May 6, 2007U.S. Bishop, Making It Official, Throws in Lot With African Churchman
By NEELA BANERJEE
WOODBRIDGE, Va. May 5 — The Anglican archbishop of Nigeria, Peter J. Akinola, on Saturday installed Bishop Martyn Minns of Virginia as the new leader of a diocese that would take in congregations around the country that want to leave the Episcopal Church. In doing so, Archbishop Akinola rejected requests by leaders of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church to refrain from taking part in the ceremony.
Archbishop Akinola’s role in the installation celebration for Bishop Minns forged another tie in an increasingly confident alliance between theological traditionalists in the United States and church leaders overseas who are deeply opposed to the Episcopal Church’s liberal stance on homosexuality. A decision by the Episcopal Church in 2003 to ordain an openly gay man, V. Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire outraged traditionalists in the United States and abroad, who believe that the Bible condemns homosexuality.
Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the Anglican Communion, sent a letter to Archbishop Akinola late last week urging him to cancel his plans to visit the United States.
His letter repeated requests made by Katharine Jefferts Schori, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, the American branch of Anglicanism. Bishop Jefferts Schori said that by attending the ceremony, Archbishop Akinola would heighten tensions between the Episcopal Church and many in the 77-million-member Anglican Communion.
The hope among leaders of the new diocese, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, is that it will eventually be recognized by the communion as its rightful representative in the United States, replacing an Episcopal Church they say has strayed from traditional Anglican teachings.
“I see it as a building block for that,” Bishops Minns said in a news conference preceding his installation ceremony. He said the convocation would work with other groups of disaffected congregations to create a successor to the Episcopal Church.
Tensions have mounted since the communion’s archbishops, or primates, met earlier this year in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and issued an ultimatum insisting that the Episcopal Church pledge not to consecrate as bishops gay men or lesbians who are in relationships. The primates also demanded that the American church stop allowing bishops and priests from authorizing blessings of same-sex couples.
The Episcopal Church must give its decision by Sept. 30. If it rejects the ultimatum, the church risks a reduced role in the world’s third-largest Christian denomination, leaving the door open, some believe, for another group to take on the Anglican mantle in the United States.
So far, only a few dozen of about 7,600 Episcopal congregations have left. About 30 congregations are affiliated with the convocation, Bishop Minns said.
Despite the group’s tiny membership and some empty pews at the Virginia chapel Saturday, those at the ceremony were not about to let it become “a convergence of the unhappy,” as Bishop Minns said they had been described.
In a traditional ceremony that echoed one just a few months ago, held in Washington for Bishop Jefferts Schori, a procession of bishops entered the chapel and sat on a raised stage, waiting for Bishop Minns to enter. He rapped on the door three times before it was opened by the registrar of the ceremony, who said, “This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter it.”
Dressed in a gold miter and cape, Archbishop Akinola handed the pastoral staff to Bishop Minns on the stage and asked him to show himself as “a true apostle of Christ.”
Normally, as the bishop presiding at such a ceremony, Archbishop Akinola would have been expected to preach, Bishop Minns said. But it was Bishop Minns who delivered the sermon, which touched on the tensions in the global Anglican Communion.
“The Communion is wrestling with irreconcilable truths,” Bishop Minns said of the dispute over homosexuality. “It’s not clear how it will turn out.”
He offered the convocation as a gift to those in the Episcopal Church who crave a different theology. Bishop Minns called the convocation a celebration that had been wrought from the crisis.
By the end of the ceremony, some Nigerian congregants danced and all broke into a spirited singing of “Days of Elijah.” Finally, Archbishop Akinola told those gathered that the ceremony was “simply the first step” in a long road.
“The Church of Nigeria itself has almost nothing to offer,” he said, although the church is the largest in the global communion. “We are doing this on behalf of the Communion. If we had not done this many of you would be lost to other churches, maybe to nothing at all.”
Read it all here.
6 comments:
Despite the group’s tiny membership and some empty pews at the Virginia chapel Saturday . . .
What!? Wow. That's the NT Times for you.
By the way, ++Akinola looks so resplendant, I choose to overlook the tamborene.
