7. The report makes the same point and asks, “How can the size of church governance structures in the Anglican Church of Canada be reduced by 75 per cent?” Stone told CoGS this figure was intended more as a conversation-starter than a fixed target — but maintained that the report envisaged serious transformation.
“This is not just tweaks, this is big change,” she said.
Archdeacon Alan Perry, general secretary of General Synod, contacted the Journal after the original version of this piece was posted to offer a different perspective on the size of the church’s structures. In some ways, Perry said, they have grown since 1967 — with, for example, the addition of two new Newfoundland dioceses in 1975 — but in general the trend since then has been toward smaller structures as the church has changed with the times. CoGS, for example, has fewer members than its predecessor, the National Executive Council; and some committees are also smaller.
“Yes, dioceses (30 rather than 28), provinces (still four), and a General Synod still exist, but they all look different and in general they are all smaller in their structures of governance than they were in 1967,” he said in an email. “The structures have been in constant flux since the beginning. They have evolved, are evolving and will evolve.”
The document Stone presented to CoGS recommended General Synod 2025 give the officers of General Synod — including the primate, general secretary, chancellor, prolocutor and deputy prolocutor — the mandate and resources to propose a major revision to the church’s organization which they would present and begin implementing at the following General Synod in 2028.
“Current institutional structures are larger than necessary at every level (General Synod, ecclesiastical provinces, and the number of dioceses),” the document, titled Creating Pathways, reads. “This top-heavy structure focuses human and financial resources on maintaining outsized institutions rather than proclaiming the gospel in local communities.”
The cuts called for in this section of the document, Stone told the Anglican Journal, are intended to apply to the number of members on committees and to the number of church members at governance gatherings like CoGS and General Synod. They are not, she said, necessarily intended to apply to the relatively small number of church staff.
The commission, convened by former primate Archbishop Linda Nicholls in 2023, recommends six processes for the church to begin work on to fulfill the mandate of adapting the church to the needs of a smaller membership and a 21st century social and political landscape. Its report is based on feedback — in the form of 297 responses to an online survey as well as interviews and Zoom meetings with staff at church house and Anglicans across the country — regarding a set of seven conversation-starting “hypotheses” for the future of the Anglican Church of Canada that the commission put forward in 2023. CoGS voted March 7 to commend the six pathways to June’s General Synod gathering for discussion and action.
The central question of these recommendations is what form the church’s governance structures would take if they were being designed for the first time to meet the needs of the church today, said Stone. In addition to changes at the General Synod level, that may involve restructuring at the diocesan and provincial levels, which General Synod does not have the authority to mandate directly, she notes. What it can do, however, is play a leadership role in the conversation, encouraging regional governance bodies in the church to cooperate on a unified vision for what the new shape of the church will be.
The six pathways along which the document recommends the church proceed are:
- Organizational structure, dealing with the governance gatherings and committees of the church;
- Management overview and restructuring, with suggestions for the transparency, accountability and organization of the office of General Synod and its staff;
- Inclusion and diversity in decision making, responding to calls for greater and more equal accessibility of participation in church governance;
- Communications, involving discussions on the future of the Anglican Journal as well as the national church’s overall strategy for disseminating information and connecting members across the country;
- Walking in partnership with the Indigenous church;
- Ministry in remote northern communities.
During the consultation process, the report states, it became apparent many Anglicans were unclear as to the jurisdiction, responsibilities, functions and accountability mechanisms of General Synod (which is the name both of the church’s once-every-three-years gathering and the national church as a legal entity, which has its own office at Church House in Toronto). As a result, it continues, “Deep frustrations exist amongst members of the wider church who are asked to share their own declining financial resources with the office of General Synod without a clear understanding of what takes place there or where accountability lies.” Meanwhile, staff have experienced frustration as mandates from CoGS, General Synod, department heads and individual Anglicans conflict, the document says.
To solve these problems, the second pathway proposes a managerial review of the office’s departments and mandates to align their work with the current needs of the church, clarify mandates and clarify the scope of responsibilities to staff, leadership and Anglicans across the country.
The third pathway describes the current format and procedures of General Synod meetings as failing to be inclusive to people from a variety of cultural backgrounds, incomes, ages and other social and cultural classes. “It was felt” the legislative debate format of meetings has left many people feeling left out and created barriers to participation, the report says, resulting in a system that “continues to attract and privilege older, affluent, white and able-bodied individuals.”
