CANADA: ANGLICAN ARCHBISHOP SCOTT KILLED IN CAR ACCIDENT

By JOE FRIESEN The Globe and Mail

June 22, 2004

A former primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, Archbishop Edward Scott, was killed in a car accident yesterday near Parry Sound, Ont.

Archbishop Scott, 85, who led the Anglican Church from 1971 to 1986, was described as a man of compassion whose progressive ideas guided the church through a number of significant debates.

He died after the car in which he was travelling left Highway 69 about 18 kilometres south of Parry Sound yesterday afternoon. The car, driven by his close friend Sonja Bird, rolled over and landed upside down on a metal culvert. Police are still investigating the accident but said no other vehicles were involved. Ms. Bird was transported to hospital with serious injuries.

Archbishop Scott was born in Edmonton in 1919 and worked in Winnipeg and Vancouver before becoming primate in 1971.

He was named moderator of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches from 1975 to 1983. During that time he helped to focus global attention on the plight of black South Africans living under apartheid.

"He was a man with a passionate heart, passionately interested in justice for people," said Terence Finlay, a former archbishop of Toronto.

Archbishop Scott spoke out on issues such as abortion, the death penalty and the ordination of women. He was an advocate for the recognition of same-sex relationships. His recent biography, Radical Compassion by Hugh McCullum, quoted him as saying: "Homosexuality is not a choice; it is a discovery. I now have a deep conviction that gays and lesbians were created by God and are loved equally with heterosexuals by God."

He received the Pearson Peace Medal in 1998 and was named to the Order of Canada in 1978.