It starts about 6 minutes and 30 seconds in and features an extended interview with Charlie Masters.

The first Canadian Anglican churches have been welcomed to the episcopal care of Bishop Donald Harvey under the Primatial authority of Archbishop Gregory Venables and the Province of the Southern Cone. Neither St John’s Richmond (BC) nor Church of the Resurrection (Hope, BC) was an Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) congregation at the time they joined, although both had their roots in the ACC.

“We are sending these churches out to minister, share the good news of Jesus Christ, and help rebuild an orthodox Anglican witness in Canada,” said Bishop Donald Harvey.
St John’s Richmond is a young vibrant congregation of 80 that meets in a Baptist church building. It started in 2005 as a Bible study group of members from St John’s (Shaughnessy) and has grown rapidly since. They have been an independent church in full communion with ANiC parishes.

”˜We’re very thankful that this allows us to be in full communion with Anglicans worldwide,” said the Rev Sean Love, rector of St John’s Richmond. “We look forward to Bishop Don’s episcopal ministry and are excited about continuing gospel mission and ministry in a growing urban centre.”

Church of the Resurrection began in 2006 as well but under very different circumstances. It was planted by the biblically orthodox majority of the former congregation of Christ Church Hope after their priest, the Rev Dr Archie Pell, was summarily fired by Bishop Michael Ingham following a parish vote to affiliate with the Anglican Network in Canada. The bishop then appointed a minister with a more liberal theology. The Rev Pell teaches at Regent College in Vancouver as a professor of Anglican Studies. Until recently, his wife, Dr Barbara Pell, taught English Literature at Trinity Western University.

“When the Diocese of New Westminster dismissed me and appointed a priest sympathetic to the bishop’s position, the Anglican Network in Canada and Bishop Harvey gave us support, both legally and spiritually,” said the Rev Pell. “Now, we are thrilled to be embraced by a God-fearing Province that allows us to remain fully Anglican and in fully communion with the worldwide Anglican Church. We no longer have to feel alone.”

The Anglican Province of the Southern Cone (Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America) is one of 38 Provinces that make up the global Anglican Communion. It encompasses much of South America and includes Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay and Argentina.

The Anglican Network in Canada (the Network) is committed to remaining faithful to Holy Scripture and established Anglican doctrine and to ensuring that orthodox Canadian Anglicans are able to remain in full communion with their spiritual brothers and sisters around the world. The Network will have members who are under the jurisdiction of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone as well members who are in the Anglican Church of Canada during a transitional period.

The Network just concluded its national conference in Burlington, Ontario at which it outlined details of the church structure and relationship to the Province of the Southern Cone ”“ now available to biblically faithful Canadian Anglicans who are in “serious theological dispute” with the Anglican Church of Canada and want to be recognized as “fully Anglican” and in the mainstream of global Anglicanism.

Bishop Malcolm Harding, retired Bishop of Brandon, has announced that he will minister under Archbishop Gregory Venables and the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone of the Americas, effective immediately.

Bishop Harding is the second Canadian bishop to make this announcement in the past week. It was announced on Friday that the Right Reverend Donald Harvey had been received under the Primatial authority of Archbishop Venables and would be free to offer episcopal oversight to biblically faithful Canadian Anglicans distressed by the seismic shift in the theology and practice of the Anglican Church of Canada.

Bishop Harding will assist Bishop Harvey in performing episcopal ministry in Western Canada.

Read it all.

From here :

Greetings once again from the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of America where we are thanking God that Bishop Don Harvey is now a part of this Province. As such he remains in active Episcopal ministry within the Anglican Communion.

He is of course already a well known and much loved colleague and we are thrilled to have this opportunity of walking even more closely together and to continue to learn from one another. We are glad to welcome him as a member of our Episcopal team and to assign him to work among you as your father in God.

We are equally delighted to receive Bishop Malcolm Harding as our co-worker.

He too is a man whose very being is centred around the gospel and whom the Lord has used for the salvation of many. Please honour and look after these two precious brothers and their families.

It is also good to be able to say that these steps we have taken are fully supported by a significant number of other orthodox Anglican provinces. There is no need for any to walk alone or step outside the Anglican family.

And let us remember that one of our main motives behind the unusual decisions we have had to take is the responsibility we have to ensure that the church is unhindered with regard to the mission that Jesus Himself has commanded us to accomplish. This must continue to be your priority in the far north of the Americas. We do indeed cover the very ends of the earth.
Let me also be clear regarding the nature of the division which has led to these out of the ordinary moves. It is a severance resulting from a determined abandoning of the one true historic faith delivered to the saints.

This reality alone makes it clear that it is not schism.

Schism is a sinful parting over secondary issues.

