Be watchful, for your adversary is a roaring lion.

Yesterday I suggested that we need not be anxious about the Primates Meeting in Tanzania. And I meant it. Be not anxious.

But I did not suggest that we fall asleep. It is a time to be watchful, for the adversary is a roaring lion. The first among equals in the lion department is of course the Archbishop of Nigeria. As the Chair of the Global South group and Chair of the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa, Archbishop Akinola is a prime mover in the run up to the next Primates Meeting.

In a Living Church article on the place of the Episcopal Church on the agenda of the Primates Meeting, George Conger reports, “Whether the primates will follow the agenda crafted in London by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams is uncertain. The agenda for the 2005 primates meeting underwent significant changes as the meeting progressed, and similar changes are anticipated for this meeting. A pre-meeting strategy session for the African primates and other American and international church leaders will be held Feb. 10 in Nairobi, Kenya.” (highlight mine)

This is the second time George has noted that the agenda of past meetings has gotten changed in progress. But the disclosure of the pre-meeting strategy session, including African primates and “other American and international church leaders” is new. Just as was the case at the last Primates Meeting, there is a strategy being developed between some African Primates and members of the American and international alignment community – read the Moderator, the American Anglican Council, Anglican Mission in Americas – and no doubt a considerable investment of time and money. Just who is pulling the strings continues to be a thing of conjecture.

The last Primates meeting was a disaster, with people off in the wings, at local pubs, down the lane and around the corner working the cell phones, having off campus conferences, dinners, celebrations and the like. People just happened by or were supposedly vacationing in the area. We can only hope that this sort of thing will not be repeated. But the gathering of a cabal in a ‘pre meeting strategy session’ is sorry news indeed.

The image of the Primates Meeting as an opportunity for sharing among the Primates has been severely tarnished by the past meeting, and the promise of any return to leisurely and open conversation at this one diminished by this news.

The Anglican Journal article, “The Primates Meeting likely to be Difficult,” reports that, “Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, has acknowledged that primates are approaching their coming meeting with trepidation.

“I think everybody is a little nervous about just what the outcome of that meeting might be,” he said in an interview. “There is a drift … away from the centre, (by) certain provinces within the Communion and they seem to be very well-organized and I wonder what that’s all about and what impact that might have on the primates’ meeting.”

We need not be anxious. We are well served in our Presiding Bishop. The three bishops who from the orient are, are coming and will bring their gifts and leave. We can hope they are flying in from American for the occasion, and flying out immediately following. But it would not be surprising to discover that at least the Moderator was already set to be there, or at least in Kenya, just a short flight from Dar.

Archbishop Hutchinson comments that “they seem to be very well organized.” That certainly seems true, and when organized folk get together for a strategy session, others of the Primates ought to be watchful and not be caught unprepared. We need not be anxious, but we for sure better be watchful and ready.

We pray the Primates are watchful, and ready to meet the roaring lion.