Conger

The Rt. Rev. William Cox, Assistant Bishop of Oklahoma retired and Acting Provincial Assistant Bishop of the Southern Cone. Unpublished photo taken July 30 at the ACN conference in Fort Worth.

The dispute over the secession of the Diocese of San Joaquin has led to the formation of three de facto ecclesiastical authorities for the California diocese: one loyal to Bishop John-David Schofield, one loyal to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, and a third to the diocese’s Standing Committee.

On Dec 8 the San Joaquin Synod voted to transfer the primatial oversight of the diocese to the Province of the Southern Cone, and Bishop Schofield was received as a bishop of that province by the Primate, Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables.

At the meeting of the Diocesan Standing Committee, who in the absence of the bishop constitute the ecclesiastical authority of the diocese, Bishop Schofield on Jan 19 asked the clergy and lay members of the committee to formally join the South American church.

As a member of the South American Church, Bishop Schofield said in a statement released on Jan 21, “the Standing Committee, which is my council of advice, must be composed of clergy members who are Anglican priests of the Southern Cone.”

Six of the eight members of the committee, including the rectors of the diocese’s leading congregations declined to move to the South American Church, prompting Bishop Schofield to remove them as members of the Standing Committee of the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin.

However, the six, who were elected to their posts before the Synod vote, remained members of the Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin.

On Jan 25 Bishop Schori entered the fray, writing that she to did not recognize them as the official Standing Committee.

“In light of your recent actions, I find that you have been and are unable to well and faithfully fulfill your duties as members of the Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin,” under the church’s canons. “Accordingly, with this letter I inform you that I do not recognize you as the Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin,” she wrote.

The letter was followed by a Jan 26 meeting sponsored by the national church for members in the diocese who sought to remain affiliated with the Episcopal Church. Drawing mainly from the handful of congregations that opposed the synod vote and bolstered by supporters from outside San Joaquin, Bishop Schori promised the gathering of approximately 250 they had her support as the true Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin.

On Feb 1 the Standing Committee responded to Bishop Schori stating that “while you may hold any personal opinion you wish as an individual, the office of Presiding Bishop does not have the legal, canonical or moral authority to proclaim for the Episcopal Church non-recognition of duly elected members of a diocesan Standing Committee.”

The Standing Committee further noted that the Presiding Bishop had offered no facts to support her “conjecture” of misconduct, and accused her of abusing the canons for partisan political purposes.

“Any attempt on your part, or on the part of any other person, to circumvent or replace the Standing Committee as the Ecclesiastical Authority will be a violation of the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church,” they said.

Under canon law, if Bishop Schofield is removed from office as the Episcopal Bishop of San Joaquin by the House of Bishops, the ecclesiastical authority of the diocese passes to the Standing Committee until the election of a new bishop. The national church has no power to alter the Standing Committee nor to pronounce on its fitness, under the canons.

The Bishop of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador has demanded a loyalty oath from his clergy, following the defection of his predecessor Don Harvey to the Province of the Southern Cone.

On Dec 18, Bishop Cyrus Pitman summoned the diocese’s 41 clergy to attend a Jan 21 service at St. John the Baptist Cathedral to renew their ordination vows and receive new licences.

Bishop Pitman denied he was engaged in a “power grab”, but told the Anglican Journal “I just felt I needed to have my name on them as the bishop of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador.”

In his letter Bishop Pitman said that although he valued “people’s individual conscience, and our Church has always accommodated a diversity of opinion. However, I would expect any clergy involved in the Network and working to the establishment of a parallel jurisdiction to the Anglican Church of Canada would do the honourable thing and resign their positions, relinquishing their licences to exercise ordained ministry in this Church as their leader has done.”

Bishop Pitman has also dissolved the cathedral chapter, which counted several supporters of Bishop Harvey amongst its six canons. However, “it is not a punitive thing,” he said, as he wanted to appoint new members that “will reflect the diversity of the diocese.”

Bishop Harvey told Transcontinental Media he was “hurt” by Bishop Pitman’s attempt to make him a non-person. “Even if I left and became a non-Christian of sort, it shouldn’t devalue any documents I had issued. The fact I’m going to another legitimate part of the same communion, should make it all the less the reason for having any problem with me,” he said.

The episode was a “sad reflection” on the Canadian Church. “They are very strong on talking about inclusivity and reaching out to all people with all kinds of views, unless you happen to be a conservative. Then you’re an unpopular member,” Bishop Harvey said.

