BBC asks are we “Heading for Anarchy?”

An article by Alex Kirby posted on the BBC news pages reflects on the future of the Anglican Communion given what happened in Kenya yesterday, and by extension, what is scheduled to happen in Uganda this weekend:

“So when one bishop (in this case Dr Nzimbi [the Primate of Kenya]) acts in a way that undercuts the authority of another bishop, it is the clearest possible way of emphasising the Church’s disunity.

What Dr Nzimbi is saying, in effect, is that he knows better than the US bishops about the pastoral needs of their people.

The two new bishops promised to ‘serve the international interests of the Anglican Church of Kenya, to serve clergy and congregations in North America under the Kenyan jurisdiction’.

It is a formula which ignores the fact that none of the Anglican Communion’s member churches has any international interests of its own.

All are – in theory – united in working for the interests of the Communion itself.

And the claim that there are North American Anglicans ‘under the Kenyan jurisdiction’ is breathtaking in the way it opens the door to ecclesiastical anarchy.

No doubt Dr Nzimbi believes the consecrations are in the best interests of Kenyan Anglicans, and of their fellow believers elsewhere in Africa.

In fact they look very unlikely to be anything of the sort.

Read the rest: BBC NEWS: Kenya consecration deepens Anglican rift

Past Posts
Categories