Posted on 12/09/2007 2:08:48 PM PST by Huber
Nigerian Archbishop Peter J. Akinola will preside at a ceremony at a church in Herndon as four new bishops are consecrated today to serve the Convocation of Anglicans in North America. (Agence France-Presse)
A new breakaway Anglican group of 11 churches that left the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia over theological differences less than a year ago met last week for its first annual convention.
Four new bishops will be consecrated at 2 p.m. today to serve the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), which includes 61 member congregations siphoned from the Episcopal Church. Nigerian Archbishop Peter J. Akinola will preside at the ceremony at Church of the Epiphany in Herndon.
"The old order in the Episcopal Church is falling apart," said CANA Bishop Martyn Minns, the former rector of Truro Church in Fairfax. "We're all finding a new way to live into our Anglican heritage."
Churches belonging to CANA are under the umbrella of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, and Bishop Minns was made a member of the Nigerian House of Bishops in August 2006. He was snubbed last spring by being one of a handful of prelates not invited by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to the decennial Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops.
Archbishop Akinola has since said that none of his bishops will attend Lambeth in July if the CANA bishops are not invited. He objected to the presence of several dozen American bishops who helped consecrate openly homosexual New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson in 2003.
"It's not so much about me and my invitation," Bishop Minns told reporters Thursday, "it's about how the Anglican Communion functions together."
CANA's gathering of about 300 laity and clergy come from churches in 20 states, with a total average Sunday attendance of 8,600. About 15 are expatriate Nigerian congregations.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
He added that CANA will license female priests, although it has not decided whether it will ordain new ones. The new bishops to be consecrated are Canon Roger Ames, rector of St. Luke"s Church in Akron, Ohio; Canon David Anderson, president of the American Anglican Council in Atlanta; the Rev. Amos Fagbamiye, vicar of the Anglican Church of the Resurrection in Indianapolis; and the Rev. Canon Nathan Kanu, vicar of Christ"s Ambassadors Anglican Church in Oklahoma City.
CANA is based in Northern Virginia, where the original 11 churches are in a court fight with the Diocese of Virginia over millions of dollars of property. Both sides were in court for five days last month, and a decision in the case is not expected until at least next month.
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Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.
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