12/16/2007

Waiting in Vain

It's been a week since the ordination of four men in Virginia to the episcopate by the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), with Archbishop Peter Akinola presiding. There was a good bit of coverage by secular media, by the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, by the American Anglican Council, by BabyBlue, Titus 1:9, Stand Firm, and commentary by several progressive blogs. It was even covered by the Anglican Global South webpages.

But there has been nothing on the Church of Nigeria web site. I go to that site fairly regularly on the off chance that that site will post something interesting. So all week I have been looking for any sort of comment regarding these ordinations. The ordinations were after all newsworthy events. They represented a considerably more blatant form of incursion than ordinations IN Nigeria FOR America. Now the ordinations were IN America FOR America, and at least two of the ordaining bishops were CANA bishops already: Minns and Bena. That the Archbishop of Nigeria was the chief consecrator was of great importance, as was the presence and engagement of the Moderator of the Anglican Communion Network, who took care to give due homage to the Archbishop of Nigeria. That homage was due because the American bishops who met with the Global South Steering Committee last year pledged to work together with Bishop Duncan as their spokesperson and take guidance from the Global South Steering Committee, with Archbishop Akinola the Chair.

So there are all sorts of good reasons for the Church of Nigeria website to carry the news of the ordinations. Granted the Anglican Global South web pages took note, but with no commentary. Perhaps they were waiting for the Archbishop to make some comment? Well, so far there has been none.

Why doesn't the Church of Nigeria have any notice of the event? Surely they are still proud of their efforts to "rescue" American Anglicans from the awful Episcopal Church? Surely they are not beginning to suspect that CANA is about to be its own American brand of church, unbound by the Church of Nigeria on matters of prayer book and the ordination of women, that in spite of the oaths required of the bishops?

So far we wait in vain for the Church of Nigeria's read on the Virginia ordinations. That's OK. Waiting is one of those things whose perfection is in the practice itself.

7 comments:

  1. Perhaps he doesn't want the local anglicans to know how much time, effort and nigerian church money he is spending to save american souls.

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  2. "Nigerian church money", Frank?

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  3. How 'bout this for an explanation? Maybe they've figured out that we are way beyond caring about their bishop-mill. It had shock value the first time or two, but now it's just tedious. I didn't even notice the consecrations, because they're illegitimate and irrelevant. Which white Americans were turned into African bishops this time? Also, the Archbishop's Advent letter makes clear that these bishops have no relevance to and no standing in the Anglican Communion.

    Those are my thoughts about why the Church of Nigeria might not be eager to post this stuff.

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  4. ...don't be silly...Venerable Tunde is in charge of the PR in Nigeria and rarely comes up with timely good news to report...even the good news isn't considered reliable considering these gents are not *really* Lambeth "invitee" types...nothing much to say about fakery/flakery.

    Leonardo Ricardo

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  5. "these bishops have no relevance to and no standing in the Anglican Communion."

    Lisa has it nailed right on the head but she forgot to add Mr. Akinola too.

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  6. Well, with African episcopi vagantes being about as common as gravel now, this latest run off the assembly line just doesn't have much impact.

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  7. The Gospel lesson for the consecration service was 2 Corinthians 4:1-10. Read and imagine how it was meant to be interpreted by those present.

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