International Briefing
Episcopal News Service. April 19, 2006 [041906-2-A]
* AFRICA: CAPA appoints coordinator for HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria program
* CANADA: Chaplain spends Easter in Afghanistan
* ENGLAND: Presiding Bishop to visit England, preach at Southwark Cathedral
* ENGLAND: Open letter calls for end to Carey's 'disloyalty' toward Williams
* KENYA: Bishop William Waqo dies in plane crash
* LAMBETH PALACE: Sudan shows Easter message not getting through, Williams says
* MALAWI: court freezes bishop's appointment after tensions flare
AFRICA: CAPA appoints coordinator for HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria program
[Source: CAPA] Emmanuel Olatunji has joined the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA) as its coordinator for HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria Program.
Until recently, Olatunji was the National HIV/AIDS program coordinator for the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) in the HEALTH/HIV/AIDS Department.
He holds a Higher National Diploma in Community Health/Public Health Nursing and is currently pursuing post-graduate studies in Community Care and HIV/AIDS.
Archbishop Peter Akinola, CAPA chairman and Primate of the Church of Nigeria, agreed to second Olatunji to work with CAPA in this capacity.
Full story
CANADA: Chaplain spends Easter in Afghanistan
[Source: Anglican Church of Canada] More than most Anglican priests, Lt. Col. the Rev. John Fletcher's ministry is the world. As Command Chaplain (Army) of the Canadian Armed Forces, Fletcher follows Canadian troops and their chaplains wherever they are deployed.
This year, he has spent Holy Week and Easter in Afghanistan where approximately 2,300 Canadian Forces Personnel are deployed to assist in development and as part of the international campaign against terrorism.
In another, somewhat more quiet life, Fletcher serves the Anglican Church of Canada as a member of the Communications and Information Resources Committee and the Anglican Journal Board of Directors.
Before leaving Canada for his visit to Afghanistan, Fletcher agreed to file audio reports to the General Synod website describing his trip and his ministry. An introductory video from Fletcher and Archbishop Andrew Hutchison is available here.
ENGLAND: Presiding Bishop to visit England, preach at Southwark Cathedral
[ENS] Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold will visit England this week and attend a service at Canterbury Cathedral on Friday, April 21, during which the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, will dedicate an altar in St. Anselm's Chapel. Griswold will also preach at Southwark Cathedral in London on Sunday, April 23.
ENGLAND: Open letter calls for end to Carey's 'disloyalty' toward Williams
[Sources: The Sunday Times, Christianity Today] An open letter signed by Anglican leaders in the Church of England has demanded an end to the "disloyalty" of Lord Carey toward his successor, Archbishop Rowan Williams, the Sunday Times reports.
The letter accuses Carey of attempting to set himself up as an "alternative leader" to Williams after a series of interventions on highly sensitive issues, such as women bishops, gay clergy, and accommodation with Islam.
However, in response to the Open Letter, Lord Carey was quick to dispel rumors of a rift with Williams, Christianity Today reports. "I am fully supportive of the Archbishop of Canterbury," he said. "The authors of the open letter seem intent on creating division where there is none."
Full story by Christopher Morgan
Lord Carey's Open Letter
KENYA: Bishop William Waqo dies in plane crash
[Source: CAPA] The Rt. Rev. William Waqo, provincial secretary of the Anglican Church of Kenya and personal assistant to Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi, died in a plane crash on Monday April 10 while on a peace mission to the north-eastern part of Kenya.
Waqo, an assistant bishop of the Diocese of Kirinyaga, was in the company of the area's Members of Parliament and Government officials who were on their way to Marsabit for peace talks aimed at ending livestock rustling and inter-clan fighting that have recently roiled the region.
The military plane carrying the delegation slammed into a hillside and broke into two before bursting into flames. Thirteen of the seventeen passengers on board were killed on impact and one of the four survivors died while being flown to hospital in Nairobi. Among the dead were six MPs.
Nzimbi described Waqo as a true Christian and a dedicated servant of God. "We wish to stress the fact that the late bishop was a beacon, a moderator, a peacemaker and a churchman accepted by all parties, he was severally invited to peace missions by the government," Nzimbi said.
"This is a great loss not only to the Anglican Church of Kenya but to CAPA and the entire Anglican Communion," a CAPA news release said.
Waqo is survived by his widow, Naomi, and four children, the youngest of whom is three weeks old.
Full story
LAMBETH PALACE: Sudan shows Easter message not getting through, Williams says
[Source: Lambeth Palace] The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, has said that the ongoing suffering in Darfur and in Southern Sudan show how much Christians have still to do in order to bring the reality of Easter to the world.
In his Eastertide Letter sent to the heads of Churches and confessional families throughout the world, Williams said that his experiences in Sudan earlier in the year revealed worrying signs that the slowness of aid was compounding what was already becoming a silent tragedy.
"A visit ... to Sudan brought home just how little and just how slowly we respond to each other according to the laws of the new creation," he said. "The mechanisms by which international aid is delivered are so slow that the people of war-torn Southern Sudan, even a whole year after the peace agreement, are still waiting for basic aid, and too few voices are raised in the wealthy world to protest."
"In Darfur, neither national nor international forces have found a way of breaking the cycle of brutal violence and terror. Too many of us human beings, it seems, are content that death should be at work in others so long as our own life is unaffected."
The Church, said Williams, should live in testimony to the transforming power of the resurrection.
"Easter reminds us that the reality of the new world truly has arrived in our midst," he said. "It really is possible to live differently. The cost may look frightening, but its outcome is for all. So we should give thanks that our world has been turned upside down by God in Christ; and we should be asking how we may live more fully in that world, accepting death for our selfishness so that the life of Jesus may be seen and experienced in peace justice and reconciliation..."
Full story
MALAWI: Court freezes bishop's appointment after tensions flare
By Frank Jomo
[Source: Ecumenical News International] The High Court of Malawi has granted an injunction restraining a newly-installed Anglican bishop from working until a controversy over his appointment is settled.
Lake Malawi Bishop Leonard James Mwenda was installed on April 9 in Nkhotakota in central Malawi but police arrested two people after being called to restore calm when tensions flared and stones were thrown by protesters.
"Those people who were against the ordination of Mwenda started throwing stones while the ceremony was in process and when we were alerted we rushed to the scene where we arrested the two," Nkhotakota police spokesperson Labani Makalani told The Nation newspaper.
The controversy follows the rejection of a British priest, the Rev. Nicholas Henderson, as bishop of the Lake Malawi diocese.
Henderson was elected by the diocese in July 2005 but Archbishop Bernard Malango of the Church of the Province of Central Africa vetoed his appointment because of his involvement with a British Anglican group seen as supporting homosexual clergy. Mwenda, a retired Zambian bishop, was then appointed to the diocese. A majority of its members are, however, believed to still support Henderson.
Allan Chinula, a lawyer for the pro-Henderson group said that on April 12 High Court judge Ivy Kamanga ordered that within 21 days Malango should grant audience to the disgruntled group or else further action could come from the court. Still, the lawyer said his clients hoped the archbishop and other parties would appreciate the importance of resolving the matter outside court.