Argentine bishop beaten/robbed: The Church of England Newspaper, June 6 2014 June 17, 2014
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.Tags: Gregory Venables
comments closed
The Bishop of Argentina and his wife were the victims of a home invasion last month, with the Rt. Rev. Greg Venables beaten, and his wife Sylvia bound by thieves who ransacked their home. On 25 May 2015 Bishop Venables, the former primate of the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone reported that “we arrived home from church on Sunday afternoon and disturbed thieves in the house. They beat and tied me up but didn’t hurt Sylvia. Having spent an hour ransacking the house and removing everything of value they left. It could have been much worse and God’s presence was unmistakable and tangible to us, to them and to the multitude of police who came afterwards. Sylvia was magnificent as those who know her can imagine. Thanks for your prayers.” Argentina has the highest rate of theft in South America the Organization of American States reports, with a robbery rate of 973 per 100,000, while the average for the continent was 456 per 100,000. In a note to friends published on 28 May 2014, Bishop Venables, noted their spirits remained strong. “Sylvia is fine, I am bruised, battered but better than ever. God is good.”
First Asian bishop for South America: The Church of England Newspaper, May 26, 2013 May 30, 2013
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.Tags: Diocese of Bolivia, Raphael Samuel
comments closed
Bishop Raphael Samuel of Bolivia
A missionary from the diocese of Singapore has been consecrated as Bishop of Bolivia.
Last week’s consecration of Archdeacon Raphael Samuel at Cristo Luz del Mundo church in Santa Cruz marks the first time an Asian missionary has been consecrated for the Church in South America, highlighting the changing relationships within the Anglican Communion.
On 12 May the Presiding Bishop of the Southern Cone of the Americas, the Rt Rev Tito Zavala consecrated Archdeacon Samuel as Bishop in succession to the Rt Rev Frank Lyons, who last year was translated as assistant bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh in the ACNA.
The election of Archdeacon Raphael Samuel as the Bishop of Bolivia represents a landmark in church missions in that he is the first Asian missionary to be consecrated bishop in the Spanish speaking Anglican world.
A Singaporean Tamil, Bishop Samuel entered the Singapore Navy in 1974 after completing his education. Though brought up a Christian, in 1980 he underwent a conversion experience and left the Navy to study for the ministry at Trinity College Singapore.
After serving in the parish ministry in 1991 he responded to a call to serve as a missionary from the South American Mission Society and with his wife and son Elijah were appointed as missionaries in Bolivia.
Bishop Samuel has served as pastor of the congregation in Santa Cruz, and as Archdeacon of the diocese, helping the Bolivian church acquire diocesan status, raise lay leaders and training local clergy to assume the leadership of the congregations.
Uruguay election ratified: The Church of England Newspaper, April 14, 2013 p 6. April 19, 2013
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.Tags: Diocese of Uruguay, Michael Pollesel
comments closed
The House of Bishops of the Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur (de América) has upheld the appeal of the Diocese of Uruguay and ratified the election of Archdeacon Michael Pollesel.
A statement released during holy week by the Presiding Bishop of the Southern Cone, Tito Zavala of Chile said the bishops and provincial Executive Council had “with joy and thankfulness to God” ratified Archdeacon Pollesel election after consideration of the appeal and the presentation of new background material.
At the close of their 21 – 25 May 2012 meeting in Montevideo the bishops released a statement saying that “after discussion and prayer and in accord with its canons the Provincial Executive of the Cono Sur together with its College of Bishops did not ratify the election of the Ven. Dr. Michael Pollesel as bishop-coadjutor for Uruguay”
The Cono Sur did not state why Dr. Pollesel’s election was rejected, but noted the province “promised its close cooperation with the diocese in its future decisions.”
The December 2011 election of Dr. Pollesel by the Uruguay synod to succeed Bishop Miguel Tamayo had raised questions from conservative activists. The former general secretary of the Anglican Church of Canada and interim priest-in-charge of St Nicholas Church, Birch Cliff in Toronto was credited with crafting the “non-confrontational” approach to the debate over same sex blessings taken at the last General Synod.
Conservatives claimed that by making the issue of homosexuality value neutral, it privileged gay supporters in the General Synod and allowed Canada to also claim it had not violated the Anglican Communion’s strictures against gay marriage.
No explanation as to the reasons for the 2012 rejection and 2013 ratification of the election has been released by the province. However it is understood Dr. Pollesel — who has served as vicar general of the diocese since his election — persuaded the bishops that he did not share and what not propagate the Canadian church’s doctrines in Uruguay.
The small South American diocese has been an outlier within the wider Cono Sur in recent years, focusing its energies on “social gospel” issues. On 12 Nov 2010 the diocese voted to secede from the Cono Sur after the provincial synod declined to authorize the ordination of women priests. Uruguay had proposed the women priest resolution, which was passed by the lay and episcopal orders, but defeated in the clergy order at the provincial synod in Buenos Aires.
The 12 – 15 November 2011 meeting in Asunción, Paraguay of the provincial synod rejected Uruguay’s requested to secede, but adopted a motion requesting a study in the feasibility of dividing the province into Atlantic and Pacific halves with Peru, Bolivia and two dioceses in Chile comprising one province and Argentina, Northern Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay comprising the second. The New Zealand meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council declined to endorse the diocese’s request to secede.
Cono Sur reverses course, ratifies Uruguay episcopal election: Anglican Ink, April 10, 2013 April 10, 2013
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Canada, Anglican Ink, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.Tags: Diocese of Uruguay, Michael Pollesel
comments closed
The Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur (de América) has ratified the election of Archdeacon Michael Pollesel as Bishop of Uruguay.
In a statement released during holy week by the Presiding Bishop of the Southern Cone, Bishop Tito Zavala of Chile said the province’s House of Bishops and Executive Council had “with joy and thankfulness to God” ratified Archdeacon Pollesel’s election after it had considered additional background material on the Canadian clergyman.
On 25 May 2012 the bishops released a statement saying that “after discussion and prayer and in accord with its canons the Provincial Executive of the Cono Sur together with its College of Bishops did not ratify the election of the Ven. Dr. Michael Pollesel as bishop-coadjutor for Uruguay.”
The Cono Sur did not state why Dr. Pollesel’s election had been rejected in 2012 or why it had now been ratified, but in 2012 the province “promised its close cooperation with the diocese in its future decisions.”
Read it all in Anglican Ink.
Francis I a friend to Argentine Anglicans: Anglican Ink, March 13, 2013 March 14, 2013
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Ink, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America, Roman Catholic Church.Tags: Argentina, Cristina Fernández Kirchner, Francis I, gay marriage, Gregory Venables
comments closed
The Bishop of Argentina and former primate of the Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur (Anglican Church of the Southern Cone), the Most Rev. Greg Venables, has applauded the election of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio saying the Argentine Archbishop is a devout Christian and friend to Anglicans, who has stood in solidarity with the poor against government corruption and social engineering.
In a note released after the election of the new Pope, Francis I, on March 13 Bishop Venables wrote:
“Many are asking me what Jorge Bergoglio is really like. He is much more of a Christian, Christ centered and Spirit filled, than a mere churchman. He believes the Bible as it is written. I have been with him on many occasions and he always makes me sit next to him and invariably makes me take part and often do what he as Cardinal should have done. He is consistently humble and wise, outstandingly gifted yet a common man. He is no fool and speaks out very quietly yet clearly when necessary. He called me to have breakfast with him one morning and told me very clearly that the Ordinariate was quite unnecessary and that the church needs us as Anglicans. I consider this to be an inspired appointment not because he is a close and personal friend but because of who he is In Christ. Pray for him.”
