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SOUTHERN CONE: Primate says ECUSA Leader must repent or face music

SOUTHERN CONE PRIMATE SAYS ECUSA LEADER MUST REPENT OR FACE MUSIC

An exclusive interview with the Most Rev. Gregory Venables, Primate of the Southern Cone

By David W. Virtue
in Ottawa

The Most Rev. Gregory Venables, 54, is the primate of the Southern Cone that includes the countries of Argentine, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. He is one of the youngest Primates in the Anglican Communion. English-born, he served as a missionary priest in Paraguay and was headmaster (principal) of St. Andrew's College in Asuncion for 12 years before serving a curacy in Essex. He was elected bishop of Bolivia and Peru in 1993, Bishop of Argentina in 2000 and at the Provincial Synod of 2001 he was elected Primate of the Southern Cone. He is multi-lingual and speaks fluent Spanish. He has been married to his wife Sylvia for 34 years and they have three grown children.

The archbishop was at the ESSENTIALS 2004 conference in Ottawa recently where Virtuosity interviewed him at length about the Anglican Communion and what might emerge from the Lambeth/Eames Commission and the discipline of Frank Griswold, the Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop for his consecration of an openly homoerotic bishop to the US episcopacy.

VIRTUOSITY: In May of this year you were very critical of Frank Griswold and in a letter to him said: "ECUSA's actions have caused a great and unnecessary crisis in the Anglican Communion that has spilled over into culture, ecumenical affairs, and even interfaith relations. It is tragic and painful indeed. It is the result of your actions and it is also reversible." Do you still believe that?

VENABLES: Yes, and I am saddened that nothing has been taken seriously of the pain and damage that he has caused to the gospel that is ongoing.

VIRTUOSITY: You also called on Griswold to repent. "May I urge you either to live as an Anglican conforming to Anglican norms or admit that you have left us and closed the door behind you." Is it all too late for Griswold?

VENABLES: While we are alive in this world it is never too late, but I sense it would require a work of the Holy Spirit to open Frank Griswold's eyes not only to the damage that has been done but to the spiritual danger he is in.

VIRTUOSITY: Griswold has not backed down nor does he seem to give any indication that he will repent of his action in consecrating Gene Robinson, nor has he asked Robinson to repent or step down. There now seems little evidence that he will change his mind. Where does that leave you and the rest of the orthodox primates?

VENABLES: It reinforces our conviction that their revisionist agenda is not a part of
true Christianity, but a new version which uses similar language but has got a completely different message. It is a false gospel.

VIRTUOSITY: In the eventuality that there is no change in the direction of the ECUSA, will you and the orthodox Primates be prepared to tell Griswold that he is no longer welcome at Primatial gatherings?

VENABLES: The orthodox leaders are praying for a work of God in this situation, but if things continue as they are, we will face that at the appropriate time.

VIRTUOSITY: If the Lambeth/Eames Commission delivers little more than a slap on the wrist - 'no voice, no vote' for Griswold how will this benefit hundreds of orthodox priests presently under siege in the US and Canada?

VENABLES: We are looking for discipline but if it doesn't happen...

VIRTUOSITY: Orthodox priests in The Episcopal Church are enormously vulnerable and under siege almost weekly by revisionist bishops, the latest being three Evangelical parishes in the Diocese of Los Angeles. What can you Primates do to help them?

VENABLES: It is clear that the true Christian Church cannot be restricted if things continue as they are by human boundaries, and we can't have patch work quilt solutions; a radical way of redoing things must be sort.

VIRTUOSITY: You have taken several ECUSA parishes under your ecclesiastical wing in the Dioceses of Atlanta and Oklahoma. Would you be prepared to come to the US and to defend those under you over property issues?

VENABLES: I am totally supportive of them in their legal battles but I think it would be inappropriate for me to appear in any court action at this time.

VIRTUOSITY: Can you see the inevitable break up of the Anglican Communion?

VENABLES: I rather fear it is already broken and now we are trying to find out how to move ahead with that reality.

VIRTUOSITY: Primate Akinola has said "we don't need to go through Canterbury to get to Jesus." If we interpret that to mean that he might be prepared to split from Dr. Rowan Williams, if he perceives him as theologically too liberal, could you see a new Anglican Communion being born with say headquarters in Alexandria, Egypt.

VENABLES: It is a possibility that some of us have talked about. A new global structure might emerge but the process is not complete. We are engaged with many possible scenarios, but the main thing is that the gospel be preserved.

VIRTUOSITY: Considering the ongoing breakdown and intransigency of revisionist bishops and clergy in the West and the enormous strides forward evangelistically in the Global South, why would the African (CAPA) bishops, Nassau and Southeast Asian Primates bother to stay in the Anglican Communion as it is now structured if the gospel is seriously compromised?

VENABLES: At the present moment we consider ourselves inheritors of true Anglicanism which is both biblical and Christian. If the Anglican Church remains true to its historic biblical roots all will be well. If it is rewritten it in the light of modern culture we would have to leave and form an alternative communion.

VIRTUOSITY: Do you see the emerging Anglican Communion Network in the ECUSA, the new Network and Federation in Canada as the authentic voice of Anglicanism on this continent? Would you give it your full support?

VENABLES: We already see it as the authentic voice of Anglicanism. It is precisely for that reason so many provinces have recognized the Network and why many are in broken or impaired communion with Frank Griswold and The Episcopal Church. There are so many concrete expressions of solidarity with this meeting in Canada that the Western World needs to understand that Global South Primates see the decisions of ECUSA and Canada being utterly out of bounds, hence we see ourselves in cooperation with the Network.

VIRTUOSITY: Is the situation irretrievably lost for historic Anglicanism?

VENABLES: My personal concern at this moment is that all true Anglican Christians recognize in this situation what is already true, that the enemy of Christianity is always seeking to discredit it, and one way he does this is to create a counterfeit religion. But that should remind us that we are not fighting flesh and blood and that God's injunction to us is to stand firm.

VIRTUOSITY: Thank you archbishop.

END

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