Uruguay: Diocese votes to leave Southern Cone

A week after failing to convince the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone to allow its dioceses to ordain women to the priesthood, the Diocese of Uruguay has voted to seek affiliation with another province

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Uruguayan Anglicans had waited for nine years since the last time the province was asked to allow women's ordination and "felt … that a patient wait would be rewarded," said Diocese of Bolivia Bishop Frank Lyons in a statement released by the Anglican Communion News Service.

Clergy members of the Southern Cone's 10th triennial synod Nov. 4 refused to approve the canonical changes required to allow for the ordination of women to the priesthood. The changes, which required a two-thirds majority in all three houses, were approved by the bishops and laity. Uruguay ordains women to the diaconate.

The Diocese of Uruguay synod met Nov. 12 in the capital city of Montevideo and decided by a simple majority vote in orders to quit the province, according to Lyons.

The diocese wants to transfer from the Southern Cone within the year, he said, adding that if permission is not given, an appeal would be made to the Anglican Consultative Council to arrange for oversight, following provincial canons.

Uruguay has been a diocese within the Southern Cone since its formation. The province, known locally as Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America, officially was formed in 1981 following decades of Anglican missionary work in South America. Today, the Southern Cone includes about 22,000 members in seven dioceses throughout Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay, making it one of the smallest provinces in the Anglican Communion in terms of numbers, yet it is one of the largest geographically

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The province has offered oversight to conservative members of parishes and dioceses breaking away from the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada. The Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion, recently told Diocese of Chile Bishop Hector "Tito" Zavala, newly elected as the province's next presiding bishop and primate, that his membership on the Inter Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order had been withdrawn. The decision came because his soon-to-be predecessor, Archbishop Gregory Venable, failed to respond to a request from Kearon for clarification about his involvement in cross-border interventions.

The Diocese of Uruguay and Peru sent representatives to the first Conference of the Anglican Churches in the Americas in Mutual Responsibility and Mission, held in February 2009 in Costa Rica when the province chose not to send an official delegation.

By ENS, November 15, 2010