The Fifth Jack

Midwest Conservative Journal ^ | 8/29/2005 | Christopher Johnson

[sionnsar]

Looks like I'm not the only one who thinks that something's not on the level in Malawi:

The Primate of Central Africa, the Most Rev. Bernard Malango, has postponed the consecration of an English priest as Bishop of Lake Malawi, asking him to subscribe to the creeds and Articles of Religion and to affirm that he “fashions his own life and of his household according to the doctrine of Christ.”

The Rev. Nicholas Henderson, vicar of the west London parishes of St. Martin’s Acton West and All Saints’ Ealing Common, was elected Bishop of Lake Malawi on July 29. Leader of fundraising appeals on behalf of the Church in Malawi for the past 20 years, bishop-elect Henderson is also chair of the Modern Churchpeople’s Union, which describes itself as “the leading liberal forum for open and informed theological comment in the Church of England and the Anglican Communion.”

“It has been reported that you currently live with, or have in the past lived with, a male ‘lodger’,” Archbishop Malango wrote to the bishop-elect on Aug. 24. “Because of reports of your advocacy of the gay and lesbian movement,” he wrote, “I am constrained to ask a very awkward question” of you.

“Are you prepared to assure me,” Archbishop Malango asked, “that your conduct conforms to the historic teaching of the church” on human sexuality and that “you are not in, nor have you been in, a sexual relationship outside marriage?”

Archbishop Malango further asked Fr. Henderson to dispel suggestions he held heterodox theological views. In a column bishop-elect Henderson wrote in 2002 for the Times of London, he questioned the fairness of “the current contentious doctrine of the virgin birth,” which he said “has been made a litmus test by traditionalists.”

Archbishop Malango noted in his letter, “The Nicene Creed and the Thirty-Nine Articles are not simply theological photographs snapped at a moment in history” for the Church in Africa, “but are foundation stones which must be affirmed.”

In light of his writings, bishop-elect Henderson was required to affirm the articles and creeds “without equivocation” as they are the “standard of ministry and theology which is the practice and the norm of this province,” Archbishop Malango said.

Curiouser and curiouser.

[sitetest]

Dear sionnsar,

Can the primate prevent this fellow from becoming bishop? Or can he only delay it? Are the folks who elected him likely to have second thoughts?

Thanks,


sitetest

[sionnsar]

I do not know their Canons, but the nature of the questions implies the Primate can prevent it. My reading is: The Primate is being Anglican-polite... right now. But the hammer is ready.