Bishop Sandra’s abbreviated Charge to the 151st Synod of The Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island
May 26th-28th, 2023
This is the first full in-person Diocesan Synod we’ve held since May 2019, and the first diocesan-wide gathering since before the Covid pandemic.
Earlier this month, I was attending my final week of the Living our Vows program with the College for Bishops, in Richmond, Virginia. We shared with some of the faculty what it’s been like to have spent most of our episcopacy in these Covid years. They asked us:
- What are some of the challenges you’ve experienced?
- How have parish visits and episcopal itineraries been impacted by lockdowns and gathering limits? By not being able to gather socially?
- How have you gotten to know the people of your diocese?
- How have you been dealing with the huge transformational change
- that’s taking place in the life of the church while also learning how to be a bishop?
These were heavy questions and I suspect we could all feel their weight.
As I was sharing some of my experiences about what this time has been like, the image of a jigsaw puzzle came to mind. For those who don’t know, I like to do puzzles and often get them as gifts.
Over the past few years it feels like we’ve been trying to put together a puzzle that has no box and no picture, and not even any coloured pieces to guide us! What came to mind was a puzzle that had been flipped over so that only the solid-coloured, cardboard side of the puzzle could be seen.
The signposts have shifted – or are gone altogether
As we emerge from a worldwide pandemic, we’ve been working hard to put the pieces of our lives – and the lives of our churches and parishes – back together.
The picture has changed dramatically from what it looked like when we gathered for our last Synod in 2019:
In addition to all that Covid brought, we also experienced the shock and horror the largest mass shooting in Canadian history, the killing of George Floyd by police in Minnesota, learned that human remains – including the remains of thousands of children! – had been found at former residential schools across Canada, something that residential school survivors told us to anticipate during the hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. We are continually reminded of the ongoing, unprovoked war in Ukraine and the atrocities being committed there. And we are still recovering from the devastating impacts of Hurricane Fiona on Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton Island, northern Nova Scotia, and other communities throughout our Diocese.
Through all of this we’ve found ourselves asking some hard questions.
Turning over the pieces
One of the painful realities in the early days of lockdown in 2020 was that all of those supports that we normally rely on to get us through the most difficult moments of our lives were unavailable to us: we couldn’t “go” to church; we couldn’t go to the gym or the library; we couldn’t even go out for a walk on a trail or in a park. Everything was closed; shut down.
Equipping people for the hard work of being the Church in this time
It was clear that we needed to equip and support our clergy to help get through this.
We’ve responded by restoring the Employee Assistance Program, continuing to offer grants and financial assistance for new and emerging ministries, providing access to training in adaptive leadership, restoring a Mentorship program for the newly ordained, and providing opportunities for rest, refreshment and prayer through online or in-person Quiet Days focused on wellness, mental health and resilience, and resting in the presence of God. We’ve also restored psychological testing for those discerning a call to ordained ministry, which helps us to know if there are any concerns, or if supports may be needed as people continue their journey.
We have a dedicated person available to receive questions and complaints regarding misconduct.
Thank you to the Reverend John Newton for agreeing to serve in that role as Diocesan Point Person for the Sexual Misconduct Policy during this time. We will soon have a dedicated confidential phone line and email address to facilitate this ministry. There will also be educational opportunities for clergy and parishioners to learn more about the policy in the months to come.
Missional engagement and leadership development
In large part through the work of the Missional Learning Cohort, the Connectors, and in other exposures to ministry, people are sensing a call to something more. For some, it’s to a form of intentional lay ministry. For others, it’s a call to serve as a Vocational Deacon. For others, it’s a call to serve as a non-stipendiary Associate Priest or to be employed as a Priest, but sometimes not in a parish ministry setting. I find myself wondering what God is up to and I’m curious to see what will emerge as the church continues to be transformed.
Being the Church in new ways for this new season
Thank you to each of you who has offered or engaged in something new. You are reminding us why what we do matters; it transforms lives. People are interested in growing in faith and service and love and I hope we can find ways to bridge the generational gaps and other barriers that prevent us – the Church – from connecting more fully and deeply in people’s lives.
Statistics Canada findings call us outward
Statistics Canada figures from 2021 give us a snapshot of the declining place of religion in the lives of Canadians. It’s another piece of the puzzle we’re grappling with today. According to that research:
- The total number of Anglicans in Canada has dropped by 500,000 between 2011 and 2021 (in just 10 years!)
- Family size dropped from 4.2 in 1931 to 2.9 in 2021
- NS has the 4th highest rate of one-parent families in Canada (PEI 11th highest)
- NS and PEI have the 3rd and 4th lowest number of families with children aged 0-5 in Canada
What do these statistics tell us about the needs that may be present in our communities? And how might the Church respond?
What is the composition of families or households in our neighbourhoods and communities? And how can we support them?
It’s become clearer over many years that the Church is being called outward, beyond our buildings and into our communities and neighbourhoods.
Towards financial sustainability and renewed vision
One part of the puzzle that’s been frustratingly elusive for some has been moving towards greater financial sustainability as a Diocese. We’ve seen a decrease in allotment revenues from more and more parishes over the past few years and it’s important for us to create new benchmarks. We need to be able to do some deep digging and listening to develop some realistic expectations around anticipated income and to consider possibilities for new forms of diocesan revenue. At the same time, we need to pay attention to what’s happening in our parishes to consider how we can best support you in your ministries and the mission of God that you are endeavouring to live into where you are.
And if I have a charge for you, it is this:
- Be prayerfully present in this time and place, whether you’re in this building or attending online.
- Be curious about what God is doing.
- Be open to what the Spirit is doing in the people around you, in what they’ll share and what you may learn from them.
- Be willing to risk – even a little – in sharing what the Spirit is doing in your life and in your parish, so that parts of this puzzle can begin to take shape.
- And be willing to lean into God, to trust that God sees what we cannot.
May we be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit as we gather on this Pentecost weekend. May we be renewed in faith and hope and love, so that when we leave this place on Sunday afternoon, people will notice because:
We Shall All Be Changed.
Thanks be to God!
