{"id":30760,"date":"2024-06-01T23:22:59","date_gmt":"2024-06-02T03:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/?p=30760"},"modified":"2024-06-02T07:23:46","modified_gmt":"2024-06-02T11:23:46","slug":"anglican-church-of-canada-seeks-to-halt-precipitous-decline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/anglican-church-of-canada-seeks-to-halt-precipitous-decline\/","title":{"rendered":"Anglican Church of Canada seeks to halt precipitous decline"},"content":{"rendered":"

ACoC revenue is expected to decline by around $200,000 per year, diocesan contributions to the national church are falling and the number of active parishioners is in free-fall.<\/p>\n

Most businesses in this situation would have fired their executives long ago but, alas, the number of bishops in the ACoC seems inversely proportional to the number of lay people.<\/p>\n

The situation is so desperate that radical solutions are being explored. So radical that, in order not to unsettle the staff, meetings will be held behind closed doors. What could be that unsettling?<\/p>\n

Reintroducing Christianity to the church would certainly qualify but that is as unlikely as firing all the bishops. More probably, there will be staff cut-backs, diocesan mergers, church buildings sold and a further combining\u00a0 with the ACoC\u2019s partner in self-inflicted extinction, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.<\/p>\n

Read all about it here<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"\"He recommends that conversations about the future of the church be convened around the theming of the five \u201ctransformational commitments\u201d in the church\u2019s latest strategic plan. Doing so, he says, \u201ccould be an instrument to aid in the renewal and rejuvenation of the General Synod and perhaps begin a process of devolving some powers and responsibilities to provinces and dioceses.\u201d<\/p>\n

The document ends with five \u201cintentionally provocative statements,\u201d which assert that \u201cgenerally, General Synod\u2019s adherence to strategic planning must be deemed a failure\u201d and that this planning has not always recognized General Synod\u2019s role as the \u201cweaker partner in a strong alliance of dioceses,\u201d which exercise more power in funding and implementing goals. It notes the church\u2019s \u201cprecipitous\u201d decline in attendance and General Synod\u2019s history of strategic plans that have attempted to reverse this without demonstrable results. The last of these statements concludes by asking \u201cIs it time to de-acquisition and downsize some structures to enable new possibilities to emerge? Is this the framing that should guide current planning?\u201d<\/p>\n

Archdeacon Tanya Phibbs, deputy prolocutor of General Synod, brought a motion that only council members and Archbishop Anne Germond, soon to be acting Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, remain for the session. It was necessary for CoGS to meet behind closed doors, she said, to ensure its members were able to freely share ideas, hopes, fears and dreams for the church\u2019s future which may be provocative. Phibbs also said some of the content of the discussion might be unsettling to the staff as it directly affected them. It might be difficult for members of CoGS to discuss some of the options before them knowing staff were in the room, she said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ACoC revenue is expected to decline by around $200,000 per year, diocesan contributions to the national church are falling and the number of active parishioners is in free-fall. Most businesses in this situation would have fired their executives long ago … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":13,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anglican-church-of-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30760\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}