The evening press conference in Tanzania is over, but I haven’t seen anything online yet. I will be updating this item as I do. I have had a bit of correspondence though, and it suggests that the Akinolite boycott of today’s Eucharist is playing poorly among the Primates, as is the fact that the Church of Nigeria issued a mid-meeting statement, which all participants were asked not to do.
The most intriguing detail I have heard is that Archbishop Drexel Gomez, who boycotted the Eucharist at Dromantine, was dismissive of today’s boycott by the Aki-lytes. Gomez is the chair of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Covenant Design Committee. I suggested a while back that he might be sending Akinola a message to cool it. We don’t have anything like conclusive evidence yet, but if the alliance between these two is weakening, then the chances of any radical action against the Episcopal Church by a majority of the Primates are weakening as well.
Gomez apparently told the press that a draft of the covenant wil be e-mailed to bishops throughout the communion soon, and that it will be made public on Monday. I am awaiting confirmation on this, but he apparently described the covenant as a statement of principles that did not deal specifically with the issue of sexuality. Waiting for someone to put that in print before I believe it.