The Churches of the Global South are not beggars, cannot be bought, and do not want any patronising handouts from the West, the ArchÂbishop of Nigeria, the Most Revd Nicholas Okoh, told 150 delegates to the Fourth Global Anglican South to South Encounter (GSE4) in Singapore on Monday.
In the opening address, the ArchÂbishop emphasised the “absolute necessity for economic empowerÂment in the Global South”, and warned against “the treachery of another gospel which is afraid of and denies the deity of Christ”.
“…the Rt Revd Peter Akinola,…, preached at the openÂing service. Signing the Anglican Covenant “for political reasons†would not stop the Episcopal Church in the United States from pursuing its own agenda, he said.
If the Episcopal Church chose to sign — “and we can’t stop them†—but continued to “disregard the mind of the Communion on these matters that have caused us so much grief, it will make nonsense of the whole exerciseâ€, he said.”
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This is all too sad.
A public statement by a major leader of the Anglican Communion stating that the leadership of the Episcopal Church can no longer be trusted in its ecclesiological and theological relationships with its fellow Anglican national churches.
This says so much about how little a regard there is for the integrity of ECUSA’s leadership. Such ECUSA leadership, that to me has the appearance of a collective persona of unscrupulous trial lawyers, makes it difficult for me to describe as “Christian” leadership. It may be of some other derivation, but Christian?!
[Formatting edited at request of commenter – Elf]
Dear Elves,
After a hiatus of several months< I have done it again. Would you please remove the "=========================================........." from my previous entry?
The poverty of the Global South Church is nothing in comparison to the theological poverty of the Church in far wealthier climes. As the sun sets on the TEC and the endowments are siphoned off, the wealth that endures will be revealed. Using the cognate accusative, TEC simply ‘treasured up the wrong treasure’.
There is a vocation that gives up a most treasured and priceless good in trade for mere money. The GS is wisely avoiding the temptation to do the same. God bless them all!
Don
As one African Anglican leader famously said not long after Robinson’s consecration, “[i]The gospel is not for sale.[/i]”
The great Anglican missiologist Roland Allen (early 20th century) and the highly influential CMS leader Henry Venn (in the late 19th century) both popularized the idea that young churches that result from missionary work must become, as soon as possible, self-governing, self-propagating, and self-supporting. But GS Anglicanism has found it easier to achieve the first two goals than the third and last one. So I welcome this call for greater financial independence, as painful as that is for many provinces that are desperately impoverished.
Thankfully, colonialism has formally ended. The Brityish Empire is no more. But sadly, vestiges of a colonialist mentality continue to exist, both in the global north and south, where patterns of financial dependence on the West have been allowed to go on long after their proper expiration date.
However, at the same time, we rich Christians in the GN (global north) have a solemn responsibility to help our brothers and sisters in impoverished nations like Sudan who lack the necessities of life. But such aid can’t come with strings attached that resemble an umbilical cord, if not puppet strings.
David Handy+
How much of the GN wealth is real when we have a national debt of about $13.5 T and another $108 T in unfunded liabilities (Social Security, Perscription Drugs, Medicare)?
I suggest that our “wealth” is a complete illusion. Where are the raw materials? Where are the industrial centers now? Certainly, they have mostly gone from the USA. We now have only about 20% of the manufacturing capacity that we had in the 1970s.
I was looking at a 5 oz silver ingot I purchased in 1995. It cost $30, or $6 per ounce. Today, silver is selling for about $18 per ounce…so the dollars I have in my pocket are worth only about 33% of what they were worth in 1995.
So, who is wealthy?
5. Sick & Tired of Nuance:
You are very correct. Man-made money is only as good as the character of the country – and we know which direction that is going.
I would point out that the raw materials seem to be left in the ground for our grandchildren. There was vast quantities of Copper found under Wisconsin and our (un)wise leaders chose to leave it there. Crude Oil, also, is being discovered at a much greater rate than is extracted.
The world seems to be short of nothing except Gold just now.
Don