I have a question as an observer: would you all react the same way if KJS decided to set up an alternative ministery in Nigeria for American who don't feel at home and those who are more Liberal? I have heard a lot about TEC ignoring the ABC, RW, but it seems that PA just did the same thing. (I realize that is open to debate). Sorry for using all initials, but I thought it was kind of silly for someone to complain about it earlier.
I just wonder where this stops. Are we going to have different types of Anglican churces all over the world based on whether you are conservative, middle of the road or liberal? And won't that eventually leave the Anglican Communion in shambles?
Well, she might have to sit down and have a chat with the Islamic extremists first and then decide. Don't think that's going to happen - in fact, very few TEC leaderhship types have stepped foot in Nigeria (and especially nothern Nigeria. Bono went, but we haven't seen KJS getting herself on a plane and going to see for herself what it's like to be any sort of Christian in Nigeria.
What Rowan Williams has been arguing for (for he may indeed by sympathetic with the TEC liberal view - though there is some serious discussion over whether that is actually true anymore since he's said that his writings on the subject were done when he was young and just starting out) he is very serious about how the Episcopal Church unilaterally imposed serious changes in the way the Church understands itself and its doctrines. It was a political decision, not a theological one. The is America and TEC is welcomed to make political decisions - but it's not license to think that we Americans can just unilaterally decide to do things and the rest of the Communion be stuffed. It is a particularly American trait (can sometimes it works for us -but we do leave a host of the unhappy in our wake when we do things like that, unless it's something like winning World War II - but we didn't do that alone either) that backfires on the rest of the Communion. So even British, European or New Zealand liberals who would be sympathetic with the liberal views wince at how the Episcopal Church is carrying out their agenda.
But yes, I also agree with you - if this continues it will lave the Anglican Communion in shambles. What made Saturday's event so extraordinary is that it happened on American soil and the ABC may have sent his letter only after the Primate of Nigeria had departed. Says a lot there, doesn't it? The ABC can get in touch with Dr. Akinola personally pretty fast - that he didn't use that method tells us a lot about Rowan's lack of enthusiasm at intervening. We still haven't actually heard from Lambeth Palace's spokeman. We are curious at what this letter may have said - even Dr. Akionla was curious. But since he didn't have the text and the text wasn't published online (like KJS's letter was at ENS) no one knows.
bb
Yes, Akinola has ignored the instruments of unity, just like Griswald did in the consecration of V. Gene Robinson.
How lovely, now we're equal in abandoning authority, both claiming a prophetic voice as they rip apart the communion.
See the Primate's letter to Dr. Williams above.
bb
Archbishop Peter Akinola has acted consistently with his statements and warnings from as early as 4 years ago.
Consider some of his statements:
"The consecration [of Gene Robinson] clearly demonstrates that authorities within [the Episcopal Church] consider that their cultural-based agenda is of far greater importance than obedience to the word of God.” He added, "Such a church is bound to become a shrine for the worship of men rather than God. We cannot go on limping between two opinions." (Source: Washingtontimes.com, 4 Nov. 2003)
“We do not want any money from the Episcopal Church of the United States,” said Peter Akinola, Chairman of the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa (CAPA), representing more than half the world’s 77 million Anglicans. “This is not rhetoric,” Akinola said at a news conference at the close of CAPA’s 2004 Nairobi summit. “If we suffer for a while to gain our independence and our freedom and to build ourselves up, I think it will be a good thing for the church in Africa. And we will not, on the altar of money, mortgage our conscience, mortgage our faith, mortgage our salvation.” (Source: Christian Science Monitor, 19 April 2004)
“Pastors, Bishops and all religious leaders are called upon to remove the masks and do away with all pretence. It is time to be true Shepherds and feed the flock. False prophets are called upon to remove the mask and stop the exploitation and manipulation of the gullible, unsuspecting flock and stop shouting peace when God has not sent them.” (Source: Akinola’s New Year Address, Church of Nigeria News, Dec. 2005)
"Our participation in this worldwide fellowship is contingent on genuine repentance by those who have chosen to walk away, for two cannot walk together except they are in agreement," said the Most Rev. Peter Akinola, of the Church of Nigeria, in a statement. "Christian unity must be anchored on Biblical truth." (Source: The Christian Post, 16 Jan. 2007)
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