In an editorial today, The Telegraph, no one’s idea of a leftist publication, blames Rowan Williams’ embrace of Peter Akinola for the crisis in the Communion.
“Dr Williams now finds himself out of favour with liberals and moderate conservatives in his own Communion. And, harsh though it may sound, he has only himself to blame.
In the past couple of years, he has allowed conservative Anglicanism to be hijacked by extremists. Archbishop Peter Akinola, Anglican Primate of Nigeria, is the leader of the Global South provinces opposed to the ordination of actively homosexual clergy.
That is fair enough, but he has also defended new Nigerian legislation that makes “cancerous” (his word) same-sex activity punishable by up to five years’ imprisonment. The deeply divisive figure of Archbishop Akinola was central to Dr Williams’s Tanzanian compromise; is it any wonder that it has been rejected?
The Archbishop’s attempts to hold together the Communion have led him to a theological position so convoluted that he now has few natural supporters. He will find himself exposed at next year’s Lambeth Conference – if, that is, it can take place at all without the support of the American Church.”
The Mad Priest’s take on the significance of this editorial, similar to mine but with a greater depth of understanding, is worth reading.