Read it all in Anglican Ink.
ACC won’t let Uruguay go: The Church of England Newspaper, December 9, 2012, p 5. December 12, 2012
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Consultative Council, Church of England Newspaper, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.Tags: Diocese of Uruguay, Michael Pollesel, Miguel Tamayo
comments closed
Holy Trinity Cathedral, Montevideo
The Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council has declined to back the July 2012 request from the Diocese of Uruguay to allow it to secede from the Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur (de América). Meeting last month before the start of ACC general meeting in Auckland, the standing committee turned down Uruguay’s plea to move from the conservative Southern Cone to the liberal Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil.
The ACC recommended Uruguay focus on electing a new bishop to succeed the Rt. Rev. Miguel Tamayo who was to retire last June. However the diocese responded that this advice was unhelpful as it had elected the former general secretary of the Anglican Church of Canada, Archdeacon Michael Pollesel to be its bishop, but his election was not ratified by the Southern Cone’s House of Bishops.
The Anglican Journal reported Uruguay would hold another election, but it was not optimistic that its choice of bishop would pass muster with the wider province as grave “missiological, philosophical and theological differences” remained.
On 12 Nov 2010 the diocese voted to secede from the Cono Sur after the provincial synod declined to authorize the ordination of women priests. Uruguay had proposed the women priest resolution, which was passed by the lay and episcopal orders, but defeated in the clergy order at the provincial synod in Buenos Aires.
The diocese had “sought to allow a diocesan option in the matter, rather than Provincial wide adoption, so that the diocese could proceed to minister within a very difficult agnostic milieu. Uruguay felt that after a nine year hiatus since the last vote for approval, a patient wait would be rewarded. That was not the result and so the Uruguayan Synod took this measure to move away from the Province,” provincial spokesman Bishop Frank Lyons of Bolivia said in a statement given to the press.
The 12 – 15 November 2011 meeting in Asunción, Paraguay of the provincial synod rejected Uruguay’s requested to secede, but adopted a motion requesting a study in the feasibility of dividing the province into Atlantic and Pacific halves with Peru, Bolivia and two dioceses in Chile comprising one province and Argentina, Northern Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay comprising the second.
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Recife elects new bishop: The Church of England Newspaper, September 30, 2012 p 6. October 2, 2012
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of North America, Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil, Church of England Newspaper, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.Tags: Diocese of Recife, Miguel Uchoa
comments closed
Bishop-elect Miguel Uchoa of Recife
The rector of the largest Anglican parish in South America has been elected Bishop of Recife. On 15 Sept 2012 the Rev. Miguel Ângelo de Andrade Uchoa Cavalcanti, rector of the Paróquia Anglicana Espírito Santo in Jaboatão dos Guararapes in the state of Pernambuco was elected fourth bishop of the diocese in succession to the late Dr. Robinson Cavalcanti.
Two candidates stood for election and on the first ballot Fr. Uchoa received 79.5 per cent of the lay and 69.3 per cent of the clergy votes from the 58 lay and 52 clergy delegates present, defeating the rival candidate, suffragan Bishop Evilásio Tenório. In 2005, the bishop and almost all of the Recife clergy were expelled from the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil. Bishop Cavalcanti, his clergy and approximately 90 per cent of the congregations moved under the oversight of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone and are linked to the Anglican Church in North America.
In a statement released after the synod, Bishop-elect Uchoa said he was humbled by his election. It was now his duty to “fulfill God’s call to this new phase of my life and ministry. But, I must emphasize, that the call does not just happen in my life. It is a call to our diocese, for the people, the clergy, the leaders of all communities, for the whole Church of Christ gathered in the Diocese of Recife” to “serve God and to align with His perfect will.”
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Cono Sur rejects Canadian priest’s election as Bishop of Uruguay: The Church of England Newspaper, June 3, 2012 p 6. June 7, 2012
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.Tags: Diocese of Uruguay, Fred Hiltz, Michael Pollesel
comments closed
Archdeacon Michael Pollesel with Archbishop Fred Hiltz. Photo: Anglican Journal
The Anglican Church in South America — the Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur (de América) – has rejected the election of the former General Secretary of the Anglican Church of Canada as Bishop of Uruguay.
At the close of their 21 – 25 May 2012 meeting in Montevideo the Cono Sur bishops released a statement saying that “after discussion and prayer and in accord with its canons the Provincial Executive of the Cono Sur together with its College of Bishops did not ratify the election of the Ven. Dr. Michael Pollesel as bishop-coadjutor for Uruguay”
The Cono Sur did not state why Dr. Pollesel’s election was rejected, but noted the province “promised its close cooperation with the diocese in its future decisions.”
The December 2011 election of Dr. Pollesel by the Uruguay synod to succeed Bishop Miguel Tamayo who retires in June raised questions from conservative activists. The former general secretary of the Anglican Church of Canada and interim priest-in-charge of St Nicholas Church, Birch Cliff in Toronto was credited with crafting the “non-confrontational” approach to the debate over same sex blessings taken at the last General Synod.
Conservative evangelicals claimed that by making the issue of homosexuality value neutral, it privileged gay supporters in the General Synod and allowed Canada to also claim it had not violated the Anglican Communion’s strictures against gay marriage. It permitted Canadians to remain on the Communion’s dialogue commission as the primate of Canada, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, stated his province had not taken any formal steps to permit gay blessings – even though a number of dioceses had done so.
Some critics likened his election to that of Nicholas Henderson in Malawi, a liberal London vicar elected bishop by an impoverished Central African diocese, which also was subsequently rejected by the Central African bishops and standing committee. However, it is not known if these concerns played a part in the decision to decline to ratify the election.
Dr. Pollesel told Canada’s Anglican Journal that he was “disappointed” after he learned of the Cono Sur decision from Bishop Tamayo. “It’s been a long wait,” he said, noting that Bishop Tamayo said the Uruguayan diocesan council will meet in June to discuss how to procede.
The small South American diocese has been an outlier within the wider Cono Sur in recent years. On 12 Nov 2010 the diocese voted to secede from the Cono Sur after the provincial synod declined to authorize the ordination of women priests. Uruguay had proposed the women priest resolution, which was passed by the lay and episcopal orders, but defeated in the clergy order at the provincial synod in Buenos Aires.
The diocese had “sought to allow a diocesan option in the matter, rather than Provincial wide adoption, so that the diocese could proceed to minister within a very difficult agnostic milieu. Uruguay felt that after a nine year hiatus since the last vote for approval, a patient wait would be rewarded. That was not the result and so the Uruguayan Synod took this measure to move away from the Province,” provincial spokesman Bishop Frank Lyons of Bolivia said in a statement given to the press.
The 12 – 15 November 2011 meeting in Asunción, Paraguay of the provincial synod rejected Uruguay’s requested to secede, but adopted a motion requesting a study in the feasibility of dividing the province into Atlantic and Pacific halves with Peru, Bolivia and two dioceses in Chile comprising one province and Argentina, Northern Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay comprising the second.