This separation is basic and fundamental and means that we are divided at the most essential point of the Christian faith. The sin here is not one of schism but of false teaching which is not at its root about human sexuality but about the very nature of truth itself.

When we talk about the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ we are not referring to something liquid or amorphous.

Christianity is specific, definable and unchanging. We are not at liberty to deconstruct or rewrite it.

If Jesus was the Son of God yesterday then so He is today and will be forever.

This is about the foundational certainty of our very existence and is not something we can amend to suit our circumstances or personal opinions and preferences.

Holy Scripture which is the source of our creeds is revealed and ageless truth.

It was not written out of human knowledge or wisdom but inspired by the Spirit of God.
Jesus died not to establish and preserve institutional franchises but for our sins so we could come into a right relationship with God our Father and Creator.

Structural norms cannot be equated to the eternal gospel which determines our eternal destiny.
These are sad but significant days. It has been heartbreaking to recognize that we have reached such a crucial and critical point in the life of the Anglican Communion. What has beenperpetrated has indeed torn the fabric of our Communion at its deepest level.

We recognize this tragedy with profound grief and love for all those involved and affected.
We judge no one but cannot and will not deny the eternal truth which has purchased our redemption.

As we prepare once again to celebrate Advent let us look back with gratitude to God for the coming of His Son into this beautiful but troubled world.

And let us look forward with awe and joy to the day of His return and all that that implies.

And may God grant us grace that we might be found faithful both now and at that time.

Your brother in Christ,

Gregory

As more sections of the Anglican Church of Canada move toward blessing gay marriages, a group of conservative Anglicans has started pulling out of the Canadian organization and putting themselves under the authority of the main Anglican branch in South America.

The first move happened on Friday when retired Bishop Donald Harvey left the Anglican Church of Canada and became a full-time bishop of the more conservative Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of the Americas.

On Thursday, he will now outline plans to enable conservative Anglican congregations in Canada to join the Southern Cone under his episcopal oversight.

“Because of the unabated theological decay in the Anglican Church of Canada, many long-time Anglicans have already left their church and left Anglicanism,” Harvey said in a statement.

“We want to provide a fully Anglican option — a safety net — for others who feel their church has abandoned them and who are contemplating taking the same action.”

Read it all.

A retired bishop has defected from the Anglican Church of Canada over the issue of same-sex blessings and said he expects others will soon make the same decision, raising the spectre of a schism forming in the national Church.

“I knew since the last general synod that I could not stay within the Anglican Church of Canada because the rift was getting too wide and the direction it was starting to go was moving way too fast,” Donald Harvey, the former bishop of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador, said in an interview. “I’m certainly hoping I will not be by myself.”

Bishop Harvey has put himself under the authority of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, which takes in most of South America.

Read it all.

Read it carefully and read it all.

A Statement to the Church From the Council of General Synod

November 16, 2007

The Council of General Synod, meeting in Mississauga, Ontario, from November 16th ”“ 18th 2007, has received with concern the news that Bishop Donald Harvey has voluntarily relinquished, effective immediately, the exercise of ordained ministry in the Anglican Church of Canada, and intends to be received into the Province of the Southern Cone (in South America). Bishop Harvey, retired bishop of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador, has been a valued member of our church, and his decision is a source of sadness.

The Anglican Church of Canada welcomes and respects freedom of individual conscience and the theological convictions of its diverse membership. Our General Synods have consistently sought to honour every voice as we work patiently through contentious and difficult issues before our church. Our bishops have made adequate and appropriate provision for the pastoral care and episcopal support of all Canadian Anglicans. We value and respect the diversity of the worldwide Anglican Communion and have expressed our commitment to its ongoing life, even as we also ask for respect and understanding of our own.

To this end we wish to make clear that interventions in the life of our church, such as ordinations or other episcopal acts by any other jurisdictions, are inappropriate and unwelcome. In particular, we cannot recognize the legitimacy of recent actions by the Province of the Southern Cone in purporting to extend its jurisdiction beyond its own borders. We call upon the Archbishop of Canterbury to make clear that such actions are not a valid expression of Anglicanism and are in contravention of the ancient and continuing traditions of the Church. They aggravate the current tensions in the Anglican Communion.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is good news for the world, and our primary task as Christians is to make this Gospel known through action and word. We strongly support our Primate’s view that the Church in Canada and throughout the world should make Christ and His mission its central focus. We therefore call upon all our members, lay and ordained, to commit themselves to this priority, and to respect the structures and authority of the Church.

We ask your prayers for our continued fellowship in the Spirit and our unity in the bond of peace.

Bishop Donald Harvey has been received into the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone under Primate Gregory Venables. The Southern Cone encompasses much of South America, from Tierra del Fuego in the south to Peru in the north.

