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If yes, has the General Synod Expenditures Committee considered the implications?
Yes No
EXPLANATORY NOTE/BACKGROUND
The Lund Principle calls on churches to “act together in all matters except those in which deep differences of conviction compel them to act separately.” It was first put forth a meeting of the World Council of Churches Faith and Order Commission in 1952 and has been affirmed and re-affirmed since then in numerous church gatherings. In 1989, the General Synod (Act 48) called on “all levels of the church to take seriously the Lund Principle.”
In 2004, the General Synod adopted a declaration called “Towards a Renewed Ecumenical Strategy.” This declaration commits the church “To encourage and equip all in the church to walk the way of ecumenism, so that all will come to know the hope for the restoration of the full visible unity of Christ’s church.” It is also calls the church to “recognize and respond faithfully to those moments when God in Christ reveals to us our mystical unity as one body and calls us to act in solidarity with others in resistance to the forces of death and darkness, in affirmation of life and light.”
In spite of these past affirmations, it is clear that the Anglican Church of Canada continues to act separately from other Christians even when there are not “deep differences of conviction.” For instance, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Anglican Church of Canada have had, in recent years, separate commissions on anti-racism, doing largely similar work on parallel tracks. This duplication and separated work harms our witness to the gospel of reconciliation.
The future of the Jesus way of life in Canada will be an ecumenical one. This resolution reminds the church of what we have already committed to and encourages the whole church to hold these important ideas at the forefront in their coming years of work.
PROCEDURE FOR ADOPTION
(G)
In the normal course, an ordinary motion must be passed by a majority of the members of General Synod present and voting together.
Six members of General Synod may, prior to the question being put, require a vote by Orders, with a majority of each Order being necessary to pass.
If a question passes on a Vote by Orders, any six members (two from each of three different dioceses) may immediately before the next item of business require a vote to be taken by dioceses. A motion passes if a majority (or a tie) of dioceses vote in favour.
Source: Sections 4 and 5 of the Declaration of Principles and sections 18, 19 and 20 of the Rules of Order and Procedure.
A website of the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.
40 “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41 Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous, 42 and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” 19 (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”
33 “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a bushel basket; rather, one puts it on the lampstand so that those who enter may see the light. 34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but if it is unhealthy, your body is full of darkness. 35 Therefore consider whether the light in you is not darkness. 36 But if your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with its rays.”
8 When Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed him, 2 and there was a man with a skin disease who came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” 3 He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be made clean!” Immediately his skin disease was cleansed. 4 Then Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”