The deposition of Bishop Duncan does not mean that he is no longer a bishop. Our church believes that Holy Orders are indelible. And in fact, as Bishop Duncan was deposed on Thursday, he was at essentially the same time received into the House of Bishops in the Church of the Province of the Southern Cone, in which Anglican diocese he would be and is now authorized to celebrate the Holy Eucharist, to administer Confirmation, to ordain, and so on. Whether this ministry would also be recognized in other parts of the Anglican Communion is an issue with a mixed answer. Some Provinces have immediately announced that recognition, and others to this point have been silent. But in any case, what the deposition does mean is that Bishop Duncan is now deprived of his ability to function as a bishop sacramentally within official boundaries of the Episcopal Church. He could still be considered a baptized member of the Episcopal Church and function in any ministry that a layperson could be authorized to perform, but he could not validly celebrate the Eucharist, officiate at a marriage, pronounce a liturgical blessing, confirm, or ordain. He also may not hold any office in the Episcopal Church that would require ordination–as a rector of a parish, say, or, obviously, as the bishop of a diocese.

At his deposition, Bishop Duncan ceases to have authority as bishop of our diocese, and what is called the “ecclesiastical authority” of the bishop shifts immediately to our diocesan Standing Committee, four priests and four laypersons elected at diocesan convention. They will be the authority in our diocese for the next two weeks, at least until the conclusion of the October 4th Diocesan Convention.

It is expected that if the diocese realigns and forms a diocesan entity within the Southern Cone, it will then go forward to elect Bishop Duncan once again as what I believe they will term the “Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh of the Province of the Southern Cone.” He will then resume his role as bishop within that entity, and under the canons and authority of that Province. Those of us who will not recognize or participate in the realignment, continuing under the canons and authority of the Episcopal Church, will continue to be under the Ecclesiastical Authority of the Standing Committee””as that committee will then be reorganized with members who continue to recognize the authority of the Episcopal Church.

Read it all.

I write, therefore, to ask that you take immediate action in suspending the Episcopal Church from any further participation in activities of the Anglican Communion and in calling a meeting of the Primates to give formal recognition to a new Province in North America, as desired by the Common Cause Partners Federation. At that meeting the Primates must give guidance as to the future conduct of the Episcopal Church so as to enable it to return to the full fellowship of the Anglican Communion .

The action of Archbishop Gregory Venables in receiving Bishop Duncan as a member of the House of Bishops of the province of the Southern Cone should not be seen in any way as interference in another province, but as a fraternal act towards a brother who has, for a long time, been speaking out for biblical truth in a church which, by its teaching and actions, has been gradually separating itself from the rest of the Communion. He deserves our gratitude and full support.

You are in my prayers and those of many others, that you will have God’s wisdom and despatch in dealing with this further tear in the fabric of our Communion, especially in view of your own pleas for holy restraint at the Lambeth Conference.

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From the Diocese of Pittsburgh website, here are statements from +Venables, +Gomez, Nzimbi, +Kolini. Also posted there are statements from +Mouneer Anis, +Peter Jesen of Sydney, and +Cavalcanti, Diocese of Recife.

A Joint Statement from Archbishops Venables of the Southern Cone, Gomez of the West Indies and Nzimbi of Kenya.

In the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Amen. We the undersigned are grieved at the violation of catholic order in the declaration of deposition of The Right Rev. Robert Duncan by the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church and consider it to be invalid. Legitimate actions of catholic order must rise from Biblical catholic faith. Actions such as this continue to alienate countless Christian people not only within, but beyond the limits of the Communion. We continue to recognize the fidelity and validity of Bishop Duncan’s orders, role, and ministry. Without reservation, we continue in full sacramental communion with him as an Anglican bishop. We thank God that by the vote of the Provincial Synod he has been given membership in the House of Bishops of the Southern Cone. Our fellowship and shared ministry with him is not disrupted.

Yours in Christ,
The Most Rev Gregory Venables
The Most Rev Drexel Gomez
The Most Rev Benjamin Nzimbi

From Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda:
September 17, 2008

News is circulating around the United State and the Anglican Communion that the Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops is likely to depose the Rt. Rev. Duncan, Bishop of Pittsburgh, this week at a special meeting. I have known and worked with Bishop Duncan for a number of years, and I know him to be a godly man.

