Kenya: Uneasy Calm As Major Split Looms Large in Anglican Church

According to Archbishop [Peter] Akinola, the last major meeting that considered the gay issue was the Primates’ Meeting in Tanzania in February 2007. During the meeting, the Episcopal Church was given “a last chance to clarify unequivocally and adequately their stand by 30th September, 2007”.

“Strangely, before the deadline, and before the primates could get the opportunity of meeting to assess the adequacy of the response of TEC and in a clear demonstration of unwillingness to follow through our collective decisions, which for many of us was an apparent lack of regard for the Primates, Lambeth Palace in July 2007 issued invitations to TEC bishops, including those who consecrated Gene Robinson, to attend the Lambeth 2008 conference.

“At this point, it dawned upon us, regrettably, that the Archbishop of Canterbury was not interested in what matters to us, in what we think or in what we say,” the Gafcon gathering heard.

The upshot is that if African bishops are angry, it is because of Canterbury’s and the West’s insensitivity and apparent contempt of their collective decisions.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, Anglican Church of Kenya, Anglican Provinces, Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of Nigeria, GAFCON I 2008, Global South Churches & Primates, Same-sex blessings, Sexuality Debate (in Anglican Communion)

4 comments on “Kenya: Uneasy Calm As Major Split Looms Large in Anglican Church

  1. Br. Michael says:

    Well the Africans were lied too. That does tend to sour things.

  2. Brian from T19 says:

    Isn’t this a quote from ++Akinola’s GAFCON address? What does it have to do with Kenya? Where’s this from Kendall+ or elves?

  3. dwstroudmd+ says:

    Leave us not forget the genteel commentary by Bishops Barbara Harris and Spong regarding the intellectual capabilites of African bishops at Lambeth 1998 when these colonial power brokers got their agenda disrupted. Disdainful siffery about airports and ass*oles from the former and chicken dinners and animism from the latter were -shall we say- less than congenial to those with more earned PhDs than the American House of Bishops in toto?

    And this Lame-beth was deliberately constructed since September 2007 to hobble any further embarrassment to the “elites” so far above animism that they can unfailingly identify what direction the church should go. That these elites are so deconstructed and postmodern, so postEnlightenment, that they can fulfill the aphorism that the unknowing have led so long they are capable of doing everything with nothing. But they cannot tolerate dissent nor include truth in their context. Thus, Lambeth 2008: unequipping bishops for ministry by hobbling the Spirit from the get-go.

    It remains to be seen if the strategy will be successful.

  4. Billy says:

    “”At this point, it dawned upon us, regrettably, that the Archbishop of Canterbury was not interested in what matters to us, in what we think or in what we say,” the Gafcon gathering heard.”
    And in response to this, Gafcon is saying the same thing back … we no longer care what you (AbofC, CofE, TEC, ACofC, et al) think or say, because you obviously don’t care what we think or say, as your actions prove. We (Gafcon) shall now move on as we please to create this church within the Anglican Communion of our own making, without regard to your geographical structures. In ten years as the next Lambeth invitations are sent out, if you (AbofC) do not invite all of our bishops, no matter where they are, we once again will ignore you, though by then we believe we may be larger than those you do invite, and perhaps we’ll invite you to our next Gafcon conference. TEC’s PB is obviously afraid of this, calling the Jerusalem document and “emission.” The AbofC and AbofYork obviously are also concerned, as they both fired off responses that were critical. TEC and AbofC crossed that last line they were told not to cross and the consequences may well be future extinction for TEC and irrelevance for AbofC