Majority of South America dioceses may soon have women priests

From ACNS-

A majority of dioceses in the Anglican Church of South America could soon have women priests.

This change comes after new Canons which included an allowance for a "local option" regarding ordaining women to the priesthood were approved by all but one of the dioceses.

Following last year's Provincial meeting all dioceses were invited to approve or reject the new Canons by December, 2014.

A spokesperson for the Province told ACNS that "Six [Paraguay, Uruguay, North Argentina, Chile, Peru, Bolivia] out of the seven dioceses voted in favour of the new Canons. Argentina voted against it.

"What is now needed for the local option Canon to become effective in a given diocese is that the diocese has to have a secret ballot, divided by House, with a 2/3 majority in each House. On gaining this level of approval, said diocese can then proceed with the ordination of women to the priesthood."

More here-

http://www.anglicannews.org/news/2015/01/majority-of-south-america-dioceses-may-soon-have-women-priests.aspx

Q&A: Bishop Zavala of Cono Sur

From The Living Church-

The Most Rev. Héctor (Tito) Zavala is Bishop of Chile and Presiding Bishop of the Southern Cone: Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de América (the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of America). Elected in November 2010, he is the province’s first Latin American primate, as well as Chile’s first Latino bishop. Sue Careless interviewed him in April at the Eastern Assembly of the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC), where he was the keynote speaker.

Your province covers the lower half of the continent of South America. Is it growing numerically?
Yes. We have about 25,000 members in a continent of 110 million people. The Province of the Southern Cone is made up of six nations and seven dioceses: Chile (with about 100 parishes), Northern Argentina (200), Argentina [from Buenos Aires south] (30), Peru (60), Bolivia (10), Paraguay (50), and Uruguay (20). This November we will meet to decide on whether to form two provinces.

How do you reach your people when they are spread over such a vast expanse?
I live in the middle of Chile, in Santiago, so I travel by car to reach congregations nearby and take the overnight bus to reach more distant parishes. However, I fly to Arica at the top of Chile and to visit the most southerly Anglican parish in the world in Punta Arenas. Every May and November I fly to chair meetings of the executive committee of the province, which moves its meetings around the six nations.

More here-

http://www.livingchurch.org/qa-bishop-zavala-cono-sur

Ratification of Canadian bishop for Uruguay fails

From South America-

The House of Bishops of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone has voted not to ratify the election of Archdeacon Michael Pollesel as bishop coadjutor of the Diocese of Uruguay.

Pollesel, who was formerly the general secretary of the Anglican Church of Canada, was elected to the position by the Uruguay synod last December.

No details have emerged as to why Pollesel’s election was rejected, and in an interview he said he is still waiting for official notification and has no details himself. Pollesel learned of the reversal from the retiring bishop of Uruguay, Miguel Tamayo Zaldivar.


“I was disappointed,” Pollesel told the Anglican Journal. “It’s been a long wait.” Tamayo told him that the Uruguay diocesan council will be convened next week to decide whether or not the diocese will appeal the decision.

Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, shared the news about the failed ratification to members of the Council of General Synod meeting in Mississauga May 24 to 27. He also sent an e-mail to the Canadian House of Bishops.

More here-

http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2012/05/29/ratification-of-canadian-bishop-for-uruguay-fails/

Peru Anglicans set up own ordinariate for RC priests

From The Church Times (Talk about a permeable membrane !)

AN “Ordinariate of Postulants” has been set up by the diocese of Peru in the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone to host a growing number of Roman Catholic priests who are keen to join the Anglican Church.

In contrast to the situation in England, where three former bishops recently joined the Ordinariate for former Anglicans established by Rome, clerics are making the reverse journey in South America.

The Bishop of Peru, the Rt Revd William Godfrey, said that, so far, about ten RC priests had joined the new group to explore the possibility of switching denominations. Some may bring congregations with them.

About half of them are from churches that have become indepen dent from the RC Church, often because the priests have got married.

Bishop Godfrey said that he had also received requests from RC clergy in Uruguay, Ecuador, and Argentina, to join the Anglican Church.