In becoming a bishop of the Southern Cone, Bishop Harvey has come out of retirement and is resuming full-time episcopal ministry. He will now be free to offer episcopal oversight to biblically faithful Canadian Anglicans who are distressed and feel they no longer have a home in the Anglican Church of Canada.

“By receiving Bishop Harvey upon his departure from the Anglican Church of Canada, the Province of the Southern Cone is responding to the ongoing crisis and brokenness in the Anglican Communion,” said The Most Revd Gregory Venables.

Read it all.

Update: There is more here.

Via email:

FRESNO, CA – November 16, 2007 ”“ The Diocese of San Joaquin today announced that the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of South America has extended an invitation to offer the Diocese membership on an emergency and pastoral basis.

The announcement comes three weeks before the Diocese is scheduled hear the second and final reading of Constitutional changes first adopted on December 2, 2006. Should the second reading of the Constitutional changes be approved at the Diocesan Convention on December 8, 2007, the Diocese is free to accept the invitation to align with the Province of the Southern Cone and remain a diocese with full membership within the Anglican Communion.

According to the Rt. Rev. John-David M. Schofield, Bishop of the Diocese of San Joaquin, “We welcome the invitation extended by the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone. The invitation assures the Diocese’s place in the Anglican Communion and full communion with the See of Canterbury.”

He added, “This is a sensible way forward and is by no means irrevocable. During the 1860’s, the Dioceses of the Southern States left the Episcopal Church and then returned after the Civil War. As the Southern Cone invitation makes clear, the Diocese may return to full communion with the Episcopal Church when circumstances change and the Episcopal Church repents and adheres to the theological, moral and pastoral norms of the Anglican Communion, and when effective and acceptable alternative primatial oversight becomes available.”

The Bishop’s pastoral letter will be read in churches of the Diocese on Sunday, November 18, 2007. For a full text of the letter, visit www.sjoaquin.net or contact Joan Gladstone, jgladstone@gladstonepr.com.

The Diocese of San Joaquin was founded as a missionary diocese in 1911 and became a full autonomous diocese in 1961. The Diocese encompasses churches in the counties of San Joaquin, Alpine, Stanislaus, Calaveras, Mono, Merced, Mariposa, Tuolumne, Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare, Kern and Inyo.

“We are not going to cross boundaries in this. If [dioceses] want to leave, then they’ve made their decision, and the doors are open ”” but only those who have taken the steps to walk away from the Episcopal Church,” he emphasised. The three Forward in Faith (FiF) dioceses of Fort Worth, Quincy, and San Joaquin confirmed at the FiF international conference in London last month that conversations about affiliating with an overseas province were “very far along” (News, 26 October).

When asked if it made any difference whether disaffected dioceses joined the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) or the Province of the Southern Cone, Bishop Venables said there was “No difference whatsoever. We just feel we’re here to help, and they decide where they’d like to find a home. People are free to choose. If a decision is to be made, we want it to be an accountable and shared decision that we all make, not just an unravelling that happens because circumstances take it that way.”

The Bishops of the Southern Cone have justified their action as a response to a “deep and desperate crisis”. They have cited the absence of references, in the US bishops’ response to the Primates from New Orleans, to Lambeth resolution 1:10 on human sexuality, and to the Anglican Covenant. They also cite the Episcopal Church’s continuing “blessing of what God seeks to redeem”; increasing lawsuits; disregard of the needs of orthodox parishes; and failure to provide alternative oversight.

Read it all.

American dioceses that wish to quit the Episcopal Church will be welcomed into the Church of the Province of the Southern Cone.

The South American general synod, meeting Nov 4-8 at St. Paul’s Church in Valparaíso, Chile, agreed to adopt stray dioceses and ecclesial entities from the North American churches. The vote marks an intensification in the Anglican Communion’s wars over doctrine and discipline as for the first time, ecclesial entities, not just individuals, have been offered a theological refuge.

Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables, who was reelected to a new term as primate by the synod, told The Church of England Newspaper the offer of refuge simply recognized the existing splits within the Church. The Southern Cone was not precipitating a crisis and invading the Episcopal Church, he explained last month, but was offering a safe haven within the Anglican Communion for those wishing to flee.

Read it all.

The pastor and parishioners at St. Michael the Archangel, a church that began serving Noblesville Sunday, are certain God has opened doors to a great future.

St. Michael the Archangel is an Orthodox Anglican church that was established in January as a mission of the Anglican Diocese of Bolivia. The mission church is the third one established in Indiana, with others in Nashville and Anderson. Sunday worship is held in the Winks Building at the Hamilton County 4-H Fairgrounds.

“We’re looking to be a church that is Bible-based, traditional, not agenda driven and a place where families can raise their children and learn about Christ,” said the Rev. Tom Tirman, pastor of all three Indiana Anglican churches.

Read it all.

