Peter Akinola consecrating breakaway bishops in US

The Washington Post reports that Peter Akinola of Nigeria (and a previous recipient of the Millstone Award) is coming to the US to consecrate a missionary bishop for the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, the breakaway faction associated with the Church of Nigeria. Traditionally, this would not be a done thing among Anglicans, who respect the territorial integrity of each Province. However, Akinola does not consider the Episcopal Church to be a valid expression of Christianity.

As, apparently, do the people in this church who are trying to break away from it. Kendall Harmon, in the last paragraph, tells us that some conservatives here want to "continue as some kind of catholic Christianity that has connection to the worldwide church". I'm not sure what his personal view is. But, the Episcopal Church is indeed connected to worldwide Christianity, even if there are some who deny it.


WASHINGTON, April 27 —The Anglican archbishop of Nigeria, a fierce critic of the Episcopal Church for its acceptance of homosexuality, is arriving next week to install a bishop to lead congregations around the country that want to break from it.

Episcopal leaders say the visit threatens to strain further the already fragile relations between their church and the rest of the worldwide Anglican Communion. But Episcopal traditionalists say there is a growing desire among them to break away. A decision by the Episcopal Church in 2003 to consecrate an openly gay priest, V. Gene Robinson, as the bishop of New Hampshire profoundly alienated those theological traditionalists, and most of the Anglican Communion overseas, who contend that the Bible condemns homosexuality.

The Nigerian archbishop, Peter J. Akinola, will preside over a ceremony in Virginia on May 5 installing Martyn Minns, former rector of an Episcopal church there, as the bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, an offshoot of the Nigerian church.

The convocation was created in part to oversee congregations that no longer want to be in the Episcopal Church but would like to remain in the Anglican Communion.

Katharine Jefferts Schori, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, said in a statement that Archbishop Akinola’s acceptance of “an invitation to episcopal ministry here without any notice or prior invitation” was not in keeping with “the ancient practice in most of the church” that bishops minister only within their own jurisdictions.

“This action would only serve to heighten current tensions,” the statement said, “and would be regrettable if it does indeed occur.”

Archbishop Akinola is the primate of the largest region, or province, in the 77-million-member Anglican Communion. He is also the leader of an increasingly successful alliance between theological conservatives in North America and those in the developing world that is pushing the Episcopal Church to renounce its acceptance of gay men and lesbians or face exclusion from the communion.

Archbishop Akinola’s office did not reply to an e-mail message seeking comment about his visit.

But Bishop Minns said the convocation that he is to lead was not interfering with the Episcopal Church.

“The reality is that there is a broken relationship between the Episcopal Church and the rest of the communion,” Bishop Minns said. “We want to give people a freedom of choice to remain Anglican but not under the Episcopal Church as it is currently led.”

Those loyal to the Episcopal Church said the visit provided yet another glimpse of the alienation that some in the communion feel toward them.

“The archbishop of Nigeria may think the Episcopal Church has acted wrongly, but that is quite different from using that as an excuse to cross boundaries and do things that violate longstanding practice,” said the Rev. Mark Harris, a member of the Executive Council, which governs the Episcopal Church between the conventions it holds every three years.

Mr. Harris, associate priest at St. Peter’s Church in Lewes, Del., said Archbishop Akinola “is making clear that he considers the church in Nigeria is not in communion with the Episcopal Church.”

But theological traditionalists like the Rev. Dr. Kendall S. Harmon, canon theologian of the Diocese of South Carolina, said there was mounting impatience among some conservatives with the Anglican leadership.

In March, Episcopal bishops rejected demands, put to them earlier in the year by Anglican primates meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, that they create a parallel leadership to serve the conservative minority of Episcopalians who oppose their church’s stance on homosexuality.

The global primates at that meeting issued that demand as part of a broader ultimatum insisting that the Episcopal Church pledge not to consecrate partnered gay bishops and that it stop bishops and priests from authorizing blessings of same-sex couples.

Explaining the views of theological conservatives who may be drawn to joining Bishop Minns’s convocation, Dr. Harmon said, “The frustration is: We’ve been asking; we’ve been waiting. Where is the way for us to continue as some kind of catholic Christianity that has connection to the worldwide church?”