As he faces this time of trial, I encourage him to remember that he is not being deposed by God, but only by man. He will remain very much a part of the new work that God is creating within Anglicanism. In addition, he and his family will remain in my thoughts and prayers, and I am confident that the Lord will bless Bishop Duncan in this new season of ministry.

I am reminded of Joseph’s words to his brothers that are recorded in Genesis. <> (Genesis 50 : 20a, New King James Version). May this also be true for Bishop Duncan as he continues his faithful service to God and the Church.

Most Reverend Emmanuel Kolini
Archbishop of the Province of the Anglican Church of Rwanda

Watch it all.

The head of the Anglican Church of Canada wants a face-to-face meeting with his South American counterpart, who earlier this year claimed jurisdiction over 10 Canadian congregations in a growing split over same-sex marriage blessings.

“What I would hope is that we could hear one another,” Fred Hiltz, primate of the Canadian church, told the Anglican Journal.

“What would I say in that meeting?” Hiltz said. “Let me try and hear why it is you feel you need to continue to work to intervene in the life of the Anglican Church of Canada.”

Archbishop Gregory Venables of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, however, says he would find it “difficult” to attend such a meeting.

“We had been talking about a private meeting, and it rather surprises me that it is now public,” Venables told the Star in an interview from Buenos Aires.

“This makes it even more difficult for me to attend.”

Read it all.

The GAFCON primates have a number of questions they intend to ask during the next meeting of the primates which is tentatively scheduled to be held early in 2009. An exact date and location for the meeting has not yet been announced. Among the questions he and other GAFCON primates hope are discussed Bishop Venables said are what happened to the pastoral scheme that the primates proposed in their communiqué following the previous meeting of the primates in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in February 2007? Is that proposal dead and if so who made that decision?

Bishop Venables said he and several other primates’ council members have additional concerns about the format of the primates’ meeting as proposed by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams in his post-Lambeth pastoral letter to Anglican bishops. The proposal to include Indaba small-group discussion was a particular concern, Bishop Venables added.

“I think it is up to the primates to decide how they are going to do things,” he said. “I don’t think we can be told ahead of time what type of meeting we are going to have or how we are going to talk.”

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On July 10th, the Right Revd Jerry Lamb, putative bishop of the putative “Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin”, wrote this letter to the clergy of the diocese as it was constituted prior to December 8, 2007. It gave August 5th as the deadline for receiving responses from said clergy as to their intentions with respect to their future relationship to the Episcopal Church. Apparently it was not a precision operation. I know of at least two female deacons who were addressed as “Dear Father N.” I also know of two presbyters who never received the letter.

In any case, I am given to understand that the Standing Committee of the (rogue and illicit) Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin is set to meet this Friday. One might reasonably presume that their agenda includes taking notice of responses received and not received by last week’s deadline. One might further presume that a goodly number of letters will be in the mail shortly informing their recipients that they have been deposed from the ordained ministry as the Episcopal Church understands ordained ministry.

Read it all.

Watch it all from Anglican TV.

Regarding the observations put forward by the Windsor Continuation Group, he said they were covering ground the Primates had already looked at.

“Since the Primates haven’t been able to move it along some of us don’t have much hope it will take us anywhere.

“Dar-es-Salaam put forward the idea of a pastoral council and the House of Bishops in the States didn’t want it. They want their autonomy.

“The North Americans have said they’re not going to move back and those who have left their national churches are unlikely to go back.

“Unless we talk about the real reasons why we are divided there’s little hope of putting it back together again.”

Read it all.

Read it all.

Officials with the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin sought to dismiss persistent rumors that Bishop John-David Schofield of the Anglican diocese will be uninvited at the last minute to the Lambeth Conference of bishops.

“Rumors are just that,” said the Rev. Canon Bill Gadenberger, canon to the ordinary of the Anglican diocese. “The invitation is still valid. Yet much is still happening, GAFCON was fantastic and gives us much of what we need for the future…

“I must remain to do other important ministry here, such as our youth leadership camp, Camp H2O,” he said. “Bishop Schofield has tickets to leave for London next week,” Canon Gandeberger said via e-mail on July 13.

Read it all.

In a HARDtalk interview broadcast on 10th July, Stephen Sackur talks to (Arch)bishop Greg Venables, Primate of the Southern Cone.

