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Archbishop of Canterbury Warmly Greeted by Anglicans in South America

Episcopal News Service. June 30, 1999 [99-092]

Jerry Hames

(Episcopal Life) Archbishop George Carey of Canterbury, in a weeklong swing in late May through the Church of Brazil and the strongly evangelical Church of the Southern Cone, made a worldwide call to churches to throw open their doors to welcome strangers.

"We must welcome people, we must care for them, we must ensure they feel at home in our worship and that we relate our faith to the needs of people outside," he said. Carey visited the dioceses of Northern Argentina, Bolivia and Uruguay. In Montevideo, Uruguay's capital, where he addressed the provincial synod, Carey warned that it is easy for the church to talk about mission, but fail to act on it.

He described "an innocent sign" on the porch of a church in his diocese that reads: "Keep this door firmly shut, sheep may enter." For too many years, this has been the unspoken view of many Anglican churches: This church is not for you; keep out," he said.

Youth and leadership development are other challenges the church faces, Carey said. He encouraged Anglicans to take seriously their mission to young people by focusing on their needs and goals. "And, finally, we must raise up godly, educated men and women for Christ's work," Carey said.

Vote on women priests fails

However, the Anglicans in the Southern Cone will not have female priests to continue the church's work -- at least for now. A vote to permit dioceses to ordain women as priests failed to get the required two-thirds approval.

The proposed motion, approved by a majority of those present, sought permission from the province to allow dioceses to proceed with such ordinations if they wished. A provincial press release said that bishops and delegates who opposed the resolution spoke of their desire to be faithful to biblical witness.

Two women deacons from Montevideo who attended the synod took Carey and his wife, Eileen, a nurse, to an AIDS hospital, where they have a ministry. Carey laid hands on the patients and prayed with the families during his visit. One of the deacons, Audrey Gonzales, originally a journalist from Tennessee, ministers to the English-speaking community at Holy Trinity Cathedral and at a home for the elderly.

"This is the most attention the church has ever received from the press and media," said Presiding Bishop Maurice Sinclair, who said he hopes Carey's visit will increase the church's visibility in the community. Reflecting the cathedral's active street ministry, people from all walks of life mingled with hundreds of others, and street children sat on the floor in front of the English ambassador and Eileen Carey during the service.

In the Diocese of Northern Argentina, Carey seized an opportunity to talk with government officials about concerns shared by the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches over land rights of the indigenous people and urged compliance of agreements already reached but not yet enforced.

Traditional Bolivian pipe music added to the festivities in Santa Cruz, when Carey joined Bishop Gregory Venables in consecrating a new church. The priest said the parish ministry was one of "reconciliation and hope" in a community polarized by expanding Christian fundamentalism.

In Uruguay, Carey urged in his address to provincial synod that lay and ordained ministers prepare themselves to encounter diversity in the secular world and with other members of a worldwide Christian church. "This is something that Anglicanism has sometimes struggled to acknowledge, preferring to focus on the local and immediate.

"The days are gone when parochialism can work," he said. "What we do or say here can so easily be broadcast to the other side of the world within seconds. So I want to encourage outward-looking theological education that will strengthen the identity of this province and equip your people for the realities of the word and the church today."

Arriving by small plane at Ing Juarez in the Chaco region of northern Argentina, Carey was greeted by a city that is 80 percent Anglican. More than 6,000 filled the city arena for a three-hour Festival of Praise.