To address this, the pathway recommends the church review and adapt canons to encourage wider participation. It also calls on the church to appoint a national diversity, equity and inclusion team to consider how the church’s processes and structures could be more inclusive to a range of identities and encourage future meetings of General Synod to facilitate wider exchange of ideas and closer cooperation between diverse people.
The fourth pathway incorporates a varied set of perspectives surrounding the Anglican Journaland General Synod’s broader communicative function. These include the Journal’s role as a mechanism of accountability for the national church, its presence as the “only meaningful source of communication” from the wider church available in some areas of the country, and concerns about its journalistic independence or the perception that its work can be divisive. Communication is one of three central functions the commission identified as the core of its value to the church, the document reiterates. “Anglicans need to be able to hear from and speak back to church leaders at the national level,” it says, and also participate in conversations with the church across Canada and the world, share the gospel and see that communication creates an atmosphere of transparency and accountability.
To accomplish these goals, it recommends examining the current mandate, format and funding model of the communications department. This would include a discussion of the purpose of the Anglican Journal, taking into account the intent as laid out in the church’s canons for the paper to be a “journalistic enterprise … expected to adhere to the highest standards of journalistic responsibility, accuracy, fairness, accountability and transparency,” representing the widest possible diversity of information and opinion within the church. It also recommends the communications committee of General Synod create a plan for the church’s communications work. This plan should be cost-effective, support the five “transformational commitments” that General Synod adopted in 2023, facilitate communication of Anglicans back to General Synod, aid in cooperation and sharing stories across the church and use diverse modes such as print, electronic and social media, it says.
The fifth pathway says that while General Synod and the Indigenous church’s Sacred Circle have made significant progress in agreeing on the principles of walking together, there are still obstacles to overcome. Among these, the document names uncertainties about the exact relationship between the two organizations, the methods of making joint decisions with two different procedures, remaining distrust of the settler church among Indigenous Anglicans and colonial attitudes and lack of awareness of the Indigenous Church’s founding principles. “Non-Indigenous Anglicans are hesitant to engage in dialogue and discussion for fear of being considered offensive or racist,” it adds.
The pathway recommends the next primate of the Anglican Church of Canada — to be elected at General Synod in June—and the presiding elder of Sacred Circle produce a shared definition of the partnership between the two churches, explaining what it means for both to be independent and also connected as the Anglican Church of Canada. It also recommends forming a task force of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Anglicans to educate Anglicans on the nature of the Indigenous church and develop methods of decision-making, conversation and — if necessary — mediation to discuss past challenges between the two organizations and forge a “good path forward for future work.”
This will need to be done in concert with work on the sixth pathway, the report says. This final pathway calls the church to re-examine the funding and functions of the Council of the North, a grouping of Northern dioceses that contains many Indigenous communities and receives funding from General Synod. The council’s functions and those of the Indigenous church will need to be delineated, the commission writes, to determine where they do and do not overlap. To do that, the report says, an in-depth conversation between the Council of the North, General Synod and the Indigenous church will be needed. Likewise, it says, “General Synod must be clear and transparent about its inability to fully fund vital ministry in remote areas.” Still, it adds, General Synod may be able to make some difference by investing in training and support designed to help remote communities improve their ability to support themselves. It asks the Council of the North and the other institutions to consider how the national context has changed since the council was established in the 1970s.
There are many intersections between these pathways, said Stone. For example, more than one pathway calls for changes to church structures, procedures or the involvement of staff or committees. Any pathways that suggest education or conversation across church regions and bodies will need to cooperate with the work of the third pathway.
CoGS members discussed these recommendations with particular attention to what they thought General Synod would agree with and where they might expect pushback. Several members said they believed the church would likely see the urgency of the need for change to church structures. Others noted that some members would likely object to what Brenda Brochu, of the ecclesiastical province of the Northern Lights, described as a “chainsaw approach” to rapid cuts.
Archdeacon Tanya Phibbs, prolocutor of General Synod, suggested an approach to the pathways that would embrace the central metaphor—seeing them as directions the church is setting out on. As it makes its way in these directions, the church may get lost—or discover even better routes.
“The directions need to be set but sometimes the Holy Spirit takes us by surprise, and we may not end up where we think we are going, but that’s not always a bad thing,” Phibbs told CoGS.
The Rev. Lucia Lloyd, of the ecclesiastical province of Ontario, said transparency about motivations would be vital to the integrity of any discussion of the pathways at General Synod.
“Our table had a lot of conversation about how much of this is driven by mission and how much of it is driven by the reality that we’re about to hit a wall and run out of money, and whether the financial aspect needs to be made clearer to people,” she said.