He said that it was not entirely new for Roman Catholics to make this journey, as “the Anglican Church in Latin America would not exist if it wasn’t for ex-Roman Catholics”, but priests were now leaving on a larger scale.

He said that many of these priests were looking for stability in their ministry, and that the Postulate was “some sort of body where these people can draw close to the An glican Church and experience its liturgical and pastoral tradition and theology, before taking the final step of being received. It provides a buffer zone in which we can prepare to receive them.”

Bishop Godfrey believes that some priests may have been encouraged by Pope Benedict XVI’s positive words about Anglicanism when setting up the Ordinariate, when he was “extra ordinarily positive” about the An glican tradition.

More here-

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=107969

URUGUAY: Diocese votes to leave Southern Cone

From ENS (Wait, I thought the women clergy from the "Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh" were all transferred to the Southern Cone.)

A week after failing to convince the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone to allow its dioceses to ordain women to the priesthood, the Diocese of Uruguay has voted to seek affiliation with another province.

Uruguayan Anglicans had waited for nine years since the last time the province was asked to allow women's ordination and "felt … that a patient wait would be rewarded," said Diocese of Bolivia Bishop Frank Lyons in a statement released by the Anglican Communion News Service.

Clergy members of the Southern Cone's 10th triennial synod Nov. 4 refused to approve the canonical changes required to allow for the ordination of women to the priesthood. The changes, which required a two-thirds majority in all three houses, were approved by the bishops and laity. Uruguay ordains women to the diaconate.

The Diocese of Uruguay synod met Nov. 12 in the capital city of Montevideo and decided by a simple majority vote in orders to quit the province, according to Lyons.

The diocese wants to transfer from the Southern Cone within the year, he said, adding that if permission is not given, an appeal would be made to the Anglican Consultative Council to arrange for oversight, following provincial canons.

Uruguay has been a diocese within the Southern Cone since its formation. The province, known locally as Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America, officially was formed in 1981 following decades of Anglican missionary work in South America. Today, the Southern Cone includes about 22,000 members in seven dioceses throughout Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay, making it one of the smallest provinces in the Anglican Communion in terms of numbers, yet it is one of the largest geographically.

More here-

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_125738_ENG_HTM.htm

Chilean bishop removed from top Anglican panel

From Christian Century-

Chile's leading Anglican bishop has become collateral damage in the border wars between the U.S.-based Episcopal Church and conservatives overseas.

Bishop Tito Zavala of Chile has been removed from an international commission that considers questions of faith and governance in the Anglican Communion, a network of 44 regional churches around the world.

Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the communion, announced Zavala's removal from the Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order on October 14.

Zavala was ousted because his archbishop, Gregory Venables, refused to answer questions about his supervision of conservatives in four breakaway Episcopal dioceses and dozens of parishes, Kearon said in a statement. Zavala himself was not known to be involved in cross-border interventions.

"These decisions are not taken easily or lightly, but relate to the gracious restraint requested [by Anglican leaders] . . . and the implications for communion bodies when these requests are not honored," Kearon said.

Episcopal leaders have long complained about conservative archbishops such as Venables founding new churches and communities for disaffected Epis copalians in the U.S.—a breach of Anglican decorum. But while Episco palians have been removed from top Anglican commissions because they consecrated gay bishops, Zavala appears to be the first person penalized for border crossing.

More here-

http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2010-10/chilean-bishop-removed-top-anglican-panel

Ecumenical sanctions imposed on Southern Cone province

From ELO-

The Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion, has written to Bishop Tito Zavala of Chile informing him that his membership on the Inter Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO) has been withdrawn and inviting him instead to serve as a consultant to that body.

The decision, announced Oct. 14 by the Anglican Communion Office, was made because the primate of the Argentina-based Province of the Southern Cone, under whose jurisdiction Zavala's diocese falls, failed to respond to Kearon's request for clarification about his involvement in cross-border interventions.

