UPDATED (See below). On Saturday (25 July 2020) General Synod Te Hīnota Whānui met using Zoom. The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia covers the South Pacific – Aotearoa/New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, and the Cook Islands. Covid 19 restrictions meant that the meeting of General Synod Te Hīnota Whānui, scheduled 9 – 14 May in Nelson, was changed to a Zoom meeting with an In Real Life (IRL) meeting hopefully later this year.
Has there been any other such a virtual General Synod meeting anywhere else on the planet? Are there any being planned? The recording of the procedures meant that anyone, anywhere could follow it live, and anyone could look back at it (skipping some parts, putting it to run at a faster speed,…). Unfortunately, the video has now been set to private.
Update: The Church of England General Synod also met online, and its meeting is still viewable. H/t John Tasker
The meeting dealt with the Three Tikanga structure, the way that complaints are dealt with, and finance.
General Synod / Te Hīnota Whānui documents on the Church’s official website
Anglican Taonga – the Church’s official news site:
Archbishop Fereimi Cama’s charge
Synod reaffirms triple primacy
Synod moves on conduct issues
The charges from the three archbishops:
We didn’t conduct a full official annual meeting. but the Pacific Northwest Conference* of the United Church of Christ (think diocese) held many aspects of the conference via Zoom; online conference worship service, breakout meetings for various reports, as well as, presentation of the budget and the slate of new officers.
The conference’s Board of Directors is authorized to act for the conference between annual meetings, so the board voted on the slate of new officers and approved the 2020-2021 budget.
There were bylaws changes that require a 2/3s approval of the official conference in meeting and those have been postponed.
*Alaska, Washington & Northern Idaho
Thanks, David. Our Church made changes to our Constitution that could not be delayed – or the lengthy process would need (by our rules) to have started again. Blessings.