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Cono Sur rejects election of Bishop of Uruguay: Anglican Ink, May 25, 2012 May 25, 2012
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Ink, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.Tags: Michael Pollesel, Uruguay
comments closed
Michael Pollesel
The House of Bishops and provincial executive committee of the Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur (de América) have declined to ratify the election of the Ven. Michael Pollesel as Bishop of Uruguay.
At the close of their 21 – 25 May 2012 meeting in Montevideo the bishops released a statement saying that “after discussion and prayer and in accord with its canons the Provincial Executive of the Cono Sur together with its College of Bishops did not ratify the election of the Ven. Dr. Michael Pollesel as bishop-coadjutor for Uruguay”
The Cono Sur statement did not state why Dr. Pollesel’s election was rejected, but noted the province “promised its close cooperation with the diocese in its future decisions.”
Read it all in Anglican Ink.
Province of the Southern Cone to divide: The Church of England Newspaper, March 9, 2012 p 7. March 15, 2012
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America, Women Priests.Tags: Diocese of Uruguay, Frank Lyons
comments closed
A special meeting of the Synod of the Province of the Southern Cone has voted to begin discussions on dividing the province in two. Meeting in Asunción, Paraguay, from 12 – 15 November 2011, the synod suggested dividing the province into an Atlantic and a Pacific half with Peru, Bolivia and two dioceses in Chile comprising one province and Argentina, Northern Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay comprising the second.
According to a press statement released by the Bishop of Bolivia, the Rt. Rev. Frank Lyons, the decision to divide came in response to a request made by Uruguay to allow it to seek the oversight of another jurisdiction.
In September 2010, the Southern Cone synod rejected a proposal put forward by the Diocese of Uruguay to allow dioceses to have a local option to ordain women to the priesthood. Uruguay’s diocesan synod responded the following month, endorsing a resolution asking for a transfer out of the province.
Last June the provincial standing committee agreed to advance the date of the general synod by two years, to November 2011 to review Uruguay’s request and to take up the issue of women priests again.
At the special meeting, Uruguay’s request to allow it to ordain women priests was rejected by all three houses of synod. Bishop Lyons reported that a “second motion was entertained to allow Uruguay to seek other oversight and surprisingly, the extraordinary Synod also voted against that action.”
However, discussion on a way forward “stretched into a second day,” Bishop Lyons said, and “it was proposed to multiply the Province into two provinces. This combined a previous desire for growth with a way forward to meet the need in Uruguay.”
The next two years will see the proposal to divide debated at the local, regional and communion level. However, “the diocese of Uruguay still has the option to seek other jurisdiction,” the bishop said. “But the probable future of the Southern Cone briefly envisioned was of two provinces” divided between east and west.
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Southern Cone backs Anglican Covenant: Anglican Ink, December 20, 2011 December 21, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Covenant, Anglican Ink, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.Tags: Frank Lyons, Kenneth Kearon, Tito Zavala
comments closed
Bishop Frank Lyons
La Provincia Anglicana del Cono Sur – the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone – has endorsed the Anglican Covenant.
Meeting in Asunción, Paraguay from 3-11 November 2011, the provincial executive committee and the province’s House of Bishops endorsed the inter-Anglican agreement that sets the parameters of doctrine and discipline for the Anglican Communion.
In a statement released on 20 Dec 2011, Bishop Frank Lyons of Bolivia stated the province believed the covenant was a “way forward” in the midst of a difficult time when “certain provinces” were proposing “novel ways of Christian living” that rejected “Biblical norms.”
Read it all in Anglican Ink.
South American synod to consider Uruguay’s request to secede: The Church of England Newspaper, June 17, 2011 p 9. June 18, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.comments closed
A special session of the general synod of the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone will be held in November in Asunción, Paraguay to respond to the Nov 12, 2010 vote by the Diocese of Uruguay to quit the province and seek alternative metropolitan oversight.
In a statement released on behalf of the province by the Bishop of Bolivia on June 12, the Rt. Rev. Frank Lyons reported the May 16-18 provincial executive council meeting agreed to bring forward by two years the next meeting of synod to respond to the diocese’s request.
In September 2010, the South American synod rejected a proposal put forward by the Diocese of Uruguay to allow dioceses to have a local option on women clergy. While the resolution was passed in the lay and episcopal orders of synod, it failed to garner majority support from the clergy order.
Uruguay’s diocesan synod responded the following month, endorsing a resolution asking for a transfer out of the province within the year.
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Bishop Lyons reported the Southern Cone’s Provincial Executive Council sought to respond this request and “hold an extraordinary Synod next November with the request of Uruguay as its subject and allowing the Province to pastorally accompany the diocese.”
In other business, the executive council appointed the suffragan bishop of Northern Argentina to the post of diocesan bishop of Northern Argentina. The Rt. Rev. Nicholas Drayson had served as associate vicar of Beverly Minister for eight years before taking up the suffragan post in the Argentine Chaco in 2008.
Bishop Drayson, who had served as a missionary translator to the Charote people in Northern Argentina before returning to the UK in 2000, succeeds Bishop Gregory Venables, who had been the Interim Bishop in charge of the Diocese of Northern Argentina.
Recife’s Robinson Cavalcanti to retire: The Church of England Newspaper, June 9, 2011. June 9, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil, Church of England Newspaper, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America, Pastoral Visitor programme.comments closed
Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti of Recife
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Anglican Bishop of Recife, the Rt. Rev. Robinson Cavalcanti, has called for the election of a bishop-coadjutor.
Speaking on the occasion of Recife’s 35th anniversary as free-standing diocese on May 20, Bishop Cavalcanti said that he will retire on his 70th birthday in June 2014. He called for the election of a coadjutor bishop in 2013 “to make an orderly transition without prejudice to the normal activities of the diocese.”
Since it broke from the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil (IEAB) in 2005, the diocese has seen significant growth and “has more than doubled its number of congregations, clergy and members” a diocesan spokesman said earlier this year. As of the start of 2011, the diocese stated it had 5,102 members in 47 congregations with 61 ordained clergy, and a “presence in 9 Brazilian states.”
Deposed along with his clergy of Recife by the IEAB for contumacy, the 2005 legal action has not been recognized by a majority of the wider Anglican Communion, and the Archbishop of Canterbury has long attempted to mediate the dispute. Dr. Williams told a press conference at the close of the 2009 Primates Meeting he had sent emissaries to the two sides and hoped “this would lead to an eventual reconciliation.”
However, Bishop Cavalcanti last year told CEN this was an unrealistic hope. Forcing the two into one institutional body would compel “people of two different religions to live formally together,” he said.
The stagnation of the IEAB has led Recife to expand outside of its diocesan boundaries and it now has “a presence in 9 Brazilian states,” the diocese said.
To oversee this growth, the diocese is organizing four archdeaconries and will elect two suffragan bishops later this year. The diocese has asked for the prayers of the wider church in support of its mission to bring the Gospel to Brazil and “hopes to count on the support of orthodox Anglicans throughout the world” in its work.
Brazil to have a Protestant majority in 10 years time, report claims: The Church of England Newspaper, March 18, 2011 p 8. March 23, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil, Church of England Newspaper, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.comments closed
Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti of Recife
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The world’s most populous Roman Catholic country, Brazil, will have a Protestant majority within 10 years, the International Mission Agency serving Pastors and Leaders (SEPAL) reports.