Southern Cone Archbishop Gregory Venables has offered oversight to conservative members of parishes and dioceses breaking away from the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada. Venables and Zavala could not be reached for comment.

Kearon's decision comes four months after similar sanctions were imposed on Episcopal Church members serving on Anglican dialogues with the Lutheran, Methodist, Old Catholic and Orthodox churches, as well as one member of IASCUFO, who also was invited to serve as a consultant.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams had proposed in a May 28 Pentecost letter that representatives currently serving on ecumenical dialogues should resign their membership if they are from a province that has not complied with moratoria on same-gender blessings, cross-border interventions and the ordination of gay and lesbian people to the episcopate.

More here-

http://www.episcopal-life.org/79425_125183_ENG_HTM.htm

Joint Standing Committee plans for 2009 ACC meeting

Looks like the Times report that the Southern Cone would be disciplined might be a false alarm. From Episcopal News Service.

The Joint Standing Committee of the Primates and Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) has devoted much of its November 24-26 meeting to discussing budgetary issues and planning the next meeting of the ACC -- the communion's main policy-making body -- set for May 1-12, 2009 in Kingston, Jamaica.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori was among those attending the JSC meeting, which was held behind closed doors at the Anglican Communion Office and Lambeth Palace in London. She noted that a November 26 report in The Times of London newspaper, that suggested the JSC had discussed plans to discipline the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone for its recent incursions into other provinces, was untrue. "The subject has not come up," she told Episcopal News Service.

The committee heard a report about the 2008 Lambeth Conference budget "and the deficit is much lower than was originally anticipated," said Jefferts Schori, who was elected to the Primates Standing Committee in February 2007.

http://www.episcopal-life.org/79901_103093_ENG_HTM.htm

The Right Reverend Bill Flagg, Dies at 79

From the Telegraph. Flagg was Presiding Bishop in what is now referred to as the Southern Cone.


Firmly rooted in the Evangelical tradition, Flagg made an indelible impression wherever he went, often travelling on horseback for several days across the continent's vast open spaces to minister to small isolated Christian communities and often to start new ones, particularly among the Mapuche Indians. He had taught himself Spanish on his first sea crossing to South America and acquired the ability to preach in several local languages. Inseparable from his preaching was a humble and inspiring personality who brought many to faith.

As a bishop, he recognised that the days of importing church leaders to South America from England were numbered, and he devoted a good deal of time to the training of indigenous clergy who would soon assume responsibility within their own parishes and dioceses. He also saw the importance of bringing the separate South American dioceses to work together and relate more closely to the rest of the worldwide Anglican Communion. He was himself a member of the Anglican Consultative Council from 1974 to 1979.

Anglicans still divided

From the Manchester Guardian- a report on the GAFCON primates response to Lambeth. Seems a little odd that they would not go and then complain about the result.

"Six primates, who between them claim to represent half of the world's Anglicans, issued a communique saying they were "saddened" by the Lambeth conference, the 10-yearly gathering held last month in Canterbury, for failing to offer a "more effective way forward". The communique follows their meeting, in London last week, to establish a council, an advisory board and a secretariat for the Global Anglican Future Conference (Gafcon) and the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (Foca). All but one of the signatories, the Archbishop of the Southern Cone, boycotted Lambeth, partly because of invitations extended to prominent liberal bishops."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/30/anglicanism.religion

Dr Williams has made a split inevitable in the Anglican Church

The Archbishop of the Southern Cone (not pictured) and his self fulfilling prophetic voice. From the London Times -

"The Primate of the Southern Cone, Bishop Gregory Venables, predicted the end of the communion, saying: “This is more evidence of the unravelling of Anglicanism. Without a clearly agreed biblical foundation, all the goodwill in the world cannot stop the inevitable break-up. Unity without truth is disunity.” Bishop Venables, who has infuriated North American Anglicans by taking conservative defectors into his South American province, including the entire Diocese of San JoaquÍn in central California, was among the organisers of the recent Global Anglican Future Conference in Jerusalem."

Its all here

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article4481688.ece