Cherie Wetzel of Anglicans United has very kindly sent us files of all three transcripts of ++Greg Venables’ Bible teachings to the Network Council meeting. Note these transcripts are in some cases more complete than what we posted yesterday.

Monday Afternoon: {filedir_4}Abp_Venables__1.doc
Scripture: Genesis 12. Theme: The Example of Abraham. Leaving his land, giving up Ishmael, willing to give up Isaac.

Tuesday Morning: {filedir_4}Abp_Venables__2.doc
Scripture: Joshua 1. Theme God’s Commission to Joshua.

Tuesday Afternoon: {filedir_4}Abp_Venables__3.doc
Scripture: 1 Peter 4:12; James 1:2; 2 Cor 11:21 ff; Mt. 11:25-30. Theme: Count it all joy.

These are Microsoft Word Documents that you can either open and view online, or download to your computer. Note these files contain only the transcripts of Venables’ teachings. Other commentary on the meetings has been deleted.

Enjoy. And do read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest these wonderful teachings! We’ll post another update when Kevin K. has the cleaned up versions of the audio files posted.

P.S. Yes, Gregory Venables’ official title is Presiding Bishop. I’ve not edited Cherie’s transcripts or her file names where she uses the title Archbishop. Sorry. Better things to do with my time.

There is an update to this post here: http://new.kendallharmon.net/wp-content/uploads/index.php/t19/article/4825/
All THREE talks are now available as Word Files for downloading.

Woohoo! This elf is very pleased and excited to see that Cherie Wetzel of Anglicans United has given a MARVELOUS gift to all of us orthodox Anglicans who did not spend the last 2 days in Bedford, Texas at the Network Council Meetings. She has got transcriptions of Abp. Venables Bible Teaching online. Thank you Cherie, what a wonderful service!

Now, time for this elf to be my sometimes very bossy self! Go read them!! Do more than read them. [b]Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them![/b] And that’s an order 😉

Archbishop Gregory Venables Bible Study Monday – transcription

Anglican Communion Network, Archbishop Venables Final Post

Here is an excerpt from ++Venables’ Tues. afternoon teaching:

I see people under incredible spiritual attack. I remember that moment in the end of the Screwtape Letters and the man the demons are trying to win is killed in the air raid in London. As he is departing this world, the man sees who has been dogging him for so long. He finally realizes what has been happening to him. It was a poignant moment.

We are not fighting flesh and blood. Read Ephesians 6. This battle is Big. Because it is about God’s honor and God’s name and God’s Word. It is not your battle, dear people. It is God’s battle. Let that comfort your hearts. Let that settle your mind.

I see people burdened and weighed down. Some of you are carrying very heavy burdens indeed. And I see people suffering grief. Grief in the sense of loss: bereavement. Something precious and that means so much to us is “going down the tubes”. That creates grief. It is heart breaking. Don’t go into denial. Don’t be British. Stoicism is not good. Sometimes you just have to grit your teeth and carry on, but not for long. Recognize the grief and deal with it. Don’t deny it.

Let me give you a few words from Scripture. 1 Peter 4:12: “Beloved do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you.”

When you stand up for Jesus, this is what happens. At the end of the day, it isn’t Anglicanism you are standing up for. It is Jesus. That’s why Anglicans do what we do. Rejoice that you have been thought worthy. You must be getting something right or you wouldn’t be in this battle. […]

James 1:2 “Count it all JOY my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.”

Be careful of fear. God will put you there again and again so you have to look at it and bring it up close and then you will see who He really is. Count it all joy. Read Paul’s account of what it was like to minister for Jesus. 2 Corinthians 11. Paul had a sense of humor, didn’t he. That’s what Paul got for serving Jesus. Not a Harry Potter world, not Tolkien world; the real world.

Are you getting it? If you really want to follow Jesus and serve him, this is what happens. I know a lot of you here are not surprised. Count it all joy and a privilege to show that Jesus is still Lord. To be on this world stage – With your smile and your joy and your forgiveness of all of “them”. Show them that Jesus is still Lord.

I am extremely pleased that the Anglican Church of Kenya has named Canon Bill Atwood as a Bishop Suffragan. Bill has served as my chaplain and is therefore well known to me both as a colleague and a good friend. He is a Christian priest of character and faithful service. In the painful circumstances of the Anglican Communion I deeply appreciate the bonds which link many primates together. I welcome the prospect of congregations under my care and protection working more closely with those of Kenya and other provinces. In the absence of even a tiny indication of willingness from the Episcopal Church to address the crisis, those who wish to remain orthodox within the US cannot be abandoned. Collaboration among Provinces working in the States and the Network is helping build a unified future for those who share the historic Biblical faith.

–The Most Rev. Gregory Venables is Primate of the Southern Cone