MONTREAL — A top decision-making body of the Anglican Church of Canada has scrapped the process by which one of its archbishops was elected by e-mail.
Last summer, Bishop Andrew Hutchison of Montreal was elected archbishop of the Ecclesiastical Province of Canada, comprised of several eastern dioceses, in an e-mail vote that garnered international attention. It was believed to be the first such election in the Anglican Communion and was said to save $30,000.
Despite being told that the process was successful and efficient, the Ecclesiastical Province’s provincial council meeting heard enough reservations about the confidentiality of the vote and the impersonal nature of e-mail elections to rescind the protocol.
Bishop Donald Harvey of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador, moved that the e-mail process be rescinded and that church laws be amended to prevent another such vote in the future.
Bishop Harvey stressed that he had nothing against technology, but that electronic voting had detracted from the value of the council’s work and from the sense that the vote was truly democratic and secret.
The provincial council approved his motion 14–11. (TAB)
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