SOUTHERN CONE: PRIMATE BLASTS GRISWOLD'S LETTER

Archbishop Gregory Venables Replies to Frank Griswold

May 7, 2004

Dear Bishop Frank,

Your letter—now widely circulated online—demands a public response.

With respect: your words ring hollow. You express grief over the pain your actions caused, yet press forward with the same agenda. Do you not see the contradiction?

The path to healing is repentance. Turn back to the faith held by the vast majority of Christians throughout history.

You were warned repeatedly—at Lambeth, by the ACC, by Primates, by the Archbishop of Canterbury—that proceeding would cause deep harm. Why are you surprised by the consequences?

You claim ECUSA acted “constitutionally.” But your own General Convention pledged (Resolution B-020) not to resolve sexuality issues alone, but through “inter-Anglican and ecumenical dialogue.” When did that commitment vanish?

You cite unity: “What we hold in common is greater than what divides us.” But that statement came before you chose to be chief consecrator at an event you knew would “tear the fabric of our Communion.”

Celebrating commonality now is like a criminal telling a judge, “But I didn’t break other laws!”

Band-aids won’t heal open-heart wounds.

Your proposed “Delegated Episcopal Pastoral Oversight” fails. It leaves decisions in the hands of offending bishops and offers no real protection to orthodox parishes. Many bishops forbid requests for alternative oversight—or threaten clergy who ask.

When did faithful Christians—holding to 2,000 years of apostolic teaching—become “dissidents”?

You now seek conversation—after long resisting it. Tragically, it’s too late.

ECUSA’s actions have triggered a global crisis—spilling into culture, ecumenism, even interfaith relations. This is reversible—but only through repentance.

Your insistence on autonomy defies Anglican tradition. If you reject Lambeth, Canterbury, and the Primates, why still call yourself Anglican? Either conform—or admit you’ve left.

May God guide us in truth and love.

+Greg

The Most Rev. Gregory J. Venables

Primate of the Southern Cone

(Griswold’s full letter to Primates is included in the original text and omitted here for brevity.)

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