Kenyan Primate to consecrate bishop for North America
Episcopal News Service. June 14, 2007 [061407-02]
Matthew Davies
Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi of the Anglican Church of Kenya has announced he will consecrate former U.S. Episcopalian Bill Atwood as suffragan bishop of All Saints Cathedral Diocese, Nairobi.
Nzimbi said the consecration, set for August 30, will "support the international interests of the Anglican Church of Kenya, including support of Kenyan clergy and congregations in North America."
A former Episcopalian from Carrollton, Texas, Atwood is general secretary of The Ekklesia Society, which describes itself as "an international society committed to making disciples of Jesus Christ."
In a similar move last year, Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola consecrated Martyn Minns, former rector of Truro Church in Fairfax, Virginia, to lead the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), a conservative missionary effort in the U.S. sponsored by the Anglican Church of Nigeria. Akinola rejected requests from both Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori by proceeding with Minns’ controversial installation on May 5, 2007.
Such events have been described as "interventions" or "boundary crossings" by official councils or representatives of the Anglican Communion. Despite calls by the Instruments of Communion, including the Primates themselves, for such interventions to cease, some Anglican leaders have continued to cross provincial boundaries and minister to congregations in the U.S. without necessary consultation with or consent from the leadership of the Episcopal Church.
The Anglican Primates, at their February meeting in Tanzania, acknowledged that interventions by bishops and archbishops of some Provinces have heightened "estrangement between some of the faithful and the Episcopal Church that this has led to recrimination, hostility and even to disputes in civil courts."
The Primates also gave the Episcopal Church's House of Bishop's a September 30 deadline for them to "make an unequivocal common covenant" that they will not authorize same-gender blessings within their dioceses nor give the necessary consent for a candidate for bishop who is living in a same-gender relationship "unless some new consensus on these matters emerges across the Communion."
Nzimbi said Atwood's proposed consecration and role in the U.S. is a result of "the fabric of the Anglican Communion [having] been torn by the actions of The Episcopal Church." He said the damage had been "exacerbated by the failure of the House of Bishops ... to provide for the care called for in the Windsor Report and to reject the Pastoral Council offered through the Primates in their Communiqué from Dar es Salaam."
The House of Bishops' declaration in March said that a plan the Primates put forward for dealing with some disaffected Episcopal Church dioceses "would be injurious to The Episcopal Church." The bishops' resolution urged that the Executive Council decline to participate in it.
On June 14, Council concurred with the bishops' statement in Resolution EC011 and respectfully asked "our Presiding Bishop not to take any of the actions asked of her by this scheme."
"Tragically, the Episcopal Church has refused to provide adequate care for the faithful who continue steadfastly in 'the faith once delivered to the saints,'" Nzimbi said. "Our goal is to collaborate with faithful Anglicans (including those in North America who are related with other provinces). A North American Anglican Coalition can provide a safe haven for those who maintain historic Anglican faith and practice, and offer a way to live and work together in the furtherance of the Gospel."
In a statement on the Anglican Church of Nigeria's website, Akinola welcomed the news that Atwood would be consecrated on August 30 and said this action "demonstrates a growing recognition by Anglican provinces in Africa that the situation in North America continues to deteriorate because of the intransigence of the leadership of The Episcopal Church."
In his statement, Akinola claimed that "there are now more than 250 congregations in North America related to Global South provinces through a growing number of missionary and pastoral initiatives."
Of the Episcopal Church's more than 7,600 congregations, approximately 45 are known by the Episcopal News Service to be those in which a majority of members have voted to align with an overseas diocese with the Anglican Communion. In many of these cases there is a corresponding congregation continuing in good standing within the Episcopal Church. Other tabulations of congregations calculated by Global South Anglican leaders may include a number that have never been part of the Episcopal Church -- such as those organized separately and apart from the Episcopal Church and within other independent groups, such as the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA).
Church of Uganda Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi also welcomed news of the intended consecration, saying that Atwood is a long time friend and partner of the Church of Uganda. "In these difficult days in the Communion, we recognize that measures must be taken to provide for the care of those orthodox Anglicans in America who remain faithful to the Bible," he said.
Akinola, Nzimbi and Orombi are three of the Anglican Communion's leading critics of the Episcopal Church and its inclusive theology. They have maintained that homosexuality is incompatible with Scripture and repeatedly called for the Episcopal Church to repent for its recent actions, specifically the consecration of Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire -- a divorced gay man living in same-gender relationship -- and some dioceses' provisions for the blessing of same-gender unions.
Akinola expressed a "heartfelt desire ... that the Anglican Communion will find a way to move forward together.
"This can only happen, however, with a Common Faith lived out within the context of an agreed Communion discipline," he said. "We continue to pray that The Episcopal Church will heed the call to repentance and make a positive response to the request of the Primates' in Dar es Salaam."
According to the communiqué issued at the end of that meeting, Jefferts Schori reminded the Primates that some in the Episcopal Church "have lost trust in the Primates and bishops of certain ... Provinces because they fear that they are all too ready to undermine or subvert the polity of the Episcopal Church."