Southern Cone Primate Visits Diocese of Springfield

3/10/2006
Source: The Living Church

The Primate of the Southern Cone, Archbishop Gregory Venables, urged members of the Diocese of Springfield to be faithful to their vocation as Christians and not to give up hope for the renewal of the Episcopal Church. Archbishop Venables’ 10-day pastoral visit also included a Feb. 25 conference sponsored by the Diocesan Prayer Fellowship.

Approximately 25 clergy and lay leaders of the Springfield chapter of the American Anglican Council joined Archbishop Venables at the Kings House Retreat Center in Belleville on Feb. 22 for a briefing on the state of the Communion at the close of a diocesan clergy retreat.

“He made it very clear,” the Rev. Donald Perschall, Jr., said, “that the view of the primates is if the Episcopal Church continues to walk apart from the Communion, that will be its choice.” However, the rest of the Communion “will not walk with us.”

Fr. Perschall, rector of Trinity Church, Mount Vernon, Ill., told TLC the heart of Archbishop Venables’ message was that Episcopalians in the United States should hold fast to the faith and for traditionalists “to hold together and continue in a united front.”

While the divisions within the Episcopal Church were being played out within the political sphere of General Convention, the root cause is, essentially, a theological dispute that did not have a ready resolution. “You cannot dismantle scripture and then on Sunday proclaim it is the ‘Word of the Lord’,” Archbishop Venables said. He urged the diocese not to surrender to the spirit of the age.

“We can only guess what will happen at General Convention,” Fr. Perschall said, but whatever the outcome, “cutting and running” was something the faithful should not do. Archbishop Venables acknowledged that some members of the church might be forced to leave due to “intolerable” circumstances, but counseled patience and perseverance.

The coalition of Anglican Communion primates from the Global South were well aware of the situation in the Episcopal Church and would not “abandon” their supporters, Archbishop Venables said. However, General Convention, he said, would be a time of choosing, echoing Nigerian Primate Archbishop Peter Akinola’s words at the November “Hope and a Future” conference in Pittsburgh.