From Religious Intelligence-
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 favour 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 Provisional Bishop of the diocese, Bishop Edwin Gulick of Kentucky. Last week, Bishop Gulick wrote to the Fort Worth clergy, stating he would depose them 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 or face litigation.
More here-
http://www.religiousintelligence.co.uk/news/?NewsID=4688
1 comment:
I can find no mention in the communique from the Alexandria meeting of the Primates of the "clear agreement" about the satutus of breakaway dioceses that Bishop Venables mentions. Perhaps someone can enlighten me.
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