Watch it all (almost 23 1/2 minutes).

See what you make of it.

All actions taken by the Diocese of San Joaquin were authorized by its governing bodies, namely, its Standing Committee and its Diocesan Council, along with Bishop Schofield. These actions were done in complete compliance with California law and were done to secure the property until a California court can rule on the issue of ownership. One of these actions was to retitle accounts held at Merrill Lynch; assets were not moved from Merrill Lynch. The property in question is owned by the Diocese and its parishes and not the Episcopal Church. The Diocese expects a favorable ruling by the California court on the issues of property ownership.

The Diocese of San Joaquin is a California unincorporated association that is governed by the California Corporations Code and its own internal Constitution and Canons (akin to bylaws). The Diocese is a corporate person; a legal entity recognized by the civil courts. In California, an unincorporated association is governed by majority vote of its members. There is nothing in the governing documents of the Episcopal Church which forbade or limited the right of the Diocese of San Joaquin from withdrawing and taking its property with it.

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The legal tangle between the dioceses of San Joaquin – one Episcopal, one Anglican – has brought an allegation of wrongdoing against the financial investment firm Merrill Lynch.

In its quest to regain control over millions of dollars’ worth of real estate and investments, the fractured Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin has amended a lawsuit it filed in April against its former bishop, John-David Schofield, to include as defendants Merrill Lynch and the nonprofit Anglican Diocese Holding Corp., which is newly formed by Schofield.

Read the whole article.

The San Joaquin Diocese, which covers Lodi to Bakersfield and east to Mammoth Lakes and Ridgecrest, split this year over what Schofield perceives as a growing liberalization of the national Episcopal Church. Schofield strongly opposed the consecration of V. Eugene Robinson, an openly gay man, as bishop of New Hampshire. Schofield maintains that Robinson’s appointment violates scripture.

That means there are two San Joaquin Dioceses, one that is Episcopal and one that is Anglican under the Southern Cone. The Episcopal San Joaquin Diocese reorganized on March 29 in Lodi and appointed Jerry Lamb as the new bishop.

The new Lodi congregation will be a “mission church” sponsored by St. Mary’s Anglican Church in Manteca. Riggsby said he has served at St. Mary’s and an Episcopal church in Copperopolis.

Riggsby said he has no intention of attracting conservatives away from St. John’s Episcopal Church.

“We’re not anti-Episcopal,” he said. “I’d like to work with them. I’m not going to lay my beliefs like a sledgehammer.”

Read it all.

But Bishop John-David Schofield of the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin also will be attending the conference. He has received his Lambeth study materials and has begun familiarizing himself with them, according to the Rev. Canon Bill Gandenberger, canon to the ordinary of the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin.

“Bishop Schofield received and accepted his invitation to Lambeth shortly after the invitations were first issued,” Canon Gandenberger said. “Shortly thereafter he received the study material common to all the bishops.”

Canon Gandenberger said he had no knowledge of any further correspondence from either Archbishop Williams’ office or the Lambeth planning committee.

In a related development, the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin amended its civil complaint against the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin on June 2, adding Merrill Lynch and the “Anglican Diocese Holding Corporation” as defendants.

Read it all.

The South American primate who has welcomed dissenting Canadian Anglican parishes into his province says he sees the beginning of the end of the world-wide Anglican Communion.

“I believe we’re in the early stages of divorce,” Archbishop Gregory Venables, presiding (national) bishop of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, told a news conference during a meeting of the Anglican Network in Canada from April 25 to 26.

“I think there comes a point when a marriage is no longer a marriage and you have to recognize it,” he said. But Archbishop Venables suggested that Anglican churches could still stay together in some form. “Maybe we can have an Anglican federation,” he said.

In an interview with the Anglican Journal, Archbishop Venables noted that air travel and the Internet have re-structured international networks.

Read it all/.

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.

Read it all.

The work of amending the Constitution and Canons of the Southern Cone in order to regularize the admission of parishes and dioceses beyond South America is about to begin, according to Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables. The Primate of the Southern Cone made a visit to the Diocese of Fort Worth for a series of meetings with clergy and lay leaders May 2-4.

