Dear Messiah West,

From October 20-23, 2026, delegates from Messiah West attended the Anglican Diocese of Canada’s annual Synod, hosted this year at the Church of the Good Samaritan in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

This year’s Synod focused on Church Planting and Revitalization.

Messiah West’s delegates were Daniel Avitan, Matthew Usherwood, Gord Reimer, and Jeshurun Afewerki. Christine Avitan and Amy Usherwood (along with little John!) were also invited by the diocese as spouses of church planters.

My personal highlights were twofold. The first was the pleasure of planning and hosting a Church Planters’ retreat for five planters in our diocese. We met just north of St. John’s the weekend before Synod. We studied the life of Abraham and shared and prayed for one another’s ministries. This has been our third retreat together and has been very fruitful for our growth and encouragement as church planters. 

The second highlight was clergy day, which focused on church planting. Christine, a member of the diocesan Church Plant Leadership Team, MC’d the day! The day was very encouraging and gave our diocese great hope that we are focusing on the right things: planting churches and seeing the Kingdom of God spread throughout Canada’s major cities.

Overall, our synod was a very worshipful time!

For a more detailed summary of the week, click here.

God bless,

Daniel