Anglican Bishops Warn of Split (may be misreported) (UPDATED)

Friday, February 23, 2007 • 9:35 am

UPDATE: 2/24/2007 - Have just had a response from the communications officer of the province of Nigeria that said, “Very many errors. The archbishop will soon release a press statement to put things right.” Will be looking for that and post it when available.

This cat is out of the bag. The reporters link the September 30 deadline with Canterbury and the “mother church” but the main thrust of the article seems to ring true.

allAfrica.com, 2/23/2007

African Anglican bishops yesterday warned of a split among faithful unless the mother church stopped embracing homosexuality by September 30.

Led by Nigeria’s Archbishop Peter Akinola and Kenya’s Benjamin Nzimbi, the bishops said if Canterbury “does not come back to us by September 30, we will decide whether they will continue being with us or not.”

Let us know if they will have stopped celebrating same sex marriages and ordaining homosexuals,” Bishop Akinola who is the chairman of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (Capa) said during the launch of an HIV /Aids prevention plan at Panafric Hotel. ...

Bishop Akinola said although African bishops had demanded repentance from churches which had embraced homosexuality and that the practice be stopped, nothing had been done. “They have failed to meet all our requirements. We decided to continue together in love but given them another chance to stop by the end of September,” the bishops said. ...

“We will see if they comply by September 30,” the bishop (Nzimbi) said.

Unconfirmed reports indicated that Anglicans in Africa planned to form a splinter group after September 30 if some churches in the West continued to embrace homosexuality.

Read it all.

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Comments:

This reads like a ‘plant’ to me. It does not sound like the position of the GS primates over the last years or coming out of the Tanzania meeting.

[1] Posted by Rick Killough on 02-23-2007 at 09:15 AM • top

Anyone know anything about the source of the this story? Sounds odd.

[2] Posted by Seen-Too-Much on 02-23-2007 at 09:23 AM • top

Very odd, probably a case of very bad reporting

[3] Posted by Matt Kennedy on 02-23-2007 at 09:24 AM • top

This story is exactly what Mark Harris, Fr. Jake and other revisionists love to jump on. Wouldn’t be surprised if it were a hoax. At this point, ++Akinola et al. are calling the shots in the AC and have TEC up against the ropes. To withdraw now would forfeit everything they fought so hard to gain at Dar es Salaam. They appear to have ++Cantuar at least minimally on board. So why walk this autumn if TEC does not comply? Doesn’t make one bit of sense.

[4] Posted by Steve Lake+ on 02-23-2007 at 09:27 AM • top

I have written to the Archbishops’ communications officers seeking correction, clarification, or comment.

[5] Posted by Andy Figueroa on 02-23-2007 at 10:06 AM • top

Steve: Withdraw now? Not now, but after 9/30. They’re just restating what they said last week. They intend to do something drastic on 10/1 if Her Grace and Her Gay Caballeros miss the boat on 9/30. And it does make sense to advise the nits that run TEC that they. mean. business. These statements are blunt and to the point, and simply stated for the reality challenged TECies. Make no mistake, the African Primates are reading the effusions of North American Bishops i.e. “I Won’t and you can’t make me” and are aware these people operate from a sliding scale of prevarication. Remember one Primate: “North Americans say one thing and do another.” I think they just want to be understood.

[6] Posted by teddy mak on 02-23-2007 at 12:19 PM • top

But what are they saying about the Church of England? Is it also under a deadline?

[7] Posted by Paula on 02-23-2007 at 04:19 PM • top

For a breath of fresh, pure air—-and sanity—-read Bp Duncan’s statement re Tanzania!

[8] Posted by DonaldH on 02-23-2007 at 06:14 PM • top

I am very skeptical about this.

[9] Posted by Gulfstream on 02-23-2007 at 10:57 PM • top

The Province of Nigeria communications officer replied to me with: “Very many errors. The archbishop will soon release a press statement to put things right.”

I’ve added this information at the top of the article. Will be looking for that press statement, of course, and post it when available.

[10] Posted by Andy Figueroa on 02-24-2007 at 09:03 AM • top

Andy,
could you repost your comment above as a separate entry. It is important to get this out there…asap

[11] Posted by Matt Kennedy on 02-24-2007 at 09:05 AM • top

Thanks for the prompt. It’s done and is HERE.

[12] Posted by Andy Figueroa on 02-24-2007 at 09:17 AM • top

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