Affiliating with the Province of the Southern Cone would safeguard the Anglo-Catholic heritage of the Diocese of Forth Worth, its bishop and standing committee told the diocese in a Jan 9 letter.

Bishop Jack Iker and the leaders of the diocese reported that after a review of the constitution and canons of the South American Church, “we have concluded that the structure and polity of the Province of the Southern Cone would afford our diocese greater self-determination than we currently have under the General Convention of The Episcopal Church.”

In November the Texas-based diocese voted to remove references to the Episcopal Church from its constitution and canons and begin the process of withdrawal. Quitting the US Church requires a second reading of the proposed constitutional changes at the diocese’s 2008 synod.

Moving the diocese to the oversight of Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables of Argentina would give a degree of autonomy “in the areas of property ownership, liturgy, holy orders, and missionary focus.” The issue of women’s orders would be left to the diocese, allowing Fort Worth to maintain its traditionalist stance.

Quitting the Episcopal Church would not “change in the day-to-day” life and work of the diocese, but “we expect a significant change in attitude and focus of the clergy and people,” Bishop Iker and the Standing Committee wrote.

Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti along with the congregations and clergy of 44 parishes in Northeastern Brazil were received last week by Bishop Gregory Venables as an extra-territorial diocese of the Church of the Province of the Southern Cone.

The reception marks a shift in the status of the traditionalist Brazilian congregations from a personal prelature of Bishop Venables over individuals in Recife to a formal ecclesial entity within the Province.

In 2005, Bishop Venables extended his personal primatial oversight to Bishop Cavalcanti and 40 priests of the Diocese of Recife after they were deposed by the Brazilian church for contumacy.

While a new bishop was appointed to oversee the remaining clergy, over 90 per cent of the diocese’s members backed Bishop Cavalcanti and withdrew from the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil (IEAB) to form the Anglican Diocese of Recife (DAR).

Bishop Venables issued a “statement of support” to the DAR clergy recognizing their “ordinations and ministries, and provide[d] a special status of extra-provincial recognition by my office as Primate of the Southern Cone until such time as the Panel of Reference, the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the Anglican Communion has, in some way, adequately addressed this crisis.”

Following last month’s vote by the South American synod to welcome ecclesial entities into the Province, delegates to the 37^th annual DAR synod on Dec 8 asked to be received as an “extra-territorial” diocese, and adopted legislation conforming the diocese’s constitution and canons to those of the Southern Cone.

Bishop Cavalcanti said synod had sought to “find the language necessary to bring the diocese of Recife into formal relations with the Southern Cone” and into “normal provincial life.”

Bishop Venables welcomed DAR into the Southern Cone and assured them of the Province’s “united support and prayers for you and particularly for my deep sense of privilege as your brother and Primate.”

Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti, along with the congregations and clergy of 44 parishes of the Diocese of Recife in northeastern Brazil, were received last week by Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables as an extra-territorial diocese of the Church of the Province of the Southern Cone.

The reception marks a shift in the status of the traditionalist Brazilian congregations from a personal prelature of Bishop Venables over individuals in Recife to a formal ecclesial entity within the province.

In 2005, Bishop Venables extended his personal primatial oversight to Bishop Cavalcanti and 40 priests of the Diocese of Recife after they were deposed by the Brazilian church for contumacy. Approximately 90 percent of the diocese backed Bishop Cavalcanti and withdrew from the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil (IEAB) to form the Anglican Diocese of Recife (DAR). The IEAB appointed a new bishop to oversee the remaining clergy.

Following last month’s vote by the Southern Cone synod to welcome ecclesial entities into the province, delegates to the annual synod in the DAR voted on Dec. 8 to ask to be received as an “extra-territorial” diocese, and adopted legislation conforming the diocese’s constitution and canons to those of the Southern Cone.

Published in The Living Church.

The Diocese of San Joaquin has voted to secede from the Episcopal Church and affiliate with the Church of the Province of the Southern Cone.

Saturday’s vote marks the first secession of an American diocese from the Episcopal Church since 1862, when the southern dioceses seceded to form the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America. Four more dioceses are expected to follow suit over the coming year. However, US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has vowed to fight the secession, saying there will be legal and canonical ramifications for the separatists.

Delegates to the diocesan synod on Dec 8 passed a second reading of a constitutional amendment, nullifying its accession to the national church. Secession passed in a vote by orders, 72 to 12 amongst the clergy and 103 to 10 in the lay order. Synod also voted to accept the invitation to affiliate with the South American Church.

