[Anglican Church of Canada] Archdeacon Alan Perry is no longer the general secretary of General Synod, per a press release posted on anglican.ca Sept. 3. The release does not specify a reason for the ending of his employment in the role.
It states that he is a priest of the Anglican Church of Canada in good standing, and it wishes him well in his future undertakings. General Synod will soon begin the process of recruiting a new general secretary, it adds.
Henrieta Paukov, director of communications and information resources for General Synod, declined to provide further details about the reasons for and nature of the end of Perry’s employment.
On June 5, then-acting primate Archbishop Anne Germond announced Perry would be taking a leave of absence effective June 3, less than a month before this summer’s meeting of General Synod. On June 24, Clare Burns disclosed to General Synod that the church had contracted accounting firm Doane Grant Thornton to investigate what process had led to Perry and General Synod treasurer and CFO Amal Attia signing a lease to rent new office space for General Synod’s national office from the United Church of Canada without reporting back to or requesting approval from the Council of General Synod.
The lease, on a newly redeveloped office property in Toronto, is estimated to cost $8.18 million over five years, according to General Synod financial statements. Burns also said that whether the lease Perry signed was legally enforceable or not remained an open question.
In May 2024, Perry told the Anglican Journal that the Anglican, Presbyterian and United churches had signed leases for the property, which was then still under construction. At that time he also said there were not yet concrete numbers for what it would cost.
“We’ll be communicating with staff regularly now that this is becoming more public and will share information as it becomes available,” he said.
When Burns announced the Doane Grant Thornton investigation to General Synod, she said she hoped it would be completed by the end of July and be sent to Archbishop Shane Parker, the primate of the Anglican Church of Canada. Parker told the Journal in July the investigation was still ongoing and that he was unable to say whether the results would be made public when it was. “There is, of course, a duty to report back to [General Synod] in a responsible and timely manner, which will happen at some point,” he wrote in a follow-up email.
After the news release about Perry’s end of employment was posted Sept. 3, the Anglican Journal reached out to Paukov to ask whether Perry had resigned or been fired; whether the termination was connected to the lease agreement; whether the investigation was complete; and whether there was any update on the lease agreement. She replied saying, “We are unable to comment at this time beyond what has been posted on anglican.ca.” Other church leaders have not commented on whether Perry’s leave of absence or end of employment are connected to the lease agreement.
Perry had served in the position since September 2020, after working as executive archdeacon of the diocese of Edmonton.