It is probably a joke as Anglicanism (Church of England, Episcopalian for Americans) is Via_media (i.e. the middle way between Catholicism and Protestant theologies), this is the middle path between Church and Venture.

One of the precursors to this type of programming was Church (http://projects.csail.mit.edu/church/wiki/Church), a Scheme-based probabilistic programming language.

I guess they're separating from said Church? :)

My Mom would love the name. Clever.