“The Anglican Communion in the United States has been hijacked,” Bishop Venables said, by an Episcopal Church leadership that doesn’t “mind what happens as long as they control it.

“I am astounded that in America, the land of the free, so many people have been robbed of their freedom,” he said.

Bishop Venables’ visit began with a private meeting of diocesan clergy at the Church of the Holy Apostles in Fort Worth on May 2. The following day, Bishop Venables met with a convocation of elected clergy and lay delegates to the diocesan convention. The convocation also included about 130 visitors who were granted seat, but not voice. There was no voting. On Sunday morning, Bishop Venables preached at St. Vincent’s Cathedral, Bedford, and again later during Evensong at St. Andrew’s, Fort Worth. At each stop on Sunday he answered questions from those present.

Read it all.

Rationalism teaches that I believe only what I can understand. I will seek to create a united understanding of the universe. It will either be an open universe or a closed universe. That’s just the way it is. You can take the miracle bits out and what are you left with? Nihilism: The line of despair. Everything is left to chance; we are all products of blind forces. Intellectual pride adopts that over the Bible. Spiritual truth is what you want it to be, nothing fixed.

In the 60’s theology went off, saying it was foolish to define anything. You could make it exactly what you wanted. The real world is what God created and it functions according to His purposes. Same language; Some of the same words. Completely different meaning. This is what confuses us today. In the West, we recreated theology to suit our own grasp. We used the same words, but gave them different values and meaning. So that nothing stands for what it originally was meant to be. Same words; skewed meaning. The result is deep confusion.

Theology always challenges culture. Culture doesn’t define what God does.

Doctrinal impurity leads to moral impurity. There is no guide to right or wrong, just what you think about it. This is not true when you submit yourself to what God has said.

So there is a moment of truth. People ask me why all this fuss about sexuality. It is not about sexuality. It is about what God created and ordered. God ordered them male and female. Marriage is a sign of that ordering. It is not an organizational tool or just how we choose to order our society. Marriage is Holy Matrimony. It is not just an organizational trinket but God-ordained. It is the image of our relationship with Christ. Holy matrimony is the Church in relationship to Christ: bride and bridegroom. Just because I don’t feel that way does not change it.

Read it all and take the time to read Texanglican’s report also.

An audio resource for those interested.

More than 30 clergy received licences to serve in the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) from the Presiding Bishop of the Southern Cone, the Most Revd Greg Venables, on Saturday at a ceremony in South Delta Baptist Church, Vancouver.

The 29 priests and four deacons have left the Anglican Church of Canada and put themselves under the archiepiscopal authority of the Southern Cone because of the disagreement with the Canadian Church over homosexuality.

British-born Bishop Venables, who is 58, also commissioned two Canadian bishops: the retired Bishop of Brandon, the Rt Revd Malcolm Harding, and the former Bishop of Eastern Newfoundland & Labrador, the Rt Revd Donald Harvey, who will be the Moderator of ANiC.

Read it all.

In an interview with me while he was in Canada, Archbishop Gregory Venables explained why he will be attending both the Global Anglican Future Conference next month in Jordan and Israel, and the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury, Kent in July.

The Archbishop of the Southern Cone said: ‘I will be at Gafcon and also I am going to be at Lambeth. I think that is pretty important from the point of view of you guys [meaning the Press. rg].

‘Someone’s got to be there to talk to you about what is going on.’ [Too right, and initial impressions indicate we’re going to have even less access than last time. It’s nice to know that at least one Bishop is prepared to sup with us sinners, the few there are left. rg]

AB Greg continued: ”That was one of the reasons why I eventually made a final decision to go, which was only recently.

‘I think someone has got to go and show their face and speak to the situation.’

Read it all.

Read it all.

Now to the future and what needs to be done.

I grew up by the sea. As we landed at Vancouver airport., looked as though we would land where my house was, by the sea.

I read the life of a great sea captain. This man never set off on a voyage without going into his cabin without removing a book from a black box in a big chest. He would read, close his eyes and put the book back. No one asked what this was about. On his death at sea, after his burial, his 2 i/c looked at the book. It had a single entry, “starboard is on the right, port is on the left.”

Let us remember in these days of clever people that there are truths which we must observe. These are not secrets for certain people. They are clear directions for all people. “Starboard is on the right, port is on the left.”