In a study released last month, SEPAL researcher Luis André Bruneto stated that by 2020 the number of Brazilian Protestants would total 109.3 million out of a projected population of 209.3 million, or 52.2 per cent. Statistics released by the Brazilian government census bureau and the Datafolha Institute show that as of 2010 the Protestant population stood at 57.4 million out of a population of 190 million, or 30 per cent.
Mr Bruneto told the Christian Post his estimates were based on the current annual growth rate of evangelical and Pentecostal churches of 7.42 per cent holding steady. The growth of Protestant churches will not come through mass conversion, he said, but by a “profound transformation in a society’s way of thinking, orientated by the influence of redeemed Christians.”
Brazil’s growing middle-classes were the most fertile ground for Protestantism, he noted. Protestants were “militant in evangelistic outreach, and are adopting rules that are less strict. Christian life is getting greater visibility in society where there is a greater flexibility of customs.”
Not all Protestant groups are witnessing growth, however. The Lutheran Church, brought to Brazil by German immigrants, has lost members to more conservative evangelical churches, while the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil’s membership has been stagnant for some time.
However, the breakaway Diocese of Recife reports strong growth in line with that witnessed by other conservative Protestant denominations. In January Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti of Recife reported his Diocese had more than doubled in size since it withdrew from the IEAB.
Bishop Cavalcanti stated that as of year’s end, the “Diocese has a membership of 5,102 in 47 congregations – Parishes, Mission Plants and Points – and has a presence in nine Brazilian states, with 61 clergy and an ample network of social outreach ministries.”
He noted that “since its expulsion” from the IEAB five years ago, the “Diocese of Recife has more than doubled its number of congregations, clergy and members.”
On March 15, Bishop Cavalcanti reported his Diocese had been welcomed as a member of Brazil’s Aliança Evangélica, and that he had been elected a member of its Council of Reference.
The Diocese of Recife, “of an evangelical and charismatic ethos,” would not rejoin the IEAB, the Bishop said, claiming that it “refuses to repent of its doctrinal and moral heterodoxy” and did not “maintain the Apostolic Faith and the Resolutions of the Lambeth Conference.”
Recife would, however, “within the current realignment process” of the Anglican Communion, seek to maintain “links” with the Church’s “orthodox sectors.”
The Anglican Communion after Dublin: The Church of England Newspaper, Feb 18, 2011 p 11-12 February 18, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, GAFCON, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The divisions within the Anglican Communion are theological, not political, and can be resolved only through an appeal to providence and Scripture, the chairman of the Gafcon Primates Council meeting, Bishop Gregory Venables has said.
In an interview recorded by AnglicanTV and broadcast on February 5, Bishop Venables outlined the Gafcon group of Churches’ disquiet with the innovations made by the Archbishop of Canterbury. However, appeals to diversity, conversation or political compromise to fix the Anglican Communion will not save it, if the Gospel is not preached.
ATV: What’s the most important issue going on in the Anglican Communion today?
GV: The vast majority of Anglican leaders worldwide, together with Anglicans in general, want to get on with preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ: the fact that there is a message of hope, and love and forgiveness and new life in Jesus Christ.
But we’ve hit a problem. And the problem is that within what we call the Anglican Communion there is a significant group, which unfortunately seems to dominate much of the public life of our church, which is suppressing the truth.
The reason why we feel this urgency is because it is clearer than ever, even within our own Church, that we are under the wrath of God. Now that is not something that people like to talk about very much, and it’s not a very pleasant subject, but it is an important one.
Back in the 1960s when I was a teenager, I remember Archbishop Michael Ramsey saying that the one place where we could all engage with God and identify God at that time, within the world situation, was under his judgment. And that was a shocking thing to say, but it was true.
He was saying that because of our behaviour, because of the fact that in the West we turned our back on God, the one place where we can identify the presence of God in our lives and our society in the world we’re living in is where we see his judgement. And this is true about the wrath of God.
And we’re under the wrath of God and we need to preach the gospel into that situation.
Although we’ve received the truth, although we know about God, although we know about this Gospel, people have chosen to go down the path of the pride of human wisdom … of seeking to find answers that are satisfactory to our own self-sufficiency and self-satisfaction … to go down the path of delighting in wickedness. Doing the things that God has forbidden, yet thinking that they are good and wonderful and lovely.
We’ve become darkened in our thinking. And you can see it in the situation with which the Anglican Communion has been grappling for the past 15 years. You can see that many have become darkened in their understanding. Paul says they become foolish and that’s why there’s no dialogue.
We are talking from completely different perspectives. In some cases it’s because the blindness and the ignorance, which is there if we’ve never known God personally. But sometimes, sadly, it’s because people have turned their back on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And that’s far worse.
We have this urgency of preaching the Gospel. Of saying that there is a way out. But the way out is not in human wisdom, it is not in human self-sufficiency. It is in the Gospel of Jesus Christ which he has revealed to us. God has spoken and we cannot block our ears and pretend we haven’t heard it. And that is a situation which has to be addressed.
ATV: Is the Anglican Communion under God’s judgment?
GV. I believe we are under God’s judgement —- having received a revelation of truth which we are suppressing, as Paul writes in Romans chapter 1. Many of us believe that.
It’s not something we feel happy about. We feel devastated and we all share in the guilt. But we can’t go on as if nothing has happened. The gospel has to be preached.
ATV: What are your thoughts on the Dublin Primates’ Meeting?
GV: A large number of Primates just simply didn’t want to go because of the lack of trust and because the certainty that it was not going to go anywhere. What’s happened is that a small group is undoubtedly pushing a false gospel, a gospel which does not proclaim the need for salvation, which does not proclaim that Jesus is the one and only path back to God.
The sad thing is that although we spent years trying to get this thing right as a Communion, suddenly that crisis is put on one side. Suddenly the urgency has gone and we’re told no, that all we have to do is sit and talk.
If my house is on fire, I am not just going to sit and talk to my family, we’re going to get up and we’re going to something about it.
ATV: Is it true the Primates have no authority any more?
GV: That was coming. You could see it coming. You could see it coming by the fact that in spite of everything that has been said, suddenly now that all goes into some dusty file somewhere. Suddenly we have no authority, apart from this little standing committee of Primates —- and only time will tell with what’s going to happen with that.
If that proves to be a little centralised group of authority, then we have moved away from the very spirit of Anglicanism —- which is about teamwork, which is about bishops being first among equals, which is about us listening together to the voice of God and discerning the voice of God together.
Nowhere in the New Testament do you find one or two people making decisions. It is always the body discerning God’s voice together. It seemed right to us and the Holy Spirit. We’ve come to the very place where we were told for years we couldn’t go. We were told there is no authority and now suddenly there is, and that’s very, very, concerning.
ATV: Are we moving away from a Canterbury-led Communion?
GV: We never had to go to Canterbury to get to Jesus. There never was a centre of the church in one place. That was very, very, clear from the beginning … for the first few hundred years of the church until 1065, when the authority was centred on the Bishop of Rome after the Great Schism.
But up until then we never located authority in one place. There were always patriarchs, but never one who was in charge of everything except at the moment of presiding in council. While Canterbury is a wonderful part of our history and although there is tremendous amount of affection … a tremendous amount of respect for the role of the Archbishop of Canterbury, (and the same is true of the persons we been thinking about over recent years including Archbishop Rowan at the present moment, there is tremendous respect and love for him and for the people who were there before him) we cannot allow one person and a small group around that person to assume authority over the Anglican Communion. That was never within Anglicanism and it should never be within Anglicanism because it’s not in Scripture.
