GS07 Report 02
The Anglican Foundation of Canada
Report to General Synod 2007
This year the Anglican Foundation of Canada celebrates fifty years of service to the Anglican Church of Canada and takes a justifiable pride in reporting that over the past half-century we have awarded a total of more than $23 million to support the dreams of hundreds of Anglicans in every diocese of the Canadian Church. As we have responded “where the need is greatest” we have supported youth choirs, Indigenous Peoples’ programs, helped to build new churches, responded to the cry of churches that need help with restoration or repairs, helped create and promote liturgical arts, music and drama and searched for programs designed to bring the new life of Christ to Canadian Anglicans.
During the past three years we have encountered many joys and sorrows. Canon John Erb, who put his inimitable stamp on the Foundation over the eight years that he served as our Executive Director, succumbed to a rare disease and died two years ago. Canon Gordon Baker then came out of retirement to guide the Foundation through a time of transition, and to maintain the essential stability so that we could provide the Church with a great deal of support in a time of serious fiscal restraint.
Last spring the Primate, on advice of a committee of our governing board, invited me to become Executive Director. My wife and I left our retirement home in Nova Scotia and moved to Toronto, which had been my home for the first twenty-five years of my life. Since then I have rejoiced in this new challenge – so very different from leadership within Cathedral communities.
Since my arrival our Chair, Archbishop Andrew Hutchison has announced his retirement as has our Executive Assistant June Moyle. June, who has been the heart and soul of the Foundation for more than half of our history, plans to join her husband Kearney in retirement. I have invited Jonathan Marshall, a former staff member of the Anglican Book Centre staff to assume her duties. Needless to say, we have all encountered a steep learning curve. We are eagerly anticipating the election, at this General Synod, of a new Primate who will oversee future directions in the ministry of both the Anglican Church of Canada and the Anglican Foundation.
Some time ago the Foundation Board invited Bishop Jo Fricker to gather a group of gifted Anglicans to review our many mandates and offer suggestions for future strategies. The report of the Fricker commission has been welcomed by the Board and has provided me with a wealth of material from which to begin to develop future directions and initiatives. We are no longer concerned primarily with developing and improving church buildings but more and more with empowering Anglican leadership and service as well as encouraging effective ways of strengthening the efforts of a growing variety of ministries in this, the first decade of a new millennium.
Although the Anglican Foundation of Canada has always been totally independent of the Anglican Church of Canada it has only one purpose - to assist and to enable our Church to respond effectively to Christ’s Great Commission (Matt.28:19) here in Canada.
Respectfully submitted,
The Very Rev. John vanNostrand Wright, Executive Director.