Fr. Jake seems to have provoked CANA to a new reiteration of the accolades for Archbishop Akinola. For reasons unclear the site took the time to use its Home Page to praised him mostly by referencing several fawning articles, one by Rick Warren for Time Magazine and one by Ruth Gledhill for the Times of London complete with a YouTube video.
In the Times article was the following:
"His friends say of Peter Akinola that, as his name suggests, he is “hewn from the rock”. There is a stubborn stillness about him. His church has broken communion with the Episcopal Church of the US over the ordination in 2003 of the openly gay bishop Gene Robinson. Dr Akinola will not contemplate going back into communion with the US unless they abandon completely the liberal gay agenda. It will never happen.
Akin, a common name in the western part of the country, means courageousness, boldness, warlike valour. Ola means wealth and prosperity."
So one way or the other he is thought of as The Rock (Peter) and something having to do with warrior life bold acquisiton of wealth. Maybe he is a steadfast and valorous gatherer of people for the faith. Certainly the church in Nigeria seems to have grown greatly while he has been at the head.
It is less certain that his methods are as widely admired. Using Eliza Griswold's comments in her article God's Country in the Atlantic, Fr. Jake on March 3rd rekindled the question of Archbishop Akinola's actions related to Muslim / Christian conflicts in Nigeria. Now we have the CANA response.
That response is no response at all. It is the repeated drivil of several old interviews and articles.
But CANA appears to be feeling the pinch.
It should be noted that the Church of Nigeria also published a pointed rebuttal of Fr. Jake on March 4th. Read it here. Fr Jake responded HERE. Who knows where it goes next...except to say that it's not over until it's cleared up. And so far CANA's defense has not made the difference, nor has the Church of Nigeria's. "No comment" is for the moment a considerable comment, and a damning one at that.
3/09/2008
3 comments:
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Mark,
ReplyDeleteNo need to post my comment, but don't you mean "God's Country" by Eliza Griswold appearing in Atlantic, not "The Bishop's Daughter" which is by Honor Moore about her father.
DON'T KNOW IF THