Southern Cone Primate, Already En Route, Urged to Cancel Canada Visit

April 22, 2008

Archbishop Fred Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, has written Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables, Primate of the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone, asking him to cancel his April 25-26 visit to a conference in Vancouver sponsored by the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC).

But a spokesman for Bishop Venables told The Living Church April 21 that he had already departed for his overseas trip, and Bishop Venables later said he planned to go through with the visit because he would not be ministering to or with members of the Anglican Church of Canada.

“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,” Archbishop Hiltz wrote in a letter dated April 21. “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 rest at The Living Church

Canada: Anglican primate blasts South American rival
MICHAEL VALPY
April 22, 2008

Leaders of the Anglican Church in Canada and South America drew beads on each other yesterday with Canadian primate Fred Hiltz posting a letter on the Internet telling South America's Gregory Venables to stay out of the country and Archbishop Venables icily criticizing Archbishop Hiltz's manners in reply.

"My number is there on the Anglican Communion network," Archbishop Venables said in a telephone interview from Buenos Aires. "I mean, this is only my humble opinion, but if somebody really wants to talk to me, they can pick up the phone and talk to me.

"Do you write a personal letter, between primates, on the Internet if you seriously want a personal dialogue?" the rest

Anglican leader pulls rival's welcome mat