“Welcome Home. And welcome back into full fellowship in the Anglican Communion,” Southern Cone Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables said to the diocese in a statement read to synod by Bishop Frank Lyons of Bolivia.

In his Presidential Address to the Convention on Dec 7 from the pulpit of St James Cathedral in Fresno, California, Bishop John-David Schofield said delay would not answer. A ‘no’ vote to secession would not restore the status quo nor bring peace to the diocese. “Timing matters,” he said. “God’s timing is essential. Delayed obedience in scripture is seen as disobedience when opportunities and blessings are lost.”

He also promised congregations loyal to the national church would be permitted to secede from the diocese along with their property upon payment of any outstanding debts. Five of San Joaquin’s 47 parishes are expected to remain with the national church.

Reactions to the secession have been mixed. Bishop Schori stated she was saddened by the news, but noted the Episcopal Church would continue in San Joaquin, “albeit with new leadership.”

“We deeply regret [San Joaquin's] unwillingness or inability to live within the historical Anglican understanding of comprehensiveness,” she said.

Leaders of the Global South Coalition of Primates meeting in Nairobi this week are expected to back the move, while the Archbishop of Canterbury has given mixed signals.

In a meeting with Bishop Venables in September, Dr. Williams was informed of the plan to bring the US traditionalist dioceses on board. At last month’s Fort Worth synod meeting Bishop Lyons of Bolivia reported the plan had the tacit approval of Lambeth Palace.

ACC general secretary Canon Kenneth Kearon confirmed Dr. Williams had been sighted on the South American plans but in an email to an American Episcopalian questioned if “the Archbishop would formally support such a development which is contrary to the Windsor Report (especially paragraph 155).”

A spokesman for the ACC released a statement on Dec 10 saying “Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has not in any way endorsed the actions of the Primate of the Southern Cone, Bishop Gregory Venables, in his welcoming of dioceses, such as San Joaquin in the Episcopal Church, to become part of his province in South America.”

The South American Church leadership told The Church of England Newspaper there was no contradiction between Bishop Lyons remarks and the clarification from Lambeth Palace and agreed that Dr. Williams had not given his formal support nor overt blessing to the secession plan.

The Primate and Metropolitans of the Anglican Church of Canada have released a pastoral letter rejecting the South American church’s oversight of Canadian traditionalists, and have appealed to the Archbishop of Canterbury for assistance.

Archbishop Fred Hiltz and the church’s four metropolitan archbishops said they “deplore recent actions on the part of the primate and General Synod of the Province of the Southern Cone to extend its jurisdiction in Canada through the Essentials Network Conference.”

South America’s reception of breakaway congregations and its licensing of two retired Canadian bishops to exercise episcopal ministry on behalf of South American primate Gregory Venables “breaks fellowship within the Anglican Church of Canada and the Anglican Communion,” they argued and was unnecessary.

“Our bishops have made adequate and appropriate provision for the pastoral care and episcopal support of all members … including those who find themselves in conscientious disagreement with the view of their bishop and synod over the blessing of same-sex unions,” they wrote on Nov 29, urging Dr. Rowan Williams to condemn the South American putsch.

Bishop Venables told Canada’s Anglican Journal his church would not back down from its support of embattled traditionalists.

The Canadian archbishops were guilty of “either denial or hypocrisy” by appealing to the ancient customs of the church, he said.  “They have broken historic agreements - the Lambeth Conference agreement and the Windsor Report - to go ahead with blessing same-sex relationships. To use that argument against us is a bit odd, to say the least.”

Nor was the claim of an adequate provision for pastoral oversight for traditionalists plausible, he said, as it was not created in full consultation with conservatives, he noted.

The issues at stake were greater than a dispute over homosexuality, Bishop Venables said.  “The sexuality issue is the presenting issue, but there are things about Scripture, about who Jesus is. The creeds have seen Jesus Christ as the son of the God and the one way to God the father.”

US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has warned the Bishop of San Joaquin against allowing his diocese to quit the Episcopal Church, threatening him with legal and ecclesiastical sanctions.

In a letter published on Dec 3, Bishop Schori urged Bishop John-David Schofield to consider the cost “of the potential consequences” of his diocese’s potential secession.

On Dec 8, the San Joaquin synod will have the second reading of a Constitution amendment permitting it to quit the American Church.

