Bishop Greg

Last Updated on Wednesday, 22 September 2010 18:43

Greg Venables became a Christian at the age of 19, while standing on a railway platform! He had been talking to Christians and had come to the conclusion that God gives

us each a free will to choose between following Him and following Satan. While waiting on the railway platform, a piece of paper landed at his feet. On one side were Pilate's words, "What then shall I do with the man called Christ?" and on the other side "Why haven't you answered this question?" This led Greg to commit his life to the Lord.

He met Sylvia in 1969 and they quickly became aware that God had a plan for them. They were married the following year but when Greg first became interested in SAMS, through a former missionary in Paraguay who was Honorary Curate at their church in Kingston-upon- Thames, Sylvia hoped that he would forget all about it! They committed the matter to the Lord and four years went by during which Greg trained as a teacher and began to work in Ramsgate.

In June 1976 they both remembered their prayer and felt that the Lord was telling them it was time to do something about it. They were accepted to serve with the South American Mission Society (SAMS) and went to Asunci6n, Paraguay, in January 1978.

For 12 years Greg worked as Headmaster of the prestigious Anglican school, St Andrew's College, during which time its ministry aimed at the country's future leaders and their families grew and developed. In 1984 he was ordained in Paraguay. By this time he and Sylvia had three children. In 1989 the family came to England and for 3 years Greg worked as Curate in the Parish of Rainham with Wennington in Essex.

In February 1993 they returned to South America to work in La Paz, Bolivia. In November of that year Greg was consecrated Assistant Bishop of Peru and Bolivia in La Paz. When the new Diocese of Bolivia was created in 1995, he was elected as the first Bishop. They moved to Argentina in 2000 for Greg to serve as Coadjutor Bishop to Bishop David Leake, whom he succeeded in 2002. In November 2001, Greg was elected as Primate of the Province of the Southern Cone.

2005 has been a difficult year in some parts of South America. In June Greg took over the troubled Diocese of Northern Argentina in a 'caretaker' capacity after Bishop Humberto Axt was released for health reasons from the pressures of the job into a period of sabbatical. Then in September he took the extraordinary step of offering extra-provincial recognition and pastoral support to the bishop and clergy of the Diocese of Recife who had been deposed by the Province of Brazil.

Extract from a letter from Archbishop Greg

"It was January 1978 that we left a snowbound Heathrow Airport with two
toddlers clutching teddy-bears, whose wool hats, scarves and overcoats were totally inappropriate for the 42oC of heat and 100% humidity which greeted us in Asuncion. Sylvia's final remark to me before falling into a sweat-drenched slumber that first night in Paraguay was, "I'm going back tomorrow"! As God tells us in Isaiah 55:8 ­

'For my thoughts are not your thoughts Neither are your ways my ways.'

"Now, so many years and experiences later, I continue to travel constantly, both within and without the Southern Cone. I seem to spend much of my time in the departure lounges of South American airports or sitting on buses, most of which would fail any MOT anywherel"