Southern Cone Primate, Already En Route, Urged to Cancel Canada Visit

Posted on: April 22, 2008

Archbishop Fred Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, has written Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables, Primate of the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone, asking him to cancel his April 25-26 visit to a conference in Vancouver sponsored by the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC).

But a spokesman for Bishop Venables told The Living Church April 21 that he had already departed for his overseas trip, and Bishop Venables later said he planned to go through with the visit because he would not be ministering to or with members of the Anglican Church of Canada.

“Your visit to Canada is without any reference to or consent from my office or that of the Bishop of the Diocese of New Westminster,” Archbishop Hiltz wrote in a letter dated April 21. “This represents a breach in what is considered normative in protocol among primates and bishops throughout the Communion.

“I brought this matter before the House of Bishops’ meeting in Niagara Falls, Ont., last week. While we recognized that your motivation may be pastoral, there was a strong consensus that your visit at this time will further harm the strained relations between the Anglican Church of Canada and the Anglican Network in Canada.”

During their meeting last week, the Canadian House of Bishops also declined a request for national-level negotiations over church property from the ANiC, which represents a small number of individuals and parishes that have left the Anglican Church of Canada over changes to church teaching on homosexuality. The Rt. Rev. Donald Harvey, retired Bishop the Canadian Diocese of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador, serves as moderator of the ANiC under the primatial oversight of Bishop Venables.

Bishop Venables is also scheduled to visit with Anglicans in several locations in the United States. On April 29 he will be in Fresno, Calif., to meet with members of the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin. Last December a majority of clergy and lay delegates to the annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin voted to leave The Episcopal Church and accept an offer to join the South American-based province on a temporary basis. Presiding Bishop Venables is also scheduled to visit the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth May 2-4 as part of a convocation designed to address issues likely to arise during the diocese’s convention in November.

This article comes from The Living Church Foundation
http://www.livingchurch.org/

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