Gracious Restraint

The Gracious Restraint association of bishops was formed after the 2010 General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada. Founding members included the following bishops: Stephen Andrews (Algoma), William Anderson (Caledonia), Andrew Atagotaaluk (Arctic), Michael Hawkins (Saskatchewan), Fraser Lawton (Athabasca), and Larry Robertson (Yukon).

Its purposes were:

  1. To provide fellowship, support and accountability for those who committed to remaining within the Anglican Church of Canada and the Anglican Communion;
  2. To encourage episcopal colleagues who were in dioceses deeply conflicted on matters dividing the Church;
  3. To preserve and promote the conditions for constructive discussion of the nature of Communion and the place of the Anglican Covenant, particularly in light of General Synod’s express will that we study the Anglican Covenant;
  4. To respond to a call issuing from across the Church for greater episcopal leadership regarding matters threatening our fellowship; and
  5. To issue a message to the wider Communion that there was an association of Canadian bishops who greatly valued the efforts being made to strengthen our common life through the Covenant.

The bishops issued a response letter in 2014 to the Anglican Church of Canada’s Commision on the Marriage Canon, urging that no steps be taken to threaten the unity of the ACoC or the Anglican Communion. After the Synod’s vote in 2016 to begin the process of changing the canon, the bishops “publicly dissented” from the Synod’s decision and called on “our Primate and the Archbishop of Canterbury to seek ways to guarantee our place within the Anglican Church of Canada and the Anglican Communion.”

The Gracious Restraint bishops were frequently in dialogue with the bishops organized as Communion Partners in the Episcopal Church from 2011-17, for dialogue and advice on similar issues facing members in TEC and ACoC.

In 2018, Gracious Restraint formally joined together with Communion Partners to provide greater encouragement to one another and to speak with a united voice on issues facing the Anglican provinces of the Western Hemisphere.