wfn.org | ACNS3337 Anglican Church of Canada and government to sign

["Anglican Communion News Service" <acnslist@anglicancommunion.org>]

ACNS 3337     |     CANADA     |     10 MARCH 2003

Anglican Church of Canada and government to sign residential schools
agreement

[Anglican Church of Canada] Representatives of the federal government and
the Anglican Church of Canada will officially sign an agreement on
residential schools lawsuits, reached last November, at the church's
national office on Tuesday 11 March.

The agreement, announced in Ottawa on 20 November 2003, establishes a
Settlement Fund to which the church will contribute CAN$25 million and which
will be used to compensate former students of residential schools with
proven claims of sexual or physical abuse.

Before being signed, the agreement had to be ratified by each of the
church's 30 dioceses. The dioceses also had to agree to commit a total of
CAN$22 million over the next five years to a settlement fund. General Synod,
the Anglican Church's national organisation, contributed CAN$3 million.

The dioceses concluded the ratification process last month and the goal of
CAN$22 million in contributions was met, with most dioceses contributing a
percentage of their budget similar to the amount they give annually to
General Synod. Although the agreement requires the dioceses to pay into the
Settlement Fund in quarterly instalments over the next five years, several
dioceses have said they will pay the full amount immediately.

If compensation amounts to more than CAN$25 million, the federal government
will pay the rest. If it is less, the extra money will be returned to the
dioceses.

Signing on behalf of the church at Tuesday's ceremony will be Archbishop
Michael Peers, the Anglican Primate, and federal Public Works Minister Ralph
Goodale, whose portfolio includes responsibility for residential schools
resolution.

Archdeacon Jim Boyles, General Secretary of General Synod and the chief
Anglican negotiator during talks with the federal government, said the
church wanted to have the signing at its national office so that General
Synod staff who have worked under circumstances of extreme uncertainty for
the past three years could attend and witness the signing.

Also attending the signing ceremony will be representatives of both the
Anglican and government negotiating teams who worked for several years
before an agreement was reached.

The Anglican Church was involved, with the federal government, in operating
26 residential schools from the mid-19th century until the 1970s. In 1993,
Archbishop Peers formally apologised to native people for the church's
involvement in the schools.

The Anglican Church was named in about 2,200 of more than 12,000 lawsuits
launched against the federal government.

___________________________________________________________________

For details about the Enthronement of the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury,
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