CHICAGO: Persell criticizes Akinola's anticipated visit
Episcopal News Service. September 18, 2007 [091807-04]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
Bishop William Persell of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago has told diocesan clergy that Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola "did not extend the normal courtesy of contacting me about his visit" within the diocese.
The Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMiA) congregations in Illinois have invited Akinola, primate of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, to celebrate the Holy Eucharist with them on September 23 at Edman Chapel at Wheaton College.
The AMiA describes itself as "a missionary movement of Rwanda committed to reaching the unchurched in North America."
In a September 14 letter to Chicago's diocesan clergy, Persell said he had no knowledge about whether Akinola had been in communication with Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori or Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams about the visit. "Amidst the highly charged political rhetoric in our nation and around the world concerning events of the Anglican Communion, I want you to know that the Diocese of Chicago has no connection with the visit of Archbishop Akinola," Persell said.
The Illinois event will take place while Persell and the members of the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops will be meeting in New Orleans.
Persell wrote that, according to the AMiA office in Pawleys Island, South Carolina, Akinola's visit is not an AMiA event.
Persell said that he is aware that there will be a "respectful, silent protest outside the service on behalf of LGBT Africans."
"We continued to be blessed by the rich diversity brought to our diocese by the gifts and talents of all our people including our most conservative members, moderates, liberals, who are straight, lesbians, gay, bisexual and transgendered," Persell wrote. "The God who unites us and calls us together in all our diversity for mission is stronger than those who would fracture our unity in Christ. Be of good courage and cheer."
All Souls Anglican Church in Wheaton, an AMiA congregation, recently ran into trouble with Rwandan Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini. The congregation had invited Paul Rusesabagina, whose life was featured in the 2004 movie Hotel Rwanda, to speak during Sunday services as part of a fundraiser to build a school in Gashirabwoba, Rwanda. On September 6, however, Kolini asked All Soul's rector J. Martin Johnson to rescind the invitation. Rusesabagina has been at odds with the president of Rwanda. The archbishop feared that the event could create a strain in the relationship between the Anglican Church of Rwanda and the government, according to a report in Christianity Today.