Nigeria HoB 20% larger, Archbishop opines on Tanzania and Lambeth

Two interesting items posted on the Church of Nigeria web pages:

At the Bishops Retreat held a week ago 19 new dioceses were mapped out and bishops were elected for them. It was all done in one night. The story may be found HERE. There are roughly 80 dioceses now. Ninety-three Bishops took part in the election process. Bishop Minns was one of the ballot counters. The missionary decision to expand by sending bishops who in turn develop congregations has been used in the spread of the church in the US and by the Episcopal Church in its strategy for developing work in Latin America. Other situations have called for missionary lay and clergy persons to go first into an area and then establish communities from which dioceses emerge.

This rapid expansion of the House of Bishops does two things: (i) provides a cadre of new missionary agents who are themselves empowered to raise up and ordain ministers and to develop new work, (ii) it further expands the number of Global South bishops at Lambeth.

About Lambeth, Archbishop Akinola had this to say :

“We are part and parcel of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Lambeth Conference is called once in every ten years for all Anglicans Bishops therefore it is our conference. What we are saying in Church of Nigeria and in many other provinces in Africa is that for us to gather all over the world as many as 800 Bishops, and to build that consensus and to agree on certain things, and for some to say “well it doesn’t matter; we can continue things in our own way”. Then think of the financial implication, think of the risks involved. For 120 Bishops from Nigeria to travel to England, consider the financial implication. It will not cost any diocese in the country lest than N1million – for the delegates and other expenses-. We are talking about N120million and we are going to spend three weeks there. And then on return, there is nothing to show for it, that is what we are arguing against. So, we are part and parcel of Lambeth Conference, but we are challenging the authorities that before we come, we have to be sure that we are not coming for a Jamboree. We are coming for serious business and we have plenty of time before Lambeth to decide whether we are coming for a mere jamboree or a serious conference.”

The issue then is, is Lambeth going to be “A jamboree or a serious conference?” By “serious” the Archbishop seems to mean one where agreement and consensus leads to enforceable decisions that are the clear mandate of the Communion. Lambeth, however, has never in the past been legislative. A Jamboree seems not to the Archbishop’s liking.

About the Tanzania meeting, the Archbishop opined:

“We are not going to Tanzania to discuss gay marriages. We are going to Tanzania because we are Primates of the Church and we have many things to talk about and to pray about. We come together primarily for fellowship as Primates, we come together to study the word of God and to think together on various matters that concerns our provinces. So the gay marriage thing is not the main agenda. It may rear its ugly head again but it is not the main agenda.”

I, for one, am relieved. If the Archbishop truly believes that the Primates Meeting will be for discussion, prayer, fellowship and study, great. He is confirming the reflective nature of the Primates Meeting.

But it would appear that the willingness to sit at table with the Presiding Bishop is going to be an issue for some. About that the Archbishop says nothing, at least not in this press briefing.

We shall see.