Nine Primates echo calls for emergency meeting; Akinola defends incursions
Episcopal News Service. November 7, 2007 [110707-02]
Nine Anglican Primates have echoed a call made last month by the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa for an emergency meeting of all the Anglican Communion's 38 Primates and a postponement of the 2008 Lambeth Conference.
The nine "Global South" Primates issued a communiqué, dated October 30, in which they supported the conclusion of the CAPA communiqué released following its meeting in Mauritius in early October. The CAPA members said that "a change in direction from our current trajectory is urgently needed" because "we want unity but not unity at any expense."
The communiqué from the "Global South" Primates came at the end of an October 21-30 trip to the People's Republic of China where the nine Anglican leaders said they had "an opportunity to meet and reflect on the present situation facing the Anglican Communion and what we have to do to move forward while remaining grounded in the Word of God and preserving its catholicity and apostolicity."
They encouraged the work of the Global South Economic Empowerment Consultation convened by the steering committee of the "Global South" Primates, and urged the group "to continue to develop programs to help our churches to be increasingly self-supporting."
The nine Primates are all members of the Global South Anglican organization, which includes leaders from Anglican provinces mostly located in the southern hemisphere.
The communiqué was signed by archbishops Peter J. Akinola of Nigeria, Bernard Amos Malango of Central Africa, John Chew Hiang Chea of South East Asia, Ian Ernest of Indian Ocean, Mouneer Hanna Anis of Jerusalem and the Middle East, Emmanuel Musaba Kolini of Rwanda, Justice Ofei Akrofi of West Africa, Henry Luke Orombi of Uganda, and Fidèle Dirokpa of Congo.
On November 1, Akinola wrote to all of the communion's Primates, calling for them to meet immediately, but saying that it was "unlikely that we will be called to meet together in the near future."
Akinola said that the incursions into parts of the Episcopal Church by bishops from outside the province, including those sponsored by him, have "no moral equivalence" with the actions of the Episcopal Church, which he said prompt those interventions.
The incursions "can be seen by the provision of godly bishops and clergy in places where the incumbents were proponents of false teaching," he said.
"The world needs to understand that the situation that we now confront is not primarily about structure or conferences but about irreconcilable truth claims," Akinola said.