An Interview with the Most Rev. Gregory Venables, Primate of the Southern Cone
By David W. Virtue in Vancouver
www.virtueonline.org
4/26/2008
Despite his lofty title and a name that wreaks history, the Archbishop of the Southern Cone, the Most Rev. Gregory Venables, is amazingly humble as he sits and contemplates the future of the Anglican Communion and his role in it. No Archbishop has been more outspoken, tilted at windmills, or been vilified by a fellow Anglican Primate. Yet he still reaches out with love and compassion with firmness of resolve that the Gospel of Jesus Christ cannot be compromised and that its life-changing message, valid in the First Century, is just as valid in the 21st Century regardless of time, place, culture, gender, age or education.
In Vancouver to attend an historic moment in the life of Canadian Anglicanism, a group of orthodox Anglicans, meeting under the banner of the Anglican Network in Canada's (ANiC), inaugurated and commissioned 30 priests committed to spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ in a church (the Anglican church of Canada) that has lost its way and its message. "In this age of academic, clever people there are truths that mark our path forward. God has given us clear directions that are not secrets for the clever, but God's clear direction for all of us.
"Starboard is on the right; port is on the left," he says to 400 Anglicans looking for hope, direction and leadership as they see their old church rolling over to moral relativity, walking away from the revealed word of God and departing from the faith once received. "Once you move away from there, you have nowhere else to go," Venables says.
It is a moment like this that surprises everyone in an enthusiastic audience ready to step out in faith to bring the gospel back to Canadians.
Venables sat and talked with VOL at length about his role in the Anglican Communion, the problems he faces and the courage he needs to withstand the vitriol and forces arrayed against him. We are compelled by Christ's love, he says, as he takes up the theme of the conference. "Let's love those who disagree with us. They are in a terrible place because they are denying the very son of God. Let us be about the business of the Kingdom."
VirtueOnline: Archbishop, you took quite a public drubbing from Canadian Archbishop Fred Hiltz because you were coming to Canada and would preach, confirm and perform Eucharistically without his invitation. That must have hurt.
Venables: It was important that I come because the integrity of the gospel was at stake, and these particular Anglicans are no longer under his authority. He could have called me. My phone number is on the official Anglican Communion website. He chose to go public in the media. So be it. We have moved on. This occasion here in Vancouver has been momentous. I see a glorious future for Anglicanism in these wonderful men and women.
VOL: A recent report in The Living Church said your canons and constitution could not support taking a diocese out of one jurisdiction and coming under your ecclesiastical wing.
Venables: The Provincial Synod of the Southern Cone with our HOB resolved that, given the present day situation, our constitution and canons in no way tell us not to do what we believe God's Holy Spirit is calling us to do at this time. We would never have done it otherwise.
VOL: You talked the language of divorce at a press conference. That's strong talk, and not very inclusive.
Venables: At one time, the members of the Anglican Communion had no reason to question the relationships which held us together within what is called unity within diversity. The fact that certain members of our family have not only chosen to ignore the Word of God, but to disobey it flagrantly has brought us to a place where we can no longer pretend that we are in a meaningful and real relationship. The fact that the province where these things are happening has refused to take action against doctrinal and moral impurity implies that either they tacitly agree or that they believe that what is being done is in some way acceptable.
VOL: You use the picture of marriage and divorce; that's tough language.
Venables: I have used this language deliberately. I believe there comes a time when a marriage is no longer a marriage. We have to recognize that it is no longer a marriage of like minds on the nature of the gospel in the Anglican Communion. That is the reality of life. We deplore divorce, but the time comes when we must recognize a relationship is no longer what it was.
For the Anglican Communion to go on waiting for the situation to become resolved is both unrealistic and irresponsible. The question is, can the communion find a way of acknowledging and dealing with this irretrievable separation.
It is clearly in the interests of revisionists to have an inclusive church even though, at the end of the day, they both deny and despise what orthodox Anglicans believe and practice.
VOL: What about authority in the church?
Venables: Unfortunately, within the Anglican Communion there is no recognized authority to make or implement such a decision. Even more sadly, the Anglican system itself is Western dominated, inclusive and therefore biased to the liberal position and therefore the likely outcome will be to support 'local option' (which Pope Benedict XVI spoke against when he was in NY recently) and to condemn the absolute and united orthodox position on faith and practice.
VOL: Had there been any hint that the liberals want to dialogue or seek reconciliation, would this have happened years ago?
Venables: Since the primates can't and the Lambeth Conference and the system are paid for by the West, it is basically biased towards their positions.
VOL: Will a Covenant ultimately bring us altogether?
Venables: Since we don't stand together on Scripture or the creeds, it is unlikely that a covenant will do what they (Scripture and creeds) have failed to do. If we don't stand on these two basic foundations, we are unlikely to stand on a Covenant regardless of how many drafts are written or how long it takes. The likelihood is that the language will be so nuanced that even orthodox folk will think that something has been said to satisfy them, when in fact it hasn't.
VOL: Do you think the upcoming Lambeth Conference will bring up Resolution 1:10 vote and be reversed, and, if there is not a strong orthodox presence of bishops, that it could be overthrown?
Venables: It is being implied that that resolution won't be revisited, but given the winds of change over the year since Tanzania we have to acknowledge that anything is impossible.
VOL: What is your reaction to Durham Bishop Tom Wright's reaction to GAFCON?
Venables: I am sad that the dialogue was public and in no way addressed personally to those of us who are involved in the organization. The 'super apostles' comment by Wright is not only bordering on the absurd, but says far more about Tom Wright than it says about anyone else.
I see it as a violent statement, unsupported by any serious exegesis of Scripture nor is it a valid understanding of both the Early Church's understanding of heresy and its reinterpretation in the 21st Century, but perhaps he believes he is above all that. You can dismiss the past, but our present is rooted in the past and we cannot ignore the apostles' teaching, and their rootedness in Jesus as their master and God's Word written.
VOL: How do you envision what the Anglican Communion will look like over the next decade?
Venables: Anglicanism is in a very healthy place. Where it is dying out, it probably needs to die out, as there is little sign that the leadership in those parts sees any need to reform their theology and return to the faith once delivered for all to the saints. It needs to die. It is not going anywhere.
VOL: What about patience that the Archbishop of Canterbury keeps calling for?
Venables: If true Anglicans wait any longer, their procrastination will become complicit and we will be guilty of failing in the real mission of the church. The fields are white unto harvest and we have a job to do. At this crucial Canadian conference of orthodox Anglicans, we are seeing a determined return to commitment to the mission of the church as our first priority. It is a privilege to be in such a gathering and to be a part of such a movement. We are seeing the outpouring of new wine, which needs and requires new wineskins even as the old disintegrates and falls away.
END
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