“I am discerning the exact date of my retirement”, she says.
Anglican clergy have difficulty deciding things, they have to discern them instead.
In this case, Nicholl’s precise retirement date is drifting somewhere in the ecclesiastical ether, wafting along, shrouded in clouds of incense waiting to be discerned.
It’s a bit like the second coming: “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.”
From here:
Archbishop Linda Nicholls, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, has yet to decide on an exact retirement date, Council of General Synod (CoGS) heard Nov. 24.
“Given the decision at General Synod regarding the primacy, I’m sure there’s curiosity about the next steps,” Nicholls said in her opening remarks at the first meeting of the 2023-2025 CoGS. “I am discerning the exact date of my retirement. However, I can say that it will be before Oct. 1, 2024.”
At last summer’s General Synod, the church’s legislative body voted down a resolution that would have allowed any sitting primate to finish out their term if their 70th birthday fell less than one year before the next General Synod. As a result, Nicholls will be required to retire by her next birthday in October 2024, more than half a year before General Synod 2025.
When she discerns her retirement date, she told CoGS, she will write to the senior metropolitan, currently Archbishop Anne Germond of the ecclesiastical province of Ontario, who will consult with the other metropolitans, the prolocutor, deputy prolocutor and others to determine which metropolitan will serve as acting primate from then until the next General Synod.
She should be able to finish her term.
As long as she is mentally and physically stable to do so.
I am embarrassed to be part of an organizarion that would allow this to happen. It was either intentional, or unintentional – either is a travesty; allowing her to continue after GS23 knowing that she could not fulfill her term according to the Constitution. There should heve been an election for a new primate at GS23. Somebody was ‘sleeping at the switch’, or somebody is reluctant to give up power. Either way, this is an insult to ACoC members. Inspite of the fact that there was a motion to extend the term, there should have been provision made in case the motion failed; and I’m thankful it did. Now we are faced with having an unelected – by GS – person serve in this role for several critical months. This is no way to run an effective and efficient organization, especially a so-called Christian one.
That would require that rules actually be followed. Something the ACoC is not known for.
To be succeeded, I fear, by another such person, Male, Female or Neuter, who supposes that it is fine to draw a church salary, and eventual pension while believing, teaching and practising whatever one pleases.