22-day campaign to focus on Healing Fund

The Anglican Church of Canada’s General Synod has requested bishops and deans to focus, for 22 days, from May 31 to June 21, on renewing the church’s commitment to support the work of the Anglican Fund for Healing and Reconciliation through prayers, participation in awareness-raising campaigns and donations.

Early this year, Council of General Synod (CoGS) decided to dedicate the undesignated proceeds of Giving with Grace, General Synod’s annual fundraising campaign, to replenish the fund. For the next five years, the fund—created in 1992 as part of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement—will focus on language recovery.

The Day of Pentecost, on June 4, “when the people gathered in Jerusalem heard the good news in their own languages,” is an opportune time for Canadian Anglicans to renew their commitment to the work of healing, said Archdeacon Michael Thompson, the national church’s general secretary.

“To support this initiative, General Synod is asking bishops to provide diocesan leadership in support of the ministry of healing, the work of Anglican Healing Fund and Healing with Grace,” Thompson said in a letter sent to the church’s bishops and deans April 20.

He also asked deans and cathedral communities “to lead by example…especially in strengthening the liturgical connection between Pentecost and Anglican Healing Fund’s focus on language recovery.”

Thompson stressed that while the Anglican Church of Canada has met its legal obligations under the settlement agreement, “we’re far from finished with our spiritual and moral obligation to continue to support the healing work that is underway among those survivors and in those communities.”

To find out more about the 22 days campaign, visit anglican.ca/22 days.