ATV: Would you support the calling of an Anglican Church council?
GV: I think if somehow that as a whole body we could come to the conclusion that it would be good to call together a council of the Church, to come to some resolution about the present crisis, that would be a good thing to do. But it would have to be a joint decision made by the whole of the Anglican Communion and with the whole of the Anglican Communion being represented.
At the moment it’s very clear that we have slipped into a Western, almost colonialist leadership. We have to ask the question if this have been the other way round, if this sinful behaviour had been promoted and sought to be lifted up as something God approves of in a part of the world that did not have the money and the power and the place that the United States has [how would it have been received?] It would be very interesting to see what would happen after everything unfolded.
ATV: Has the Primates’ Meeting been changed forever?
GV: The fact that such a large number didn’t go and made it very clear that they weren’t interested in going says that it’s gone. But it wasn’t just because things weren’t dealt with now.
We sought to deal with them constantly and it hadn’t gone anywhere. Things go on and people are still going on as if nothing has happened. And there is the terrible silence. The silence which now is so loud, as we heard it in the Dublin meeting.
ATV: Who controls the agenda for a Primates’ Meeting?
GV: The agenda turns up. There were moments, because I was attending Primates’ Meetings, I was elected Primate in 2001, so between then and last year when I was attending meetings, there were times when we were given very important papers just a few moments before we were told to consider them.
That can’t be. We have to know what’s on the agenda and more than that we have to control what’s on the agenda. It has to be a joint decision, not another decision made by a small group that has been selected by a group of people that were not selected to make that decision by the Anglican Communion.
ATV: Do you think the Global South if it had its own resources, would call its own Primates’ Meeting?
GV: So long as we remain submitted to God and seeking to do what God wants, God will provide us with everything we want.
Believe me, the vast majority of the Anglican Communion are in love with God the Father, are in love with Jesus Christ the son, in love with the Holy Spirit and want to get on with the will of God and do what he wants. To be dependent on him —- that is a wonderful place to be, but it has given us an enormous responsibility.
The answer is not to move out, to form another Communion or go to another Church —- although we respect those who have done it. Anglicanism has got a lot of life left because it’s something God has created. There’s an awful lot to be done yet and we can come through this.
But we will not come through this situation sitting in meetings where we consistently and apparently deliberately refuse to engage with the very crisis which has broken us up.
ATV: What is the hope for the Communion?
GV: The Global South and Gafcon are planning very important activities in the coming days. The reason why so many did not attend [the Dublin meeting] is because there are other things that need to be done. The reasons why they chose not to go were not simple reasons. They were reasons that were expressed very clearly, both verbally and in writing.
It was quite incorrect to present the absence of some people as being secondary matters. That was not the case. People made it very clear that they were not going … [however] there’s a lot going on and there will be a lot to be involved in the coming.
We are not ashamed of the Gospel. If we’re not ashamed of it we have to proclaim it, which is the principal activity in the Anglican Church worldwide. We just have to get on with it and that is what both the global South and Gafcon together are planning on doing: working together, working in unity, working in love and working in collegial community to do what God wants us to do.
ATV: Have you been in touch with Bishop Mouneer Anis of Egypt?
GV: It’s a desperate situation. It’s a part of the anarchy going on in the world. It’s true here in Latin America. It’s true now in Europe. It’s true in North America. It’s true in other parts of the world.
We are in a situation of anarchy because we are first of all in ignorance and blindness. Not living the way God wants us to. But even worse in the case of those of us who have received the Christian revelation of truth in Jesus Christ — we are living in a rebellious way, suppressing the truth which is our only hope of salvation.
So it is no surprise and it’s not getting any better until there is repentance and people turning back to this wonderful loving God. A God who loves us so much that he’s not going to let us live in darkness.
He is going to insist and insist and insist until people turn back to him.
Uruguay votes to quit Southern Cone: The Church of England Newspaper, Nov 19, 2010 p 8. November 22, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.comments closed
Bishop Miguel Tamayo of Uruguay
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Diocese of Uruguay has voted to secede from the Province of the Southern Cone.
On Nov 12 an extraordinary session of the diocesan synod meeting in Montevideo endorsed a resolution proposed by the diocesan council to quit the province and seek alternative metropolitan oversight. The vote was taken in response to last month’s vote by the provincial synod rejecting the ordination of women priests.
Uruguay had proposed the women priest resolution, which was passed by the lay and episcopal orders, but defeated in the clergy order at the provincial synod in Buenos Aires. Uruguay had “sought to allow a diocesan option in the matter, rather than Provincial wide adoption, so that the diocese could proceed to minister within a very difficult agnostic milieu. Uruguay felt that after a nine year hiatus since the last vote for approval, a patient wait would be rewarded. That was not the result and so the Uruguayan Synod took this measure to move away from the Province,” provincial spokesman Bishop Frank Lyons of Bolivia said in a statement given to the press.
The diocese requested permission for transfer out of the province within the year. If permission to quit the Southern Cone was not granted, Uruguay would appeal the matter to the Anglican Consultative Council, Bishop Lyons said.
The Bishop of Uruguay, the Rt. Rev. Miguel Tamayo, who also serves as interim Bishop of Cuba which has women priests and has had two women bishops told CEN the decision to quit the province was not his along. “The way I lead the diocese, is not for me alone to respond” he said, noting it was “a matter for the whole diocese, through its synod.”
The diocese will now wait upon the province for its response, Bishop Tamayo said. “According to the provincial canons the only thing we can do is to transmit [our request], first [to] the province, and later, if it does not work, direct with the ACC, to be under another metropolitan authority. We are hopeful that our Anglican structures will work,” he said.
Uruguay has often been the “odd man out” within the province of the Southern Cone, and has kept its links to the US and Canadian churches after the rest of the province broke relations following the Gene Robinson affair.
Uruguay will be the second South American diocese to attempt to secede from its province. Disputes over doctrine and discipline led the conservative Diocese of Recife to secede from the liberal Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil [IEAB] and seek the metropolitan oversight of the Southern Cone in 2007 after its bishop and the majority of its clergy were deposed for contumacy. The IEAB responded to the defection by recognizing the ten percent of the diocese that remained loyal to the province as the true Diocese of Recife. With a liberal diocese now seeking to withdraw from a conservative province, the scene is now set for a repeat of the Recife crisis, unless an amicable resolution can be reached.
Bishop of Chile tapped to lead Southern Cone: The Church of England Newspaper, Nov 12, 2010 p 7. November 18, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America, Women Priests.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop of Chile has been elected Presiding Bishop of la Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur (the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone). Bishop Hector “Tito” Zavala of Chile will succeed Bishop Gregory Venables of Argentina as primate of the Anglican Church in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.
Bishop Venables, who remains in office as Bishop of Argentina and acting Bishop of Northern Argentina, told The Church of England Newspaper the province’s Oct 29-Nov 1 House of Bishops meeting and its Nov 2-5 10th provincial meeting of synod held in Buenos Aires was “extremely satisfying” and was marked by a “real commitment to unity and mission.”
Bishop Zavala was unanimously chosen to serve a three year, renewable term as primate and will be the church’s first leader of South American descent. The synod also extended Bishop Venables a formal note of thanks for his nine years of service as primate and endorsed his work on the international Anglican stage.