Bishop Schori told Bishop Schofield that his support of the amendment would require her to “ascertain whether you have in fact abandoned the communion of this Church, and violated your vows to uphold the doctrine, discipline, and worship of this Church. I do not intend to threaten you, only to urge you to reconsider and draw back from this trajectory.”

Bishop Schori said she would continue to pray for Bishop Schofield,  “I continue to be concerned for your health, and for your evident sense of isolation,” and added that she continued to welcome his participation as a “loyal opposition” within The Episcopal Church, “particularly as a sign of your faithfulness to your vow to share in the councils of the Church.”

However, the US Presiding Bishop declared it was not possible for the diocese to secede.  “While you may believe that the Diocese of San Joaquin can be welcomed into another Province of the Anglican Communion, I believe you will find that few parts of the Communion will recognize such a proposal,” she wore.

On Nov 16, Bishop Schofield released a statement welcoming the invitation by the Church of the Province of the Southern Cone to affiliate with it.  “The invitation assures the Diocese’s place in the Anglican Communion and full communion with the See of Canterbury,” he said.

Planting the diocese’s flag in South America was a “sensible way forward and is by no means irrevocable. During the 1860’s, the Dioceses of the Southern States left the Episcopal Church and then returned after the Civil War. As the Southern Cone invitation makes clear, the Diocese may return to full communion with the Episcopal Church when circumstances change and the Episcopal Church repents and adheres to the theological, moral and pastoral norms of the Anglican Communion, and when effective and acceptable alternative primatial oversight becomes available,” Bishop Schofield said.

The Rt Rev. Don Harvey (left) and the Rt. Rev. Malcolm Harding (right). Bishops Harvey and Harding were received by the Church of the Province of the Southern Cone in November 2007 and will exercise episcopal ministry on behalf of Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables in Eastern (Harvey) and Western (Harding) Canada.

Photo taken at the ANiC conference in Burlington, Ontario on Nov 22, by Marilyn Jacobson

A second Canadian bishop has quit his church to join the Province of the Southern Cone.  On Nov 22 the retired Bishop of Brandon, Malcolm Harding announced he had relinquished his license in the Canadian Church and would exercise episcopal ministry in Western Canada on behalf of the Presiding Bishop of the Southern Cone Gregory Venables.

“I am deeply grieved that the church I have loved and served for over 30 years has left me no choice,” Bishop Harding said.

Speaking to the members of the Anglican Network in Canada meeting, Bishop Harding said his secession had been driven by his despair over the theological direction taken by the Canadian Church. “I now realize that we cannot have unity at the expense of truth.  I cannot in conscience travel the path that the Anglican Church of Canada is traveling, away from historic Christian teaching and established Anglican practice.”

Bishop Harding now joins the retired Bishop of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador Don Harvey in offering episcopal oversight to Canada’s embattled traditionalists.

Leaders of the Global South coalition of Primates offered their encouragement.  The Primate of the Middle East Bishop Mouneer Anis of Egypt said his diocese offered its wholehearted support and thanked “God for your Faithfulness and stance for the Gospel.”

In a television interview Bishop Harvey said traditionalists were “continuing in the Anglican Communion as we have known it.  It is the Anglican Church of Canada which is schismatic. It has not been faithful.”

He did not see the Anglican Church of Canada “coming out of this without a split.  The polarities are so extreme.   To negotiate you have to give up something.  What we are standing for are the essentials.”

The Canadian Church has denounced the secessions and announced that the Primate, Archbishop Fred Hiltz would issue a pastoral letter on Dec 2 responding to the news.  The bishop of New Westminster Michael Ingham last week said “this is a full-blown schism now within the Canadian church and it is a direct attack upon the catholicity of the church and the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Canada’s Council of General Synod (CoGS) said Bishop Harvey’s secession was unnecessary, unlawful and unfortunate.

They demanded the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams do something, asking him to “make clear that such actions are not a valid expression of Anglicanism and are in contravention of the ancient and continuing traditions of the Church.”

However, Lambeth Palace has so far remained officially silent, with sources familiar with the negotiations to create a parallel Anglican church in Canada telling The Church of England Newspaper that Dr. Williams had been briefed on traditionalists’ plans.

Two independent congregations announced on Nov 24 they would come under the protection of the South American church.  Two dozen Anglican Church of Canada parishes are expected to join in the coming weeks.  However Canadian church officials have threatened litigation against any congregation that seeks to leave the church with its parish property.

