The Chair of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) has told members of the Canadian Council of General Synod (CoGs) that the Anglican Church of Canada “remains an important part of the Anglican Communion”.

|PIC1|Bishop John Paterson, of Auckland, New Zealand gave the comments to the CoGs, which will give the Church of Canada renewed hope in its future with the worldwide Anglican body.

Paterson said, “The Communion needs Canada and I believe Canada needs the Communion.”

He also stated that he hoped that the “listening process” that had been laid down, would allow churches throughout the entire Communion to think about and appreciate each others’ differences.

The address came during a two-day visit by Bishop Paterson as the council gathered in Mississauga, Ont. From Nov. 17-20.

The bishop particularly put emphasis on saying that while so much attention was being placed on the widening divisions within the Communion, not enough attention was being given to the work being done at regional levels.

|TOP|Paterson said, “We need to revisit links like partners in mission and companion dioceses that allowed us to talk to each other,” according to the Anglican Church of Canada.

Representatives of the Anglican Church in Canada attended the last meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) in response to the requests of the Anglican Primates calling for the Church to make presentations on the actions that the Church had taken towards the blessings of same-sex relationships.

Four presenters, the Primate, Archbishop Andrew Hutchison and three other elected representatives of the Canadian Church attended the ACC, however the members of the council were asked not to participate in the core proceedings.

|AD|The CoGs heard reports from several people that attended the meeting in Nottingham, with Canon Falby noting with concern that there was “a complete misrepresentation of what the position of the Anglican Church of Canada is on the issue of same-sex blessings. Our message was that we are still a church in discussion and that message was deliberately ignored,” he noted.

The issue of same-sex blessings has brought the Anglican Communion to the brink of schism. In the UK, delegates at the Reform National Conference earlier in the month described the Pastoral Statement issued by the House of Bishops regarding the Church position on the Civil Partnerships Act as an “outrage”.

Members of the Anglican Communion gathered for the Third Global South to South Encounter last month in Egypt also condemned the liberalisation of the Communion’s stance on homosexuality.

Following the gathering, the Global South delegates issued a statement in which they said the “unscriptural innovations of North American and some western provinces on issues of human sexuality undermine the basic message of redemption and the power of the Cross to transform lives”.