The new primate is expected to continue the work of his predecessor on the pan-Anglican scene. The Diocese of Chile has a companion relationship with the Diocese of Pittsburgh and has given its full support to Archbishop Robert Duncan and the Anglican Church in North America.
In other business, the synod rejected a proposed revision to the provincial canons that would have permitted the ordination of women to the priesthood. The proposed amendment would have give dioceses a “local option” for women priests. While the proposal was adopted in the episcopal and lay order, it failed in the clerical order and was defeated.
Of the 38 Provinces of the Anglican Communion, 8 do not ordain women: Central Africa, Jerusalem and the Middle East, Melanesia, Myanmar, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, South East Asia, and Tanzania.
Two provinces ordain women to the diaconate only, Congo and the Southern Cone while 25 provinces and the extra-provincial Church of Ceylon ordain women to the priesthood: Bangladesh, Brazil, Burundi, Central America, England, Hong Kong, North India, South India, Indian Ocean, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, Rwanda, Scotland, Southern Africa, the Sudan, Uganda, Wales, West Africa, and the West Indies. Four provinces have consecrated women bishops: the Episcopal Church, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as has the extra-provincial diocese of Cuba.
Church State clash over gay marriage in Argentina: The Church of England Newspaper, July 30, 2010, p 5. August 2, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Human Sexuality --- The gay issue, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.comments closed
Bishop Gregory Venables
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Argentina has become the first Latin American national to recognize gay marriage.
Over the vigorous protests of Catholic and Protestant leaders, the Argentine Senate on July 15 passed a gay marriage law endorsed by President Cristina Fernández. By a vote of 33 to 27 with three abstentions, the Senate passed the gay marriage bill following 15 hours of contentious debate.
“I am very satisfied. It has been a positive vote,” said President Fernández upon hearing of the vote while on a state visit to China.
While Protestant leaders had opposed the bill, the fight over gay marriage had pitted the Fernández government against the country’s influential Catholic Church in a political battle that analysts note had more to do with anti-clericalism than with gay rights.
In the run up to the vote Argentina’s Synod of Catholic Bishops had warned “this is not a private matter or a matter of religious choice, this is a reality rooted in the very nature of humanity, which is male and female.”
The Archbishop of Argentina, Cardinal Jorge Bergogolio before the vote said “this is no mere legislative bill. It is a move by the father of lies to confuse and deceive the children of God.”
President Fernández responded saying the Cardinal’s statement was “really reminiscent of the times of the Inquisition,” and argued that the proposed law “recognizes a pre-existent reality” and “the rights of minorities.”
The night before the vote, Catholic and Evangelical leaders organized a march upon the Congress building in Buenos Aires. Over 60,000 protesters waived orange flags and held aloft placards denouncing the bill while a statement released by the march organizers declared, “we won’t vote for politicians who vote for the marriage of homosexuals.”
On June 30 Anglican, Evangelical, Catholic and Orthodox leaders testified before the Senate’s legal committee against the proposed law. The Presiding Bishop of the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone and Bishop of Argentina, the Most Rev. Gregory Venables urged legislators to reject the government’s bill. Expanding the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples would shake and divide the nation, he said.
“If you take the Old and New Testaments” it is plain that “God foresaw marriage as being for a man and a woman.” The Biblical text “leaves no possibility of marriage as anything else,” the bishop said, for marriage is the “sign of the union of Christ and his Church.”
“I can only bless what God blesses” (Yo sólo puedo bendecir lo que Dios bendice), Bishop Venables told the Senate, urging them to take head to the views of the “86 per cent of the country that is Christian”, adding that the government had been wrong not to consult with the people before it began its political push for gay marriage.
Political analysts in Argentina note the battle over gay marriage has little to do with the intrinsic issues, but is part of a wider political battle between President Fernández and her husband, former President Nestor Kirchner, against the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church has been sharply critical of the government’s failures to address corruption and poverty. The split with the church was evident on July 9, when President Fernández broke a long-held presidential tradition by missing the Te Deum Mass for Argentina’s Independence Day. The country’s constitution designates Roman Catholicism as the country’s official religion.
“Kirchner’s epic vision of politics and his need to turn every issue into a mortal combat have driven him to seek the defeat of [Cardinal] Bergoglio and the church,” said Joaquin Morales Sola, a columnist at the conservative La Nacion newspaper.
“Kirchner doesn’t care about the gay community,” said opposition leader Elisa Carrio of the Coalicion Civica party. “Kirchner is using the gay-marriage issue to take on Bergoglio,” she said.
Chile quake hits Church: CEN 3.05.10 p 1. March 16, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Disaster Relief, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.comments closed
Over 700 have died and more than two million people have been displaced from their homes following a magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile on Feb 28.
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has instituted martial law over the south western coastal region of Maule and the city of Concepción and ordered troops to help deliver food and relief supplies. With Concepción’s 500,000 residents cut off from food and water, looting has broken out and soldiers have fired tear gas to control the crowds.
Bishop Henry Scriven, director of mission for Latin America for CMS-SAMS reports that its has no word of any injuries of its staff in country. The former Bishop of Chile, the Rt. Rev Colin Bazley was visiting family in Santiago and was in their 24th floor apartment when the earthquake struck. “They were shaken, but not stirred!” Bishop Scriven reported.
Communications with the Concepción are difficult, however. Sammy Lugo told SAMS-Ireland the “phone lines have been down and mobile phone signals are weak and unreliable. Even the government hasn’t really known what’s been happening till about 12 hours ago. “
“The news we’re now getting is quite disturbing: riots, looting, people trapped under buildings and even hundreds of people having escaped a few of the local prisons. On the coast some towns have been hit by tsunamis, though things are calmer now on that front,” said Lugo, a lay member of the Diocese of Chile, who recently completed a one-year parish placement in Belfast.
“Thankfully, the news from the Concepción church seems to be ok. We’ve heard news of many of the church families staying together and sharing food and lodgings, as things are much more difficult there.”
On March 2, SAMS Ireland General Secretary Denis Johnston spoke with Bishop Tito Zavala of Chile, who reported that he was taking a team from Santiago to Concepción to survey the damage and to assist church families displaced by the earthquake.
In an email to Anglican Mainstream, Bishop Gregory Venables of Argentina, the Primate of the Church of the Southern Cone stated the earthquake “represents both a setback and a great opportunity to demonstrate the reality of the transformation Christ brings through his Spirit working through his people. I hope we can support our brethren in Christ in Chile strongly at this time. “
Southern Cone ‘is growing’: CEN 7.03.09 p 5. July 5, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.comments closed
The Rt. Rev. Robinson Cavalcanti
La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur has grown by “leaps and bounds” over the past decade the Bishop of Bolivia, the Rt. Rev. Frank Lyons told delegates to the founding convocation of the ACNA in Fort Worth last week, with many dioceses doubling in size.
Bishop Lyons reported that at the March 28 meeting of the South American House of Bishops in Asuncion, the province authorized the creation of four auxiliary bishops for the Diocese of Chile, three auxiliary bishops for the Diocese of Peru, one suffragan bishop for the Diocese of Uruguay, and one suffragan bishop for the Diocese of Northern Argentina.
The Anglican Church has experienced rapid growth on the ground as well. When the Rt. Rev. William Godfrey was translated to Peru in April 1998, the diocese consisted of two expatriate priests, four Peruvian priests, and one Peruvian deacon serving nine congregations.
