Some Episcopalians have accused American conservatives of manipulating African bishops. Barbara Harris, an Episcopal bishop of Massachusetts, has even claimed that African bishops’ loyalty has been “bought with chicken dinners.” But it is clear that, at GAFCON, Africans are calling the shots. The event grew out of a Nairobi meeting of African bishops, and Africans are paying their own way. Peter Akinola, the primate of the Nigerian church and the chairman of the gathering, raised $1.2 million in three weeks for the conference. Indeed, his church even subsidized the attendance of a number of Americans, and Akinola has employed a young American priest as his private chaplain for the event.
At GAFCON, the African church ”” the largest church ”” is signalling that, by rights of dogma and demography, it should be calling the shots. Robert Duncan, the conservative bishop of Pittsburgh, says that the conference’s task is nothing less than to prepare for a “post-colonial” Anglicanism that has “come of age.” Certainly the choice to hold GAFCON in the Holy Land, and not in England, is a powerful statement about where conservatives see their origins and, too, their legitimacy.
There is, of course, a certain irony to all of this. The West once redeemed Africa for Christianity; now it is the Africans who seek to do the redeeming. African prelates see themselves as repaying a favor. Benjamin Nzimbi, archbishop of Nairobi, tells me that he sees GAFCON as a way of “reclaiming Anglicanism the way we received it.” Certainly Africans to have the advantage, as their churches grow and the Episcopal Church shrinks.
This is probably the best reporting of GAFCON that I’ve seen so far. Mr Kavulla is obviously well informed and culturally aware.
It is an interesting angle. Historically, South Africa was evangelized by more “social Gospel” Anglicans, and central, western, and eastern by more conservative Anglicans. The differing evolutions of these areas supports ++Nzimbi’s claim — but not for South Africa.
That’s not true about the evangelization of South Africa. Colenso might be described as a social Gospel christian. The Bishop of Cape Town and the other South African Bishops who attempted, and did, put him on trial and excommunicate him but failed to get him removed from his post can hardly be described as social gospel Anglicans. One might describe some of the English Anglo Catholics who were present in South Africa during the twentieth century as less social gospel and more socialist (and I say that without intending the kind of negativity that socialist conjures for most Americans). Nevertheless they were present long after after the first missionaries.
One might want to think about the link between the leaders of the church and the leaders of the liberation movement (ANC) forged in the 1950s as a more immediate source of the politicization of South African Anglicanism.