Updated (added to end of post)
According to The Telegraph‘s Jonathan Petre the Diocese of Pittsburgh has been offered haven by the Southern Cone:
Archbishop Venables said that the Americans were to blame for triggering the crisis by consecrating Anglicanism’s first openly gay bishop in 2003 in defiance of official Church policy.
The British-born Archbishop, who is the Primate of the Province of the Southern Cone, told the Telegraph: “This is a pivotal moment in the history of the Anglican Communion.
“The new realignment demonstrates the depths of the divisions that already exist. ”
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“Conservatives in America and elsewhere cannot wait in limbo any longer. They need a safe haven now.”
Archbishop Venables unveiled the decision of his bishops and other leaders after the plans were overwhelmingly approved by his provincial synod during a meeting in Chile last night.
Read it all here.
Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori last week warned Pittsburgh’s Bishop Bob Duncan that if his course of direction did not change the church would have to consider “whether you have committed canonical offences that warrant disciplinary action.”
Three other American bishops now affiliated with foreign provinces already face discipline by the church.
See, also, our earlier entry, The Episcopal Church is not divisible.
UPDATE – click Read More
Living Church reports:
By a supermajority, delegates to the Valparaíso synod voted to permit traditionalist North American dioceses to affiliate with the province. The vote goes a step beyond Bishop Venables’ intervention in Brazil, and marks a major shift in the ecclesial structures of the Anglican Communion.
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The Nov. 7 vote permits dioceses as ecclesial entities, not merely individuals, to join the province.
A spokesman for the Diocese of Pittsburgh noted the Southern Cone was one of a number of provinces offering a home to American dioceses.
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A spokesman for the Archbishop of Canterbury said Archbishop Rowan Williams had no comment at this time on the Southern Cone vote.