Anglican Church of South America

Anglican Church of South America
Primate Tito Zavala
Territory Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay
Members c. 25,000
Anglican Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, in Buenos Aires

The Anglican Church of South America (Spanish: Iglesia Anglicana de Sudamérica) is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion that covers seven dioceses in the countries of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.

Formed in 1981, the province had 25,000 members in April 2013. Its members in South America are thinly spread, making it one of the smaller provinces in the Anglican Communion in terms of numbers, although one of the largest in geographical extent.[1]

The province was known as "The Province of the Southern Cone of America" from its formation in 1981 until September 2014, when it formally changed its name to "The Anglican Church of South America".[2]

History

During the 19th century, British immigrants to South America brought Anglicanism with them (Milmine p.8). In Britain, a voluntary Anglican society was formed in 1844 to evangelize the indigenous peoples of Tierra del Fuego. This later became the South American Mission Society (SAMS) and extended its activities to the Araucanian regions of Chile and the Chaco. It still has an important place in the life of the church.[n 1][3]

The first diocese was established in 1869 as the Diocese of the Falkland Islands and the rest of South America, excepting British Guyana. The see of the bishop was in Buenos Aires (Milmine p.11).[n 2] Despite its title, the diocese's effective territory was restricted to the Southern Cone plus Peru and Bolivia. By contrast, Anglican/Episcopal congregations in Brazil and the more northern Spanish-speaking countries were effectively under the wing of the Episcopal Church of the USA (Milmine p.9). As the Anglican Church and its mission grew in South America, new dioceses were created from that larger one. Missionary bishops were appointed to smaller dioceses.

Until 1974, these missionary dioceses were under the metropolitical oversight of the Archbishop of Canterbury. For the next seven years, they were administered by an ad hoc council known by the acronym CASA (Consejo Anglicano de Sud América) (Milmine p.16), which also had Brazilian members.

In 1981, the five dioceses of Argentina (at the time including Uruguay, which became an independent diocese only in 1988 (Milmine p.48)), Northern Argentina, Peru and Bolivia (separated into two dioceses subsequent to 1988), Chile, and Paraguay came together to form the Province of the Southern Cone.

In November 2010, at a provincial synod held in Argentina, Bishop Tito Zavala, Diocesan Bishop of Chile, was elected primate. He is the first South American-born primate of the province.

Doctrine

The province is distinguished by a conservative interpretation of Biblical texts and church practice.

Ordination of women

The province has been outspoken in its opposition of the ordination of women to the priesthood, generally appealing to scriptural issues of headship as the basis for such opposition. The Diocese of Uruguay, which has historically been more progressive than other parts of the province, made a formal request in 2011 to be allowed to admit women to the priesthood. This request was received by the provincial synod meeting held in Asunción, Paraguay, in November 2011, and was rejected.[4] However, in 2015 Bolivia became the first diocese in the province to ordain women as priests, ordaining the Rev. Tammy Smith Firestone.[5] Later that year Rev. Susana Lopez Lerena, the Rev. Cynthia Myers Dickin and the Rev. Audrey Taylor Gonzalez became the first women Anglican priests ordained in the Diocese of Uruguay.[6]

Dioceses

Diócesis de Argentina (Diocese of Argentina)

Diócesis de Argentina Norte (Diocese of Northern Argentina)

Diócesis de Bolivia (Diocese of Bolivia)

Diócesis de Chile (Diocese of Chile)

Diócesis de Paraguay (Diocese of Paraguay)

Diócesis de Perú (Diocese of Peru)

Diócesis de Uruguay (Diocese of Uruguay)

Separation of Peru

In July 2015 it was announced by the Anglican Communion secretariat that the Diocese of Peru was working towards emancipation from the Province of South America, with the intention of becoming an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion, consisting of four dioceses. The four dioceses are to be formed by splitting the current Diocese of Peru into the new dioceses of Lima, Arequipa, Chiclayo, and Huancayo. No date has been announced for the formation of the province, but the intended first bishops of each diocese have been consecrated. Bishops Alejandro Mesco, Juan Carlos Revilla, and Jorge Luis Aguilar, were all consecrated in July 2015, they are the first indigenous Peruvian priests to be consecrated as bishop in the Anglican Communion.[7]

Anglican realignment

In 2003, after the consecration of Gene Robinson, a partnered homosexual, as Bishop of New Hampshire in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, the Province of the Southern Cone severed its relationship with the Episcopal Church (the sole dissent in the diocesan synod was the vote of the Diocese of Uruguay, which voted to maintain full communion with both the Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church). The Province as been involved in the Anglican realignment, as a member of the Global South (Anglican), and it is in full communion with the Anglican Church in North America, formed in 2009 by former members of the Episcopal Church. The Church of the Province of the Southern Cone had decided previously to extend ecclesiastical jurisdiction to conservative congregations or dioceses (including some from the Diocese of Virginia) that departed from the Episcopal Church, but were located within its geographical authority.

The bishops and a number of communicants of four dioceses in the United States — the Diocese of San Joaquin (ACNA), the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh (ACNA), the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth (ACNA) and the Diocese of Quincy (ACNA) – voted in their conventions to separate from the Episcopal Church and affiliate "on an emergency and temporary basis" with the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of America. Those who have chosen to remain in the Episcopal Church in the United States have reformed their dioceses and have elected new leadership.

In Canada, 72 parishes in Canada have formed the Anglican Network in Canada and identify as an "ecclesial body under the jurisdiction of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone".

The province also had provisional oversight over one diocese in Brazil, the Diocese of Recife (Diocese do Recife) under Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti, which withdrew from the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil, due to their opposition to the blessing of same-sex unions, but later become an extra-provincial diocese of the Global South.[8]

The Anglican Communion Office does not recognize jurisdiction of the Southern Cone bishops over dioceses and ecclesiastical bodies located geographically outside Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.[9]

Notes and references

Notes

  1. ↑ But, since 2010, SAMS has been part of the new Church Mission Society.
  2. ↑ This was due to legal requirements at the time, which did not allow the Church of England to consecrate or appoint bishops outside those territories under the jurisdiction of the Crown.

References

  1. ↑ Q&A: Bishop Zavala of Cono Sur, The Living Church, 29 April 2013
  2. ↑ Change recorded at Anglican Communion website.
  3. ↑ History: Church Mission Society, Official website
  4. ↑ Account of synod at Anglican Communion News Service.
  5. ↑
  6. ↑ "First female priests ordained in Uruguay".
  7. ↑ The consecrations, and the intended new provincial structure, all announced at the Anglican Communion News Service.
  8. ↑ "Southern Cone offers haven to disaffected US dioceses", Church Times, 16 November 2007
  9. ↑ http://www.aco.org/tour/province.cfm?ID=S5

Bibliography

Milmine, Obispo Douglas (1993), La Comunion Anglicana en América Latina 

External links

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