I Hate To Say I Told You So… [end of the Anglican Communion]

But, seriously, I think I may end up being right (sucks to be right sometimes). Final nail in the coffin, folks, for the Anglican Communion, according to Drexel Gomez. Akinola is calling for the suspension of the Church of England from the Anglican Communion. That means there is no more Anglican Communion as we now know it. I guess the liberals were correct - they are going to stay in communion with Canterbury. Canterbury has already lost the Global South, unless something changes, which is unlikely.

THE most powerful Anglican leader outside Britain has called for the Church of England to be suspended from the worldwide Anglican Communion over its backing for civil partnerships.

Last week English bishops issued a pastoral statement saying that they would allow their gay clergy to register their civil partnerships under the new act which comes into force this December but they would be required to abstain from sex. Peter Akinola the Archbishop of Nigeria, the largest Anglican province in the world, ridiculed the policy by asking the Church of England bishops if they were intending to place cameras in the bedrooms of their clergy and said that Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and his church should now face disciplinary action.

“I believe that the temporary suspension of the Church of England is the right course of action to take. The church will be subjected to the same procedures and discipline that America and Canada faced".

In a rare personal jibe against Williams, he said: “Lambeth Palace upholds our common historic faith. It will now lose that place of honour in the world. Must I come to Lambeth Palace in order to go to heaven. The answer is no!”

A suspension would remove the Church of England from the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), the governing body of the worldwide Anglican Communion, thus losing a say in worldwide policy.

The American and Canadian churches were suspended at a primates meeting earlier this year. America was judged to have gone against the teachings of the Anglican church by ordaining an openly gay man as Bishop of New Hampshire and the Canadian church lost its position through its warmth towards same-sex blessings, even though only one diocese gives them official approval. A move, which would be highly embarrassing, to suspend the Church of England would be akin to the Commonwealth expelling Britain, its founder member and it would leave the Queen and the Archbishop of Canterbury in the anomalous positions of being leading Anglicans technically outside the Anglican Communion.

Several leading Archbishops across the world are outraged that Church of England bishops voted for the Civil Partnerships Act in parliament in a House of Lords debate. Eight voted in favour of the new law and only two were against. They are also astonished at the large number of same-sex blessings which take place annually in parish churches in England. The Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM) sends out more than a thousand packs containing services and the details of the nearest Anglican priest who will conduct such ceremonies. Three hundred ceremonies now take place annually in England. The LGCM estimates that more than 1,500 clergy will have registered their civil partnerships within five years.

Bernard Malango, an influential primate who is Archbishop of Central Africa, is to write to Williams criticising the pastoral statement: “If Rowan has approved of this, it is very unfortunate,” he said: “It makes me sick. They have to explain what they mean by being married and having no sex. This is the final nail in the coffin of the entire Anglican Communion".

Drexel Gomez, the Archbishop of the West Indies predicted yet another Anglican split: “I don’t see how civil partnerships will work,” he said: “I will have a difficult time explaining this; my people will take it in a negative way. This is an added threat at this moment of tension within the communion. Two-thirds of the communion will not be able to accept it".

Note: Akinola will bring the matter to a meeting of Anglican primates from the global South (Africa, South East Asia and South America) in September. If he gains enough support, the matter will then be referred to the next meeting of the primates.

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Speak the truth in love. Eph 4:15

As usual, your post is fascinating.

With Pope Benedict XVI now signaling no toleration for objective immorality and public scandal among the RCC clergy (he recently defrocked a priest (in New Jersey, I think, for his active disordered sexuality), discipline may be restored to the Roman Catholic Church in time for full communion with an Anglican Communion revitalized by the Holy Spirit through Archbishop Akinola?

God bless you.

Last one out, turn out the lights.

Ironically (?), the 7 large Churches in No. VA who have aligned themselves with the Anglican Communion, to get away from being "ECUSA", haven't said a word about any of this.

How silent can they stay? How long can they avoid commenting on this? What? They think we don't read and we don't know what's going on?

I guess Martyn is just hoping to slide into retirement before he has to be involved in some big break. Martyn is ahadams2's former rector, still at Truro but planning on retiring, as I understand, some time in 2006 and move to Destin, FL where he has maintained a condo for years.

Typical head in the sand attitude.

I asked a friend who still goes to the Church that I attended for 13 years, Church of the Apostles, and she hasn't heard a word about any of this, now that she doesn't have me around to pound these articles into her, or send her the URL's by email.

If the congregants don't care what's going on, why should the Rector's bring up these ugly topics, and force their congregations to take a stand?

I would watch the Global South meeting in September where the break might occur. For what reason would the Global South primates continue to hang around, now that the Mother Church i.e CofE has gone bad? What would they gain by staying until the next Synod in 2008? The expulsion of the CofE? Their eyes are now open about the CofE and Rowan Williams, heretic-in-chief.

If the Global South primates split, they will align with the US Anglican Network (under Bishop Duncan) and the Canadian Anglican Network (under Bishop Harvey). The latter two are now part of a new North and Central America network that was just announced. There only needs to be a UK network formed, with a substitute leader for Rowan Williams. However, the Global South primates will run the show from Alexandria, Egypt. I wonder if they will have a rotating council leadership rather than one leader like Akinola.

Everyone watch while the worldwide Anglican communion is reborn, and leaves behind its heretical counterpart.

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