Africa’s Anglican primates, bishops, priests and laity fed-up with the Church of England’s endless debate over same-sex blessings and the ordination of gay vicars are set to found their own Anglican Church.
The African Anglicans have accepted help from their Latin American counterparts, who co-organised next month’s conference in Alexandria, Egypt, with them.
Archbishop of Central Africa, Bernard Malango, said last week, “We’ve had enough” and that members are “sick and tired” of the endless debate within the Church of England on gay clergy.
The African-based Anglican community plans to replace the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams with the outspoken Archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola, as spiritual leader and exclude homosexuals from serving in the clergy.
A leading gay vicar, who asked not to be named, was quoted in the Scotsman as saying: “I fear for Rowan Williams if he attends the Alexandria Conference, the Anglican dissidents will publicly announce that Archbishop Akinola is their new spiritual leader and that there is no place for the present Archbishop of Canterbury in the new community based in Alexandria.”
Richard Kirker, general secretary of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, said: “Personally, I’d rather see a split within the ranks of the Anglican community than for people of principle to bow to the demands of homophobic Africans.”
Africans, under the leadership of Akinola, have watched with growing concerns the Church of England’s increasingly tolerant stance toward the ordination of gay bishops and blessings for same-sex partnerships.
In response to the House of Bishops statement which approved gay clergy so long as they promised to abstain, Archbishop Akinola asked, “Is the Church of England planning to install cameras in the bedrooms of clergy?” before calling on the suspension of the Church of England from the Anglican Communion.
Drexel Gomez, Archbishop of West Indies, predicts that “a shattering split in the entire worldwide Anglican community” is inevitable in the wake of the Church of England’s approval of the Civil Partnership Act that comes into force in November.
