They were first noticeable on the Mount of Olives, where the Primate of Nigeria was flanked by two guards, complete with Raybans and curly wires leading to ear-pieces. This was trumped by the Bishop of Rochester, whose press conference was staffed by three attentive guards. Journalists were left wondering whether this said more about about the Bishop or about them.
Said in 2004 in an interview where his aim was to improve his image: “It would still be a little hard to say that if one stumbled on a country that was doing that, that it is inherently immoral, to stone people for these things.”
These rows are missing four key ingredients – an understanding that ‘top-down’ models of the Church are dying, that the world needs examples of reconciliation and peacemaking rather than animosity, that many want to affirm gay Christians on deeply traditional grounds, and
that disagreement without courtesy and love is destroying the credibility of the Church’s message.
– Simon Barrow
The Rt. Rev. Dr. Michael Nazir-Ali was asked how he could boycott the Lambeth Conference after his statements about working within the Anglican Communion. He
The food is taken from the people. If your home is selected for a donation you must either give them Z$10 billion, or 10Kg of maize meal, or you are beaten. In the better off townships this is going on, but on a smaller scale. They seem to target the poorest of the poor.
In a much more conciliatory tone, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Michael Nazir-Ali spoke to the Global Anglican Futures Conference (GAFCON) of conservatives about the dangers
The prospect of schism in the worldwide Anglican Church receded as African leaders meeting in Jerusalem stepped back from the brink and declared they are not seeking to start a new church.
GAFCON seems to be the latest manifestation of an effort to stay in the news. Watching schism unfold draws reporters and pundits like moths to a light. And with them come the dollars from many with an axe to grind about the Church, theologically or otherwise. From that, in no small measure, GAFCON and its architects draw their power.
The people gathered on the Mount of Olives were united in voice as they sang their officially approved hymns, but on the second day of a conference which has laid bare the divisions in the Anglican communion over homosexuality, notes of discord could already be heard.
If Ruth Gledhill has it right, the leaders of GAFCON have embraced a strategy aimed at creating “change from within.” This is a significant, encouraging, and, for them, no doubt galling development because Peter Akinola, Martyn Minns and Co., had previously argued that the sins of those who support the blessing of same-sex relationships were so great that true Christians could not keep company with them.