The words Jesus is giving to us. As Jesus faced the multitude, hungry and seeking and in great need. He turned to his disciples and said, you give them something to eat. Jesus and his disciples faced a great multitude with a great need. There are many people in need physically and spiritually. There were very few resources. There was a handful of disciples. None of them would have been approved by the diocesan board of ordination. There were very few resources and a handful of loaves and fishes. But Jesus was there.

But God. That is the point at which everything changes. We all have to get to the end of ourselves. You re right you have no where else to go but God.

Read it all.

As a global battle pits senior Anglicans against each other, more than 300 conservative Christians who have broken from the Anglican Church of Canada will gather at an evangelical church in Delta on Friday to welcome their new leader, South American Anglican Archbishop Gregory Venables.

The meeting takes place the same week 11 Anglican Church of Canada clergy in Greater Vancouver resigned from the denomination to serve under the authority of the South American primate, who was asked this week by Canadian Primate Fred Hiltz not to intervene in his jurisdiction.

The gathering of the Anglican Network in Canada Friday and Saturday at South Delta Baptist Church includes 15 congregations, eight from B.C., that have severed ties with the 700,000-member Anglican Church of Canada.

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A South American Anglican archbishop who adamantly opposes homosexual relationships is coming to Vancouver on Friday despite being told to stay away by Canada’s top Anglican.

Archbishop Gregory Venables, who claims to represent 15 breakaway Anglican congregations in Canada, will speak Friday at a gathering in Delta of the conservative Anglican Network in Canada.

Venables, who has been criticized as a rogue archbishop by Anglican colleagues in South America and elsewhere, is recruiting Anglican congregations in Canada and the U.S. that have opposed the ordination of homosexuals and the church blessing of their relationships.

Read it all.

The Most Revd Gregory James Venables
Rioja 2995,1636 Olivos,
Province of Buenos Aires,
B1636DMG , Argentina

My Brother in Christ:

In this Easter Season I greet you in the name of our risen Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

It has come to my attention that you will be participating in the Anglican Network in Canada conference, “Compelled by Christ’s Love” taking place in Vancouver, B.C., April 25-26,2008. 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. 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.

The Bishops believe that we have made adequate and appropriate provision for the pastoral care and Episcopal support of all members of the Anglican Church of Canada, including those who find themselves in conscientious disagreement with the view of their Bishop and Synod over matters of human sexuality.

Read it all.

AAC: Was any progress toward reconciliation made at this House of Bishops’ meeting?

+Lawrence: We spent a day and a half on what was called a reconciliation retreat. What makes it difficult to answer that question is that, based at our table discussion, the table I was at, I thought we began to talk about the difficulties that are connected with that whole area of reconciliation. So in that sense, on a table level, I would say, yes, we made some progress. But once we got to the legislative portion of the meeting”¦reconciliation is always costly and the question is, who it’s going to cost and who wants to sacrifice in order to reconcile. Once we got to the legislative portion of the meeting and the deposition for Bishop Schofield and Bishop Cox, I wouldn’t describe the mood of the house as conciliatory to those who, for issues of faith, don’t feel like they can conform to order of the church.

What we have in The Episcopal Church (TEC) today is that many people feel like the faith of the church has been compromised or violated and in order to deal with what they feel is a profound compromise or denial of the faith of the church historically and biblically, they feel like they have to do things contrary to the order of the church. At that point, many in the House of Bishops and in various other formats of the church desire to impose the order of the church upon them. That is, if Bishop Schofield believes the faith of the church has been denied, he has to go beyond the order of the church as in the canons and constitution of TEC, and those who are in the forefront who are quite comfortable with the new faith of the church, so to speak, feel like they have to impose the order upon him or upon Bishop Cox.

The difficulty we have, then, is the very way we went about imposing the order of the church. That is, after the House of Bishops’ meeting, after the voting on the canonical depositions of Bishop Cox and Bishop Schofield, it seemed to be revealed that those depositions were done in a way that was contrary to the order of the church…

AAC: What is your next step?

+Lawrence: I know that Bishop Howe has recently called for a re-examination of this. The Standing committee and Bishop of South Carolina, myself, have issued a letter of protest that the canons were not followed. I don’t know where we will end up with all of that.

Read it carefully and read it all, noting that there is more to come later.