From The Living Church:
Posted on: June 23, 2008
There will be no conservative-led schism within the Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Nigeria told some 300 bishops and 700 clergy and lay leaders on June 22, the Global Anglican Future Conference’s opening day in Jerusalem.
But Archbishop Peter Akinola expressed his disappointment with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams for ignoring the pleas of traditionalists that he act quickly to resolve the crisis. Archbishop Williams was “not interested in what matters to us, in what we think or in what we say,” he said, but he refrained from criticising Archbishop Williams by name, reserving his opprobrium for decisions taken by “Lambeth Palace.”
Archbishop Akinola said it “would be presumptuous of me to offer advise” to California bishops who are seeking ways of incorporating last month’s state court decision authorizing gay marriage into the liturgical life of The Episcopal Church. But he said the introduction of gay marriage was a consequence of sin and a failure of the church to maintain standards. “If the church had been faithful we would not be in that mess,” Archbishop Akinola said.
The Rt. Rev. Suheil Dawani, the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem, spoke to members of the gathering during an invitation-only service at St. George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem Sunday. He had repeatedly asked that the meeting not be held in his diocese. In his remarks he said that the local Anglican church disagreed with recent actions by The Episcopal Church, but said those actions should not be the cause of schism. Unity lay with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop Dawani reportedly said.
The meeting has witnessed a shift in the leadership of the conservative movement within the Anglican Communion, with the Archbishop of Sydney Peter Jensen assuming a new prominence among what had been an African-dominated leadership team. Challenged in a press conference by a gay activist to respond to the persecution of a lesbian in Uganda, who was forced to flee to the United Kingdom for her safety, Archbishop Henry Orombi responded that he did not think that homosexuals were persecuted in his country. It was Archbishop Jensen who then intervened, noting that all Anglicans abhorred homophobia, and that speaking for himself and the African church leaders, they were united in their condemnation of violence. When the issue was presented to the African leaders in those terms, they were quick to join their Australian colleague in condemning homophobic violence.
Condemned by critics as schismatic, the leaders of GAFCON have confounded expectations by focusing on spiritual solutions, with organizers hoping it will spark a renewal movement within the wider church. The long-term implications of GAFCON will likely rest upon its closing communiqué. Pilgrims will be asked to review seven questions over the course of the conference, including what can be done to restore sacramental Communion among the divided Anglican churches and whether it can be reformed from within.
The questions they will be asked to answer include whether cross border Episcopal jurisdictions are an appropriate way forward to resolve differences; is GAFCON merely a Global South initiative or does it have a role to play in the wider church; will the initiatives that arise from GAFCON be neutralized by the strategic use of money by its opponents in the Episcopal Church; can GAFCON provide a path towards the Anglican future; and should GAFCON become an institutional entity in order to achieve the tasks it has set for itself.
Archbishop Orombi said there were no predetermined answers to these questions from the archbishops, as it was important that clergy and lay voices be heard in formulating a way forward for Anglicanism.
(The Rev.) George Conger
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