I don’t want to make too much of this story, but it seems to me that Archbishop Drexel Gomez of the West Indies, who is nobody’s liberal, is experssing dissatisfaction with Archbishop Peter Akinola through a surrogate. Although, as I say, I may be making too much of this. (Hat tip to Simon Sarmiento.)
If I am right, however, it would seem to indicate that influential conservatives who want to let the covenant-making process run its course are now at odds with influential conservatives who are taking more precipitous steps.
The head of the Anglican Communion in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands yesterday said the Diocese does not support the decision of Virginia’s two most prominent parishes to leave the Episcopal Church of the USA.
At the same time, Lord Bishop the Rt Revd Dr Alfred Reid chided Nigerian Bishop Peter Akinola for trying to create a rupture in the Church by accommodating the two Virginia churches.
“The Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands wishes to state that it is not a party to, nor does it support the action of the two congregations in the Diocese of Virginia, USA, which have voted to secede from the Episcopal Church of the USA over the issue of the ordination of Gene Robinson, a self-confessed homosexual, as bishop of New Hampshire,” Bishop Reid said in a statement issued late yesterday afternoon.
“The Church does not agree with the action of the Archbishop of Nigeria – Peter Akinola – in seeking to create a schism within the global Anglican Communion by facilitating the two Virginia churches in their break away,” Bishop Reid said.
“Archbishop Akinola knows full well that the leadership of the worldwide Anglican Communion has been at pains to seek to deal in a holistic and timely manner with the issues raised ever since Robinson’s ordination,” Bishop Reid added.