From Synod to Mission

But some believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and said, "It is necessary for them to be circumcised and ordered to keep the law of Moses." The apostles and the elders met together to consider this matter. After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "My brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that I should be the one through whom the Gentiles would hear the message of the good news and become believers. Acts 15:5-7


Just over a week ago, representatives of every parish in our diocese came together in Halifax to meet in synod. The theme of this year’s synod was “Called Into Community.” Over three days, we alternated between the business of synod (the motions that synod had to debate) and presentations around our theme.

The business of synod could be, mostly, divided into two or three categories. First, we passed several motions that change the structure of the administration of the diocese. The largest portion of these changes was to deal with a change of focus in the diocese. The new structure will allow the administration to respond to needs within the parishes of the diocese as they come up between synods, rather than waiting until the next synod.

The second category is justice. There was a motion on anti-racism. There were several anti-poverty motions. There were also several motions which could fit here or be moved into their own category that dealt with issues around human sexuality. All of these motions, any amendments, and the vote results can be found at:
http://www.nspeidiocese.ca/synod/143rdDiocesanSynod.htm. If anyone wants to read these and cannot see them online, let me know and I will print them for you. Many of the presentations to synod can be found here too.

The presentations around our theme were, in my opinion, much more important than the debates around the motions. Being “called into community” is fundamental to our identity as church, as Anglicans, even as Christians. Being called into community is all about mission. The reason that we meet every Sunday is not just to worship. We meet to learn about our mission within our community. We meet so that we can take action. In our councils and in our services we will be talking about mission for a long time. We will be focusing on it until we figure out what our mission work needs to be in our community and around the world.

We will continue with discussion on the nature of mission.