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African Bishops Sneer At Archbishop Of Canterbury
Africa's largest Anglican church is criticizing a proposal from the archbishop of Canterbury for two-tier membership in the global Anglican fellowship, a plan aimed at keeping the group together despite differences over homosexuality and the Bible.The bishops who lead the 17.5 million-member Church of Nigeria announced their stand in postings Sunday on a pair of Anglican Web sites. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams - Anglicanism's spiritual leader - suggested last month that two levels of participation for the 38 branches of the Anglican Communion could be created. Under that system, America's Episcopal Church, which consecrated an openly gay bishop in 2003, would accept a lesser role to prevent a total break with a majority of Anglican churches, which are conservative. The Nigerian bishops said Williams' "brilliant" concept sought to "preserve the unity of the church by accommodating every shred of opinion no matter how biblical, all because we want to make everyone feel at home." But the Nigerians also indicated that total exclusion of the Episcopal Church may be required: "A cancerous lump in the body should be excised if it has defied every known cure. To attempt to condition the whole body to accommodate it will lead to the avoidable death of the patient." The statement depicted the Williams plan as a "novel" design that's "elastic enough to accommodate all the extremes of preferred modes of expression of the same faith." Instead, it said, Williams should urge churches that chose to "walk apart" to return to authentic Anglicanism. The Nigerians' statement is particularly noteworthy because their church is the biggest Anglican denomination outside the Church of England and is often seen as a leader among Anglican provinces in the developing world. In a related move, Nigeria's church plans to consecrate Canon Martyn Minns, rector of a prominent conservative parish in Fairfax, Va., as its bishop to lead a United States mission that serves Nigerians in America and others dissatisfied with the New York-based Episcopal Church. Meanwhile, six dioceses unhappy with the Episcopalians' rejection last month of an outright moratorium on consecrating more gay bishops have asked Williams for oversight from a bishop outside the Episcopal hierarchy. Integrity, the caucus for gay and lesbian Episcopalians, released a weekend statement that expressed frustration with the Anglican wrangling over gay issues. "We cannot live up to our call to be the body of Christ in the world if we're spending all our time, energy and resources arguing about how to be the Episcopal Church in the Anglican Communion" over the next few years, it said. Integrity said the discussion provoked by Williams should include calling Anglicanism "to account for 30 years of failure to implement an authentic listening process" on the gay issue. Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-07-04 |
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