Bishop Donald Harvey has quit the Canadian Church for the Church of the Province of the Southern Cone.

On Nov 16 the retired Bishop of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador, and moderator of the traditionalist Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) announced he was “resuming full-time Episcopal ministry” on behalf of “biblically faithful Canadian Anglicans who are distressed and feel they no longer have a home in the Anglican Church of Canada.”

Bishop Harvey’s secession has prompted howls of protest from the Canadian Church, which has demanded that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams denounce him.

The secession also comes one week before ANiC’s annual conference, and may presage a wholesale defection of Canadian traditionalist congregations and clergy to the South American Church.

On Nov 8 the Canadian primate, Archbishop Fred Hiltz told the National Post conservatives may bolt over Canada’s swing to the left on gay blessings.  “There may come a point we have to acknowledge that and respect their decision.”

“If they feel they cannot stay and withdraw other parishes with them, obviously it’s a sad moment for the Church. But I also think at that point you don’t fight. You don’t fight. You have to acknowledge the situation, acknowledge the pain, acknowledge the brokenness,” Archbishop Hiltz said.

The Rt. Rev. Donald Harvey, retired Bishop of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador, announced Nov. 16 that he had quit the Canadian Church and will be “resuming full-time Episcopal ministry” on behalf of “biblically faithful Canadian Anglicans who are distressed and feel they no longer have a home in the Anglican Church of Canada.”

Bishop Harvey is moderator of the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC), a group of traditionalist members of the Anglican Church of Canada aligned with the Anglican Communion Network in the U.S. His departure comes after the Canadian House of Bishops said it would launch a disciplinary investigation into complaints that he had participated in unauthorized episcopal acts in Canada and the U.S.

“This is a full-blown schism now within the Canadian church and it is a direct attack upon the catholicity of the church and the gospel of Jesus Christ,” said Bishop Michael Ingham of New Westminster in a recent interview with Anglican Journal, the church’s editorially independent newspaper. “It is one thing to hold differing opinions as many Anglicans obviously do on matters of sexual ethics. It’s quite another thing to establish alternative ecclesial bodies, which is schism.”

Bishop Harvey’s departure came one week before the annual conference of the ANiC, and may presage a wholesale defection of Canadian traditionalist congregations and clergy to the South American province. Bishop Ingham said he had written to Bishop Harvey prohibiting him from ordaining two deacons at a parish in his diocese next month. He has also written to the candidates and the clergy of four ANiC parishes in his diocese warning them of possible disciplinary action if they participate.

According to its website, ANiC’s national conference on Nov. 22-23 will “outline details of the option available to biblically faithful Canadian Anglicans who are in ‘serious theological dispute’ with the Anglican Church of Canada and want to be recognized as ‘fully Anglican’ and in the mainstream of global Anglicanism.”

In his letter to Archbishop Hiltz relinquishing his membership in the Canadian Church, Bishop Harvey said “this decision was not made lightly or for any other motive than the realization that I cannot continue to follow the obvious path that the Anglican Church of Canada is taking.”

On Nov. 17 the Council of General Synod said Bishop Harvey’s secession was unnecessary as an “appropriate provision for pastoral care and episcopal support” already existed.

“Interventions in the life of our church, such as ordinations or other episcopal acts by any other jurisdictions are inappropriate and unwelcome,” council members said. “In particular, we cannot recognize the legitimacy of recent actions by the Province of the Southern Cone in purporting to extend its jurisdiction beyond its own borders.”

The Canadian church’s governing body between meetings of General Synod called upon the Archbishop of Canterbury to defend Canada, requesting that he “make clear that such actions are not a valid expression of Anglicanism and are in contravention of the ancient and continuing traditions of the Church.”

Published in The Living Church.

American dioceses that wish to quit the Episcopal Church will be welcomed into the Church of the Province of the Southern Cone.

The South American general synod, meeting Nov 4-8 at St. Paul’s Church in Valparaíso, Chile, agreed to adopt stray dioceses and ecclesial entities from the North American churches.  The vote marks an intensification in the Anglican Communion’s wars over doctrine and discipline as for the first time, ecclesial entities, not just individuals, have been offered a theological refuge.

Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables, who was reelected to a new term as primate by the synod, told The Church of England Newspaper the offer of refuge simply recognized the existing splits within the Church.  The Southern Cone was not precipitating a crisis and invading the Episcopal Church, he explained last month, but was offering a safe haven within the Anglican Communion for those wishing to flee.

