The Anglican Church
of Canada

Diocese of Montreal

Conference Synod

L’Église anglicane
du Canada

Diocèse de Montréal

Conférence du synode

The Diocese of Montreal's first Conference Synod will take place on Wednesday and Thursday the first and second of October, followed by the formal business Synod to take place on Friday, and if necessary on Saturday morning. Members of the public are welcome to join in the Conference. The theme of this Synod is "Come and See", which is taken from the first chapter of John's Gospel. There we read of two disciples of John the Baptist asking Jesus where he is staying. "Come and see!" says Jesus, and the two spend the rest of the day with him. Later, when Nathaniel asks his Philip, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?", Philip replies, "Come and see!". Nathaniel sees and believes. In the final analysis we give witness to Christ by inviting people to come and see. And the Diocese of Montreal says to all members of the Diocese, and to everyone, "Come and see!" Come and see what things are going on in the Diocese, what people are thinking about, and what they are doing.

The Diocese's Synod Planning Committee has considered about 30 proposals for inclusion in the Conference agenda. They have been divided into five general categories: education, liturgy, ministry, social concerns, and spirituality, all reflecting interests within the Diocese. The Conference has been planned with a view to informing Montreal's Anglicans about what is going on in their Church, to communicating our presence to others beyond the Anglican Communion, and to providing a forum for reflection on a number of issues both of general and special interest.

The Conference will take place at seven locations in the downtown core -- The Cathedral, Fulford Hall, the 17th floor of the Place de la Cathédrale, the Montreal Diocesan Theological College, and the churches of St George's, Place du Canada, St James the Apostle, and St John the Evangelist. Some events will run concurrently, and every attempt has been made to make it easy for people to attend related sessions. In addition there will be an opportunity to spend time in meditation throughout the Conference, to hear a Guest Speaker (still to be determined as at this writing -- 3 August), and to enjoy fellowship and good company.

This Conference Synod is the result of the adoption of a series of recommendations presented to Diocesan Synod by a Commission headed up by the Dean of Montreal, The Very Rev'd Michael Pitts. This Commission worked for many months collecting and sifting through a great number of ideas and suggestions on new ways of doing Synod received from all parts of the Diocese. One of the features of the Commission's work was that it began and continued with visits to all the deaneries in the Diocese, so that as the dossier progressed members of the Commission were able to hear many different kinds of opinion. The call for some kind of regular conference was heard from many places. People wanted an opportunity for more than just Synod delegates and members of parish corporations to learn about what is going on in our Church. So it was decided to hold a Conference Synod every three years, beginning in 1997, to be followed by a formal Synod. During each of the two non-Conference years, Diocesan Synod will meet more briefly to consider the things that must be attended to annually -- things like approving the financial reports and the budget. Larger issues will be made part of the Conference Synod.

In addition to providing an occasion to communicate what is going on in our Church, the Conference also offers an opportunity for Diocesan Synod to hear and receive motions originating from outside the usual channels. For the new rules specify that motions arising from discussions in the Conference Synod will be received by the formal Synod without the usual rules of notice or consent. The Synod Planning Committee wants this aspect of the Conference to work well, and to that end is testing the following procedures specifically for motions coming from the Conference:

The members of the Synod Planning Committee are enthusiastic about the programme that has been designed, and which you will see in a preliminary agenda accompanying this article. We feel it offers fascinating subjects, some for information, some for discussion, all for reflection, that begin to tell the story of our Diocese. Of course, there are other stories to tell too, for this Diocese is a dynamic community. But those can wait for the next and subsequent Conference Synods.