Anglican primate seeks faceoff with rival leader

From The Toronto Star via TitusOneNine:

Breakaway faction has switched allegiance to S. American bishop

Sep 11, 2008 04:30 AM

Stuart Laidlaw
Faith and ethics reporter

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."

Venables said he would make his formal response about the proposed meeting to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the spiritual leader of the Anglican church, who was asked by Hiltz to organize the meeting.

Hiltz would like the heads of the U.S. and Brazilian churches to attend, as well, since both have also lost congregations to Venables.

Last February, 10 of the Anglican Church's 2,800 Canadian congregations voted to switch their allegiance to the Venables' church, saying the Canadian church had become too liberal.

Hiltz has argued strenuously in the past that bishops do not have the right to claim jurisdiction over congregations in another part of the worldwide communion.

At their once-a-decade meeting in England over the summer, bishops from around the world voted to place a moratorium on such claims.

Moratoriums were also placed on the same-sex marriage blessings and the naming of gay bishops.

Canadian bishops will gather next month to consider their official response to the moratoriums.

Besides the 10 Canadian churches in Ontario and B.C. that voted to split, eight independent congregations have also joined Venables' church.