While individuals and parishes have been bleeding from the Episcopal Church since the 2003 appointment of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire, the 2006 General Convention and election of Katharine Jefferts Schori prompted Fort Worth and a number of other dioceses to request alternative primatial oversight from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams.

In March, Fort Worth Bishop Jack Iker outlined three possible options for traditionalist dioceses in correspondence with Dr. Williams: creation of a new province in the US, direct extra-provincial oversight by Dr. Williams, or the secession of traditionalist dioceses in the US to another province of the Communion.

Dr. Williams’s senior advisor, Chris Smith, demurred in answering, urging Bishop Iker and American traditionalists to hold fast.  However, the failure of the Panel of Reference process, rejection by the US House of Bishops of the primates’ call for a pastoral council and the worsening legal situation prompted traditionalists in the US to act.

Talks intensified over the summer, and included a face to face meeting with Bishop Venables at the Anglican Communion Network’s July meeting in Fort Worth.  Four American bishops then traveled to Argentina in August to work out the details.

Dr. Williams was informed of these developments as they progressed, sources in London and the US tell CEN, with the traditionalists understanding they had his tacit, but not overt support for the move.

A spokesman for the Diocese of Pittsburgh said the Southern Cone was one of a number of Provinces offering a home to American dioceses.  On Nov 2 Pittsburgh passed the first reading of a constitutional amendment that stated the diocese “shall have membership in such Province of the Anglican Communion as is by diocesan Canon specified.”  Fort Worth is expected to adopt similar legislation today.

In all, five American dioceses: Fort Worth, Quincy, Pittsburgh, San Joaquin and Springfield are expected to avail themselves of the opportunity to switch Provinces within the coming year.  The Diocese of San Joaquin in California will be the first to take the plunge if its December diocesan synod formally changes its constitution, permitting secession from The Episcopal Church.

Dioceses that wish to secede from The Episcopal Church because of disputes over doctrine and discipline will be given an ecclesiastical home in the Church of the Province of the Southern Cone.

Meeting Nov 5-7 at St. Paul’s Church, Valparaíso, Chile, the Southern Cone synod voted to extend the province’s jurisdiction to North America, allowing dioceses and other ecclesial entities to affiliate with the province.

The Provincia Anglicana del Cono Sur de América is comprised of the dioceses of Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Northern Argentina. The Diocese of Bolivia already has provided pastoral oversight to several dozen congregations in the United States comprised of former members of The Episcopal Church. In addition, Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables of the Southern Cone exercises a personal prelature over former members of the Diocese of Recife (Brazil).

Bishop Venables told The Living Church the offer of a provincial home for traditionalist American dioceses merely recognized the existing splits within the church. He said the Southern Cone was not precipitating a crisis or invading The Episcopal Church, but was offering a safe haven within the Anglican Communion for those wishing to flee.

By a supermajority, delegates to the Valparaíso synod voted to permit traditionalist North American dioceses to affiliate with the province. The vote goes a step beyond Bishop Venables’ intervention in Brazil, and marks a major shift in the ecclesial structures of the Anglican Communion.

In 2005, Bishop Venables extended his personal primatial oversight to Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti and 40 priests of the Diocese of Recife after they had been deposed by the Brazilian church for contumacy.

Bishop Cavalcanti and his supporters, representing more than 90 percent of that diocese’s members, were issued a “statement of support” by Bishop Venables that recognized their “ordinations and ministries, and provide a special status of extra-provincial recognition by my office as Primate of the Southern Cone until such time as the Panel of Reference, the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the Anglican Communion has, in some way, adequately addressed this crisis.”

The Nov. 7 vote permits dioceses as ecclesial entities, not merely individuals, to join the province.

A spokesman for the Diocese of Pittsburgh noted the Southern Cone was one of a number of provinces offering a home to American dioceses. On Nov. 2 Pittsburgh adopted the first reading of an amendment to its constitution that stated the diocese “shall have membership in such Province of the Anglican Communion as is by diocesan Canon specified.”

Up to five dioceses of The Episcopal Church may affiliate with the Southern Cone. In December, San Joaquin’s diocesan convention will vote on a second reading of a secession clause, allowing the diocese to join other provinces — a move Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has called unlawful.

