Nigeria: Anglican Crises More About Leadership, Doctrine, Not Homosexuality- African Bishops

Cap'n Billy here: With my spy glass trained on the eastrn Atlantic, looks to me like the African Anglicans are getting ready to move on... Read it and think about it. The problem has been stated, proven. It is absolutely clear that there are two thought systems, two world views, and it is clear that manifests as two different gospels. That's the theme. Here is Akinola's most recent take.

Daily Champion (Lagos)
Posted to the web 22 October 2007
Munawar NamdarkhanLagos

The President of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa(CAPA), Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, Anglican crises hinge on leadership, doctrine - African bishops have said at a convention in Mauritius that the Anglican Church in Africa had more serious problems to address than its stance on homosexuality.

The Primate of Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) was speaking to journalists after the two-day closed-door CAPA meeting that began in the Indian Ocean Island on Oct. 3. While responding to a question from the press, Archbishop Akinola said the church would focus on problems like the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the crises in Darfur and Zimbabwe, which he said threatened the wellbeing of Africa.

"Homosexuality is not our headache," Archbishop Akinola said. "Everything that has to be said has been said. We are not going back to it."

Affirming that unity in the communion was of course crucial, Archbishop Akinola pointed out that every organization has got its own problems.
"When we resolve our problem, we'll let the world know through the media," he said.

Homosexuality has been a contentious and divisive issue among Anglican believers. The crisis reached a climax in 2003 when the U.S. Diocese of New Hampshire elected V. Gene Robinson, an confessed gay, as bishop. The General Convention of the Episcopal Church confirmed him and its presiding bishop participated at Robinson's consecration. In February 2004, 13 Global South primates, including eight from Africa, denounced the actions of the Episcopal Church as a "direct repudiation of the clear teaching of the Holy Scriptures, historic faith and order of the church." In April 2004, CAPA pledged to reject donations from the American dioceses that supported Robinson.

At the conference, Bishop Trevor Mwamba of Botswana read CAPA's statement that in part addressed the division in the church. The report acknowledged that the church had been unable to ignore the current crisis in its communion, but denied that CAPA was to blame.

"The current situation is a two fold crisis for the Anglican Communion: A crisis of doctrine and a crisis of leadership, in which the failure of the instruments of the Communion to exercise discipline had called into question the viability of the Anglican Communion as a united Christian body under a common foundation of faith, as is supposed by the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral," Bishop Mwamba read from the report.

"Due to this breakdown of discipline, we are not sure that we can in good conscience continue to spend our time, our money and our prayers on behalf of a body that proclaims two Gospels: the Gospel of Christ and the Gospel of Sexuality," he added.