The Anglican Church Of Canada Offers Liturgies for Medically Assisted Dying
(ANALYSIS) Gathered near the patient, the priest helps the worshipers prepare for Holy Communion using a new liturgy prepared by the Anglican Church of Canada.
The text offers this introduction: “We gather today in a space that may be foreign to us. There are sounds, lights, and activity outside of this room that can distract and take us away from this space. But God meets us here, in this time and place, a thin-space that is sacred. We gather as friends and family [and health care professionals] with our hopes, our dreams, and our differences.
“While some of us may not always agree with the choices of others, we are united in our common love and compassion for [name]. May we know the presence of God as we pray together. ... May God's purpose steady us."
The Holy Eucharist text openly discusses tensions that loom over this rite, since it is drawn from “Pastoral Liturgies at the Time of Death in Contexts of Medically Assisted Dying," approved in June by the denomination's Council of General Synod.
The document tells clergy: “Medical Assistance in Dying evokes strong and opposing views amongst some persons and communities, including amongst health care providers and amongst Anglican Christians. Some Christians, including clergy, find that MAiD violates their understanding of the ethical values to which Christians are called. ...
“The Anglican Church of Canada is not of one voice on the topic, but leaders generally are in agreement that the Church has a duty of pastoral care to all who are dying ... Regardless of how people arrive at the decisions they do regarding their end-of-life plans, all persons should be able to call upon the pastoral ministry of the church at the time of their dying.”
The Medical Assistance in Dying option was legalized in 2016, and many Canadians — over age 18, eligible for public health care, with a grievous condition and able to grant consent — have allowed medical professionals to end their lives. At the end of 2024, Health Canada officials reported 76,475 approved MAiD procedures.
The Anglican Church of Canada is a poignant choice to develop these liturgies, since it has already lost 75% of its membership since the 1960s. In 2016, an ACC publication described the nation's average Anglican as “60-something.”
In 2019, a church report conceded: “Projections from our data indicate that there will be no members, attenders or givers in the Anglican Church of Canada by approximately 2040.”
Use of the new rites requires the consent of the local bishop as debate continues about the texts.
An “About this Resource” section states: “Some Anglicans have had profound experiences in which a death by MAiD has been accompanied by faithful prayer and strong pastoral care. Other Anglicans hold that MAiD does not offer any moral good, and may indeed be against God's wishes for humanity. ... The experience of wrestling faithfully with one's conscience can be most poignantly felt in the tender times of discernment regarding health care treatments. This resource is not to be understood in any way as a guide for, nor a blessing upon, that discernment and the decisions coming from it.”
The liturgy pinpoints the proper moment, after those gathered have received Holy Communion, for medical professionals to end the patient's life, noted Father George Sinclair, a former ACC priest who now leads a conservative Anglican Network in Canada parish in Ottawa.
“In one of the discernment prayers provided, the person deciding whether or not to be killed is compared to Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane,” he noted, writing for The Gospel Coalition's Canada website. Members of the medical team “can be present in the service and hear words of absolution spoken over them.”
The rite is carefully worded. The “issue is not one of sincerity,” stressed Sinclair.
Leaders of the Anglican Church of Canada sincerely believe “they are acting in a way that glorifies God.”
In the end, the patient is offered the choice of several prayers to recite, such as this one: “Merciful God, I thank you that since I have no strength to care for myself, you serve me through the hands and hearts of others. Bless these people that they may continue to serve you and please you all their days. Amen.”
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Terry Mattingly is Senior Fellow on Communications and Culture at Saint Constantine College in Houston. He lives in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and writes Rational Sheep, a Substack newsletter on faith and mass media.