Showdown?

Midwest Conservative Journal ^ | 9/12/2005 | Christopher Johnson

[sionnsar]

Maybe, just maybe, conservative Anglicans are indeed getting serious:

The Anglican Communion faces new turmoil this weekend after a Brazilian archbishop was banned from attending a meeting of leaders of the church in the developing world for being theologically unsound.

The conference, of church leaders from the global south, in Alexandria, Egypt, next month, is likely to represent a new trial for Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, who has been due to attend as head of the Anglican Communion, although Lambeth Palace was yesterday unable to confirm whether he will now be present.  Dr Williams has come under attack, along with the other bishops of the Church of England, for sanctioning a statement in July allowing clergy to register same sex civil partnerships, so long as they give assurances that they are not sexually active.

The row over the Brazilian presence at the conference comes as Peter Akinola, primate of Nigeria and leader of the church in Africa, has been increasingly critical of other Anglicans, for failing to reach his standards of orthodoxy.

In a letter released this week, Dr Akinola insisted that Orlando Santos de Oliveira, primate of Brazil, would not be allowed to attend next month’s conference because he had deposed a rebel evangelical bishop and allowed criticism of the church’s Windsor report, which last year attempted to resolve issues of church discipline arising out of the appointment of an openly gay bishop in the US.

Many on the Anglican left think the Third World is no longer bluffing.

Privately some senior figures in the Church of England and the US Episcopal Church are describing Dr Akinola’s remarks as akin to setting himself up as an Anglican pope.

In his letter in response, Dr Santos de Oliveira said: "This attitude (has) astounded me ... we never blocked the participation of any province, for whatever reason, to participate in the meeting (before) ... it seems that the organising committee ... does not want to listen to us ... they only want to listen to one way of thinking."

Is this it?  Does this signal the break?  Once again, it remains to be seen and I will celebrate the birth of this new "Anglican" communion after it happens and not before.  But this action sounds like Third World Anglicans and their western supporters have finally had enough.  We shall see.

[sionnsar]

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