It is true that Africa’s Christianity, even among august denominations like the Anglicans, is more passionate than it is farther north. Apart from the contest with Islam, this also reflects the need to offer as intense an experience as do the Pentecostalists. On the other hand, many African Anglicans love the idea of an episcopate that goes back to the dawn of the Christian era, something the Pentecostalists can’t provide. In Kenya, Anglicanism offers social cachet; and in Rwanda, Anglicanism attracts those who prefer the Anglophone Commonwealth to the Francophone past.
Some African Anglicans, such as Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda, reject the idea that they are clones of the Victorian missionaries, or of any other European model. Today’s Ugandan church, he says, bears the stamp of the “East African revival”, a movement that swept the region in the 1930s, with emphasis on the need for reconciliation and repentance. The Anglican Communion needs plenty of both.
This very short article is disappointingly shallow for a fine journal like The Economist. The subtitle suggests that it’s the African leaders who are threatening to break up the AC, which is a common but superficial viewpoint, since it’s really the so-called “progressives” who have done that and have torn the fabric of the Communion at its deepest levels. And at one point, the article suggests that the sort of Christianity typical of Uganda’s brand of Anglicanism is rather “fundamentalist.” I don’t see anything new or helpful in this piece.
David Handy+
I agree with Father Handy’s remark. The meme that it is now the GAFCon-ners who are breaking up the communion despite their pledge to stay is getting plenty of press time. But the article seems to ask, “Why the push from the orthodox now?” My response in the comment section:
[blockquote]Liberals, Anglo-catholics, and evangelicals.
General synod has pretty much told the Anglo-catholics to shove off. They renege on promises made just 14 years ago. Reprehensible in the business world. Utter folly in the religious world. That then leaves the evangelicals.
The liberals in North America and England continue their quest to oneup each other in the most outrageous, defiant behavior. They cannot stop themselves. Witness the marriage ceremony at St. Bart’s. Terrible timing.
As the ABp of Sudan reaffirmed, these reckless antics make the evangelicals place in the Anglican world simply untenable. From Suffolk to Sudan, Central Florida to Central Africa, evangelicals cannot do what they are called to do – evangelize – with the “June bride” waltzing around the world prattling about what a victim he is. So evangelicals simply have no choice.
[/blockquote]