CANADA: FOUR CANDIDATES NAMED IN ELECTION OF NEW PRIMATE

ANGLICAN JOURNAL April 18, 2004

Delegates to the meeting of General Synod will have a slate of four candidates to choose from for their next primate.

The 40 bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada, meeting in Regina for their regular, twice-yearly meeting, nominated five candidates for the primatial election, but one bishop declined the nomination.

The candidates are:

• Bishop Ronald Ferris, 55, of the diocese of Algoma. Before becoming the ninth bishop of the northern Ontario diocese of Algoma in 1995, he served as bishop of the diocese of Yukon from 1981 to 1995. His area of expertise is episcopacy and transition into episcopacy, with course work in Anglican theology, contextual theology, and the church and law.

• Bishop Andrew Hutchison, 65, of the diocese of Montreal. Described by his peers as "an astute and experienced spokesman for the church in the political arena," he was consecrated as a bishop in 1990. He is an outspoken advocate for minorities, refugees, and human rights in church and state.

• Bishop Caleb Lawrence, 59, of the diocese of Moosonee. He heads the diocese which covers the second largest land area (next to the diocese of the Arctic), and where about half of the parishioners are indigenous Canadians, mainly of the Cree nation. A strong advocate for the rights of aboriginal Anglican clergy, he was consecrated as bishop in 1980.

• Bishop Victoria Matthews, 49, of the diocese of Edmonton. Elected the first female bishop in the Anglican Church of Canada in 1993, she is the country's only female diocesan bishop. After serving as suffragan (assistant) bishop of Credit Valley, diocese of Toronto, she became bishop of the diocese of Edmonton in 1997. From 2003 to early 2004, she chaired the house of bishops' task force that examined alternative episcopal oversight for clergy and parishioners who strongly object to church decisions.

If elected, Bishop Matthews would be the first woman primate in the Anglican Communion, a federation of 38 provinces around the world.

Also nominated as a candidate was Bishop Fred Hiltz, diocesan bishop of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Bishop Hiltz declined the nomination, with the consent of the house of bishops (by church law, the house may compel a candidate to stand in a primatial election).

The 310 delegates to the triennial meeting of General Synod will elect the primate, or leader of the denomination, on Monday, May 31 at Brock University, in St. Catharines, Ont. General Synod meets from May 28 to June 4.