A spokesman for the Archbishop of Canterbury said Archbishop Rowan Williams had no comment at this time on the Southern Cone vote

Published in The Living Church.

Aid agencies from across the Anglican Communion have come to the assistance of the Diocese of Peru following the Aug 15 earthquake that struck off the coast near Pisco.

Canadian, American, British and Australian church aid agencies have responded to the devastation wrought by the 8.0 magnitude earthquake by sending aid to groups working in the afflicted regions. Several hundred have been reported killed by the quake, including 150 people killed by the collapse of the roof of a Roman Catholic Church in Pisco.

The Bishop of Peru, the Rt. Rev. William Godfrey reports the diocese has opened soup kitchens in the towns of Guadalupe and San Juan Bautista, each feeding 5000 people a day. “Food, water and medicine continue to be the priority as well as tending to the injured,” Bishop Godfrey wrote on his diocesan website.

The diocese was also supporting “the injured who have been brought from the South to Lima’s hospitals. Many of them were brought in on stretchers with no personal belongings. We are providing food, clothing, medicines, prayer and counsel, and when the time comes transport back to their families,” he wrote.

The Roman Catholic charity Caritas, the Presbyterian Church in the United States, the USPG, Episcopal Relief and Development, Anglican Relief and Development, the Primates Fund for World Relief and other church agencies have responded to the quake with financial support and relief assistance. “We are working in conjunction with other churches and aid agencies, adding whatever we can to what God gives us,” he said.

Bishop Godfrey reported the Peruvian Civil Defence force’s “professionalism and organisation has been remarkable” in the aftermath of the quake. However, relief efforts had been “complicated by disorder, robbery and looting. There is great nervousness about the presence of unidentified strangers and the transportation of goods is almost impossible without army escort. Darkness is giving cover to gangs who loot houses and rob families of the little they still have,” he said.

Political machinations by Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez in quake’s aftermath have also been reported. Peru’s Expreso newspaper published photographs of cans of tinned tuna distributed to quake victims that sported a label with photos of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and left wing Peruvian opposition leader Ollanta Humala.

According to a report printed in the Los Angeles Times, the labels stated, “The Peruvian government acts in an inefficient, slow and heartless manner, notwithstanding the pain of the victims, leaving them to the mercy of hunger, thirst and delinquency.”

Popular outrage over the tuna tins has prompted the Venezuelan ambassador to deny responsibility, saying it was a plot to discredit Chavez and Humala. However, Expreso reported the tins were distributed from trucks owned by Humala’s Nationalist Party.

The Primates are not an Anglican Curia but are the logical center of authority for the Communion in difficult times, South American Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables has said.

“Common sense and biblical concepts” would say the Primates “are at that highest level of authority, under the presidency of the Archbishop of Canterbury by tradition” within the Anglican Communion, Bishop Venables said at a press conference on July 31 at St. Vincent’s Cathedral in Bedford, Texas at the close of the Anglican Communion Network council meeting.

“We are an episcopal church,” he noted. “Bishops have authority within their dioceses,” the “House of Bishops is very significant within a Province,” a “Presiding Bishop or Archbishop has authority within a Province,” the difficulty is “that nobody has ever said what happens after that.”

“We’ve got authority, we’ve got structure, we’ve got canons, we’ve got rules, up until that level,” Bishop Venables said.

“Because we don’t have written rules, you can say what you like” about the Primates authority without fear of contradiction. “That is the problem” and “I don’t see the Anglican Communion finding a place to solve that problem” at the present time.

However, the majority of Anglicans believe “we are an Episcopal Church and expect our church to be overseen by the episcopacy in the Anglican way, expecting the church to be led by those so set apart.”

Fort Worth Bishop Jack Iker told the gathering the Primates’ enhanced authority arose from the actions of the 1998 Lambeth Confernce. Resolution III.6 he noted gave the Primates Meeting the authority to intervene in cases of exceptional emergency which are incapable of internal resolution within provinces.

Bishop Venables observed that what lay behind this problem was that the “primates are very clear about what they think.”

“There is some confusion when the rubber hits the road on this issue,” that appeared to be fueled by objections to what the Primates were saying. “People are still living in a 1960’s post modern dream” he noted.

“In my youth, I really thought that songs like Strawberry Fields meant a great deal, but as I grew older I realized it had a number of interesting concepts but really didn’t work,” he said.

The Communion must “keep the Biblical concept that truth means reality” and structure its mission and ministry accordingly, he said.