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News and Ideas from around the Anglican World |
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March 2006
Anglicans changing the North
Despite severe cuts to their grants from the National Church, dioceses in Canada’s North are holding on to the Faith, and pressing on in hope.
Sharon Dewey Hetke
In northern Saskatchewan, Archdeacon Percy Ross of Sturgeon Lake is a veteran of the gospel jamboree circuit. Described by Ross as “praying, talking about the Bible and singing,” jamborees are an entertainment staple in northern Saskatchewan First Nations communities and are just one of many ministries made possible by diocesan support and funding. With recent cuts, however, it is feared that many northern communities will lose their jamborees.
Canadian Anglicans are uniquely poised to make a difference in northern Canada. Through the work of the Council of the North, ministries that are absolutely vital to the health of northern communities are supported. However, these ministries are becoming more and more difficult to sustain.
According to Caleb Lawrence, Archbishop of Moosonee and Metropolitan of Ontario, our church’s best hope for effective ministry among First Nations people is “if it’s seen as honouring the spirituality and the genuineness of the faith of the people.” “If there are hints that this is second-class ministry for second-class people, it will be disastrous.” He warns, “Listen to them.”
As we listen, of course various stories emerge. While many communities see themselves as very much in need of continued support from the wider church, others are moving more and more towards, or have already been operating under, a model of self-sufficiency and independence. And indeed, one of the key tasks for the Council of the North must be to facilitate ministry as it is most effective in each community, having received input and direction from First Nations communities themselves.
In the 2005 General Synod budget cuts, the Council of the North’s funding was initially cut by 6 percent. However, by replacing the residential winter meeting with teleconferencing, this deduction was reduced to a 5 percent net cut. The Council of the North provides funding to ten northern dioceses and the Anglican parishes of the Central Interior. According to Anthony Burton, Bishop of Saskatchewan and Chair of the Council of the North, in cases where dioceses were already struggling, this latest reduction in funding has affected most programming: educational and youth events, gospel jamborees, clergy meetings, and Bible studies have been cut. In most Council dioceses, only a skeleton staff remains while many parishes are run by non-stipendiary clergy trying to deal with the serious social problems of their communities. “They need a lot of external support and encouragement and, one by one, the pillars of support for these ministries are being removed ... there’s a feeling that the wider church is withdrawing from mission in the North,” Bishop Burton said. In the last 10 or 12 years, the Council of the North has actually been cut 40 percent in real terms.
David Ashdown, Bishop of Keewatin, talks about the stress caused by living on the edge financially: “Most of us have run deficits long enough that we’ve eliminated our reserves. We have no room for deficits. [We] live paycheque to paycheque, with no fallback. Parishes know that if they don’t get their money in by the end of the month, their priest might not get paid.” Bishop Burton also points out that the incomes of northern clergy have been steadily declining and more clergy positions have moved to non-stipendiary and part-time. The result? “Fewer people doing more work with less support and less training. Effective northern mission is close to collapse; the basic administrative structures won’t be there.” The effect of all of this on clergy is, as far as Bishop Ashdown is concerned, “a justice issue.”
This reduction in support is especially regrettable given that northern communities are experiencing population explosions and, at a time when southern congregations are shrinking, youthful congregations are the norm in the North. Last June, Archbishop Lawrence confirmed 89 young people in Chisasibi, a Cree village on the shores of the Grande Riviere in northern Quebec.
Peter Blachford, the Anglican Church of Canada’s Director of Financial Management and Development and a member of the Council of General Synod, says that the recent cuts were necessary due to reduced revenue from proportional giving and the Anglican Book Centre and that the Council of General Synod made these cuts after a “very good process”--one that saw “judicious cuts” to many departments. While acknowledging that there is great disparity among dioceses in ability to self-sustain, Blachford does point out that the Council of the North was originally intended as a means of providing “breathing space” while a diocese could move gradually towards self-sufficiency. Indeed, in the Diocese of Quebec, Council support was needed only as a stopgap measure and, in fact, accounts for only a very small portion of its budget.
In dioceses, however, where the need for outside assistance is more acute, these cuts may have come at a time and in such a way as will make progress in this area all but impossible. If there is no money to hold meetings for planning and fellowship, if there is no longer money for diocesan youth events, if First Nations youth no longer have a resident priest to nurture their faith, how will such dioceses ever move towards the kind of stewardship that would be needed to self-sustain?
Nor should the special challenges facing northerners be forgotten. According to Larry Beardy, Archdeacon of Keewatin, transportation is a “very big factor” in a diocese with a land mass of over 480 000 sq. kilometres, and accounts for the largest budget item. His diocese has had to reduce diocesan council meetings first from three to two and then to one per year and rely more on teleconferencing. It is also becoming much more difficult to overcome transportation costs for holding youth events. The resulting loss of fellowship opportunities is a serious one in an area where communities are isolated and accessible only by airplane. In the fall of 2005, the Council met in Tataskweyak, Man. The expenses of this meeting were shared by the community which saw the Council’s work as vital to them. Archdeacon Beardy cites a Council resolution calling for governments and interest groups to reject the commodification of water as an example of the Council’s potential for positive effects on a community like Tataskweyak.
More affluent, southern dioceses are, no doubt, well-stocked with Anglicans who would like nothing more than to know they are making a real difference in a region both beset by many social problems and blessed with willing workers. This is no time to diminish support for an Anglican presence in the North. For their part, northerners have responded to emerging challenges with what Bishop Burton describes as their “characteristic resilience.” However, given the struggles and challenges they face, their “resilience” does not justify complacency on the part of the wider church.
Archdeacon Percy Ross sees gospel jamborees as a way to draw people closer to Christ: “That’s why we’re having them. It’s good for you if you believe in Christ.” Among our Church’s many priorities, we must find a way to strengthen ministries that get right to the core of the Gospel.
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In
Grace Delaney’s community of Moose Factory, Ont., annual “healing
gatherings” are just one way that aboriginal people are
strengthening a positive tie to their church and finding healing for
the wounds in their lives. However, due to reduced funding, Delaney
says, “We’re looking at combining...great chapter and healing
meetings, because [of] cost....One area we’ve had to cut down on [is
the] number of people that we can accommodate.” Many who attend the
healing gatherings were hurt by residential school experiences yet,
paradoxically, it is the church in their communities that can be the
centre of healing. According to Delaney, this is because the
church is seen as a “safe place,” a place where they can talk openly
about their struggles instead of being “scrutinized by a
specialist.” |
Copyright The Anglican Planet © 2006 |