When the Province of Rwanda adopted the AMiA not so long along ago, both got something out of the deal. The AMiA got to pretend it was part of the Anglican Communion, and Chuck Murphy got to be bishop. The Province of Rwanda gained a higher profile in the small pond which in Anglicanism broadly defined by adopting a few dissident U.S. parishes who no longer wanted to play by the rules of the Anglican Communion and submit to the leadership of The Episcopal Church.
Not surprisingly, the relationship turned sour, as relationships founded on expedience are likely to do, and there’s been a breakup between the former partners. That didn’t take long. It seems the issue is money, or less crassly, what have you done for me lately? The Province of Rwanda says it wasn’t getting the proof it needed that the AMiA was meeting its financial promises to the province. The AMiA contends it was paying up. Whatever the truth, it seems one was trying to hold up the other, to opportunistically exploit the specific relationship that each had with the other. There’s only so many purveyors of phony oversight, and only so many dissident sects. But hands do get overplayed and breakups do occur even when they are in no one’s interest. It’s so hard to think straight when our lizard brains are so much faster.
Despite the recent heartbreak, the AMiA is already back in the dating scene and has made it known it’s available for a serious relationship with a new Provincial partner. Who’s available? Uganda? Nigeria? The Southern Cone? Have they spoken with the so-recently abandoned Rwanda? Would a true and faithful member of the Gafcon fraternity of primates pick up with a group that dumped their brother from Rwanda?