As of June 2009, the Diocese of Peru consists of 41 congregations serviced by 24 priests, 8 deacons and 23 lay ministers, while the diocese’s two theological colleges are training 60 seminarians.
The Bishop of Recife, the Rt. Rev. Robinson Cavalcanti told the ACNA his diocese had also prospered in recent years. In 2005 the bishop and 40 of his priests were deposed by the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil for contumacy. In the four years since he was expelled from the IEAB, the Diocese of Recife had doubled in size.
He noted that nine congregations in Southern Brazil had also petitioned to be received from the IEAB to the Diocese of Recife. “They said, if you can support churches in America, certainly you can support us.”
Bishop Iker dismisses legal threat: CEN 7.03.09 p 5. July 5, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of North America, Church of England Newspaper, Fort Worth, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.comments closed
The Presiding Bishop of the Southern Cone has rejected assertions made by lawyers representing the Episcopal Church that the clergy of the Anglican Church in North America are un-Anglican.
In a June 30 letter to the clergy of the Diocese of Fort Worth, Bishop Gregory Venables reminded them that the Alexandria primates meeting had affirmed the Anglican bona fides of the American breakaway dioceses and clergy.
While it would “take some time before the institutional structures catch up to the realities of the present day situation in the Communion,” the Diocese of Fort Worth and clergy of Fort Worth remained in “good standing and favor with me” and the Southern Cone. Your “orders and ministries are secure in the Lord and as Anglicans,” he said.
The February 2009 Primates Meeting had reached a “clear agreement” that the breakaway dioceses, their bishops and clergy are “fully members of the Anglican Communion. Any other assertions are,” in the view of the primates of the Anglican Communion, “completely unfounded,” he said.
Bishop Venables’ salvo comes in the wake of a broadside from a lawyer representing the loyalist faction of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, and a letter from the Provision bishop of the diocese, Bishop Edwin Gulick of Kentucky. Last week, Bishop Gulick wrote to the Fort Worth clergy, stating he would depose unless they acceded to his authority.
A second letter from attorney Jonathan Nelson to the clergy and wardens of Fort Worth’s parishes asked them to turn over their property to the national Episcopal Church of face litigation.
On June 30, Bishop Iker told his clergy to ignore the demand letters, as they were “now in the hands of our attorneys.”
“We are no longer members of [the Episcopal Church] and are not subject to their discipline,” he said.
Bishop Iker further noted that under the Episcopal Church’s canon law, Bishop Gulick had no authority to act in Fort Worth. The special convention called by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori on Feb 7, 2009 was not lawfully organized, he said, adding that “there was no quorum present at the February 7, 2009, meeting, because less than one-third of all clergy and lay delegates of the Diocese entitled to seat was present for the meeting.”
Any actions arising from the loyalists’ special convention were “null and void,” under canon and Texas civil law, he said—a point disputed by Bishop Gulick and the loyalist faction. The Tarrant County, Texas courts are studying the preliminary pleadings in the dispute, and a decision is not expected until next year.
Scenes from Alexandria: Hong Kong and South America February 21, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Album (Photos), Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America, Primates Meeting 2009.comments closed
The Primates of Hong Kong and South America, Paul Kwong and Gregory Venables on Feb 1 at the Helnan Palestine Hotel in Alexandria.
Scenes from Alexandria: Southern Cone February 18, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Album (Photos), La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America, Primates Meeting 2009.comments closed
The Primate of the Southern Cone, Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables of Argentina
CMS merger with SAMS given the go ahead: CEN 1.30.09 p 6. January 31, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America, Mission Societies/Religious Orders.comments closed
A Special General Meeting of the Church Mission Society (CMS) has endorsed plans for the merger of the venerable mission agency with the South American Mission Society (SAMS).
Meeting at the CMS’ mission centre in Oxford on Jan 20, the merger was endorsed by a vote of 99 percent in favour. A result the CMS trustee chairman, the Rt. Rev. Paul Butler of Southampton called “hugely encouraging” for the society’s coming work in Latin America and Spain.
Messages from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams and the Primate of the Southern Cone, the Most Rev. Gregory Venables were read out to the meeting, supporting the work of the two societies.
On Nov 29 the General Council of SAMS (GB) voted “to approve in principle” the merger by an 80 to 20 percent margin to approve the concordat. The former Assistant Bishop of Pittsburgh and Suffragan Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe, the Rt. Rev. Henry Scriven took up the combined work of the two agencies on Jan 1. The vote comes after two years of discernment by the two mission agencies.
South American Mission Society agrees in principal to merge with CMS: CEN 12.05.08 p 7. December 8, 2008
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America, Mission Societies/Religious Orders.comments closed
The General Council of the South American Mission Society (SAMS) has voted “to approve in principle” the merger of SAMS with the Church Mission Society (CMS). At its Nov 29 board meeting, the SAMS General Council voted by an 80 to 20 percent margin to approve the concordat. CMS will vote on the merger on Jan 20.
The former Assistant Bishop of Pittsburgh and Suffragan Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe, the Rt. Rev. Henry Scriven will take head up the combined work of the two agencies in South America and Spain on Jan 1. The vote comes after two years of discernment by the two mission agencies.
In other action, the SAMS board of trustees gave its “agreement with the Jerusalem Declaration made on 29 June 2008 by those attending the GAFCON meeting. We stand with those in our partner dioceses in South America who have spoken out for the truths of the gospel and have at considerable cost accepted orthodox dioceses and churches into the Province of the Southern Cone.”
The SAMS General Council also learned that one of their members, the Rev. Nick Drayson, assistant minister at Beverly Minster, had been appointed Assistant Bishop of Northern Argentina. A former SAMS missionary in Spain and South America, Mr. Drayson will be consecrated in early 2009 and given charge of the diocese’s Indian work.
US Bishop to be SAMS/CMS South American director: CEN 8.22.08 p 5. August 25, 2008
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America, Mission Societies/Religious Orders, Pittsburgh.comments closed
The Church Mission Society (CMS) and the South American Missionary Society (SAMS) have called the Assistant Bishop of Pittsburgh to be is Mission Director for South America.
Bishop Henry Scriven will join CMS/SAMS on January 1 to oversee its South American work. Bishop Scriven a former SAMS missionary in Argentina and Spain and the former Suffragan Bishop of the Diocese of Gibraltar in Europe will return to England after six years in Pittsburgh.
Writing to the diocese on Aug 15, Bishop Scriven said he and his wife had “enjoyed living and working [in Pittsburgh] more than any of the other 12 places we have lived in the last 33 years of marriage. We have incredibly gifted clergy and lay leaders and I know realignment will bring fresh incentive for mission, both local and worldwide.”
He added that his decision to return to England was not related to Pittsburgh’s political battles with the American church. “My decision does not reflect any change of heart regarding realignment or my confidence in the vision and leadership of the diocese,” Bishop Scriven wrote.
In addition to the opportunity of guiding SAMS at this new stage of its corporate life, Bishop Scriven noted the “major pull” of being “nearer the family.” The bishop’s children and grandchildren reside in the UK.
CMS and SAMS are working towards a merger by January, subject to final negotiations and decisions by their respective governing bodies. Bishop Scriven will initially work in a leadership role within SAMS but it is planned that he will ultimately become the Mission Director for South America in the Oxford office of the new mission agency.
Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan stated he was sad to see Bishop Scriven go. “We will miss Henry’s grace and humor, his international insights, his leadership of our diocesan networks, and his pastoral caring,” he said.
The Presiding Bishop of the Southern Cone July 23, 2008
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Album (Photos), La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America, Lambeth 2008.comments closed
The Most Rev Gregory Venables, Bishop of Argentina and Obispo Primero of the Southern Cone
Crack up of Anglican Communion at hand, evangelicals say: Christianity Today 7.19.08 July 20, 2008
Posted by geoconger in Christianity Today, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America, Lambeth 2008, Pittsburgh.comments closed
The crack-up of the Anglican Communion is at hand, evangelical bishops attending the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury tell Christianity Today, and the 400 year old Anglican project appears over.
“I’d like to expect a miracle,” said Bishop Gregory Venables of Argentina, a leader of the evangelical alliance at Lambeth, but said he feared the prospects for the church holding together were grim.
“Humanely speaking there is little hope for even a peaceful separation” between the liberal and evangelical wings of the 80-million member communion of churches, Bishop Venables said on July 18.
The twenty day gathering of bishops from across the 80-million member communion began on July 16 on the campus of the University of Kent in Canterbury. The conference—held every ten years—is one of four institutional ties for the 38 provinces, or member churches, of the Anglican Communion. While it has no juridical power, Lambeth has exercised a moral authority over the Communion and has been the venue for resolution of past controversies such as the ordination of women and the morality of contraception.
Read it all at Christianity Today
Southern Cone changes constitution to welcome others: CEN 5.16.08 p 7. May 17, 2008
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Fort Worth, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America, San Joaquin.comments closed
Read it all in The Church of England Newspaper
The Province of the Southern Cone has begun work to amend its Constitution and Canons to permit parishes and dioceses outside of South America to affiliate with the church.
In an address to the Diocese of Fort Worth on May 3, Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables of Argentina said his province had agreed to accept the diocese of San Joaquin into the South American church as a “pastoral” and interim response to the divisions within the US Episcopal Church. Work was now underway to alter the church’s constitution, removing language that limited membership to dioceses located in South America.
The “Anglican Communion in the United States has been hijacked,” Bishop Venables said, by a liberal clique that is less concerned with theological integrity than with power. They do not “mind what happens as long as they control it,” he said according to a report prepared by the diocese’s communications officer.
Bishop Venables told Fort Worth that the question before them was “whether or not you can stand with a group of people who have denied that Jesus is the Son of God and that the Bible is the Word of God.”
He conceded that the invitation to the Diocese of San Joaquin made following its December decision to quit the Church and affiliate with the Southern Cone was irregular. However, “if we don’t do something,” he said, we would be “complicit” in their oppression.
The Argentine archbishop’s visit to Texas provoked a letter from US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori asking him to cancel his trip. His visit to Fort Worth was an “unprecedented and unwarranted invasion of, and meddling in, the internal affairs of this province,” and would prevent “needed reconciliation from proceeding” within the US church, she said.
Fort Worth Bishop Jack L. Iker dismissed Bishop Schori’s complaints as “rude” and erroneous. “Far from being ‘an unwanted interference,’ [Bishop Venables] is coming at my request as an honored visitor and guest speaker,” he said, noting she had no authority to vet his invitations to foreign bishops.
The Presiding Bishop was not being entirely straight forward in her characterizations either, Bishop Iker said. “There are no efforts at reconciliation proceeding within this province, which is one reason why faithful people continue to leave [the Episcopal Church] in droves,” he said. “Your attitude and actions simply reinforce alienation and bring further discord.”
“Once again you are the one meddling in the internal affairs of this diocese, and I ask you to stop your unwelcome intrusions,” the Fort Worth bishop said.
Bishop Cox March 15, 2008
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Album (Photos), House of Bishops, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.comments closed
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.
Three-way split in San Joaquin: CEN 2.08.08 p 5. February 7, 2008
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America, San Joaquin.comments closed
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.
Canadian sympathy:CEN 1.25.08 January 25, 2008
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Canada, Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England Newspaper, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.comments closed
| THE ARCHBISHOP of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has expressed sympathy with the plight of Anglican Church of Canada over the defection of two of its bishops to the Church of the Province of the Southern Cone saying that while the move does not have his formal support, he will not intervene in the row.
In a letter to Canadian Archbishop Fred Hiltz, released by the Anglican Church of Canada on Jan 21, Dr Williams responded to the November request by the Council of General Synod (COGS) to do something about the secession of Bishop Don Harvey to the Southern Cone to minister to traditionalist congregations in Canada. Canada’s Council of General Synod (CoGS) said Bishop Harvey’s secession was unnecessary, unlawful and unfortunate, and asked Dr Williams to act. Read it all in The Church of England Newspaper. |
 |
Canadian bishop demands loyalty oath from clergy: CEN 1.18.08 p 8. January 21, 2008
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Canada, Church of England Newspaper, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.comments closed
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.
Fort Worth Appeal: CEN 1.18.08 p 9. January 18, 2008
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Fort Worth, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.comments closed
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 Frank Lyons of Bolivia December 14, 2007
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Album (Photos), La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.comments closed
Bishop Cavalcanti in move to Southern Cone: CEN 12.14.07 p 6 December 14, 2007
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil, Church of England Newspaper, Ecclesiology, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.comments closed
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 37th 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.”
Brazilian Diocese Received Into Province of the Southern Cone: TLC 12.11.07 December 14, 2007
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil, Ecclesiology, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America, Living Church.comments closed
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.
Bishops Gregory Venables and Jack Iker December 12, 2007
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Album (Photos), Fort Worth, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.comments closed
First diocese quits the Episcopal Church: CEN 12.14.07 p 1. December 12, 2007
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England Newspaper, Ecclesiology, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America, San Joaquin.comments closed
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.
Canadian anger at move: CEN 12.07.07 p 7. December 10, 2007
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Canada, Church of England Newspaper, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.comments closed
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.”
Don’t leave, or face the consequences: CEN 12.07.07 p 7. December 9, 2007
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America, Property Litigation, San Joaquin.comments closed
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.
South America’s New Canadian Bishops November 29, 2007
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Album (Photos), Anglican Church of Canada, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.comments closed
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
Another Bishop Quits the Canadian Church: CEN 11.30.07 p 7. November 29, 2007
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Canada, Church of England Newspaper, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.comments closed
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.
Canadian bishop comes out of retirement to quit: CEN 11.23.07 p 6. November 23, 2007
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Canada, Church of England Newspaper, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.comments closed
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.
Retired Canadian Bishop Aligns with Southern Cone: TLC 11.20.07 November 21, 2007
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Canada, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America, Living Church.comments closed
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.
New haven for US dioceses on offer: CEN 11.16.07 p 1. November 14, 2007
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America, The Episcopal Church.comments closed
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.
Southern Cone Offers ‘Safe Haven’ for American Dioceses: TLC 11.08.07 November 9, 2007
Posted by geoconger in La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America, Living Church, The Episcopal Church.comments closed
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 Rush to Help After Peruvian Earthquake: CEN 8.31.07 p 6. September 3, 2007
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Disaster Relief, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America, Mission Societies/Religious Orders.comments closed
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.
Primates are the ‘logical centre of authority’: CEN 8.24.07 p 8 August 25, 2007
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Ecclesiology, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.comments closed
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.
Conger 