The next head of the Anglican Church in Kenya will be known on Friday when the 150-member electoral college elects the archbishop of Nairobi.
The college members ”” a diocesan bishop, two priests and two lay persons from each of the 30 dioceses ”” will gather at the All Saints’ Cathedral in Nairobi at 9am to elect, by secret ballot, the man to replace Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi.
The candidate will be installed and enthroned, the Anglicans say, as the head of the 4.5 million member church in a grand ceremony on July 5.
I first met His Grace Benjamin Nzimbi, in April 2005 when eleven representatives traveled to Kenya, to participate as full members in the Diocese of Thika Synod, our new diocese. ++Nzimbi requested an audience at the provincial offices in Nairobi to welcome us, and to personally tell us that he was standing with us during this time of trial in America. I will never forget the time as he gave us 90-minutes of his time to eleven Americans, as he was pastoring to over 4.5MM of his countrymen.
After he greeted us and gave us a tour of the compound, He invited us to lunch at the provincial guesthouse. At 2:30p.m, his provincial secretary, the late Bishop William Wago, reminded His Grace of his “standing appointment†each Thursday to counsel with a group of eight men who had “been having difficulties with their families and were too fond of drink.†Imagine it; the Primate of Kenya, personally pastoring a weekly small group of men to encourage these men to repent and return to their families.
May God continue to bless His Grace, Archbishop Nzimbi. He has been a true friend of Anglicanism in America during the turbulent times since August 2003. ++Nzimbi’s stance to allow his bishops to extend temporary emergency episcopal oversight to faithful believers of the faith once delivered to the saints, has allowed a new dawn to be realized for traditional Anglican worship in America. It is through his support of historical Biblical truth, along with the primates of Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda and the Far East, that have brought us to the day of a new Anglican province in North America.
Fr. Bob Hudson
St. Luke’s Anglican Church, Maysville, KY
Diocese of Thika, ACK
(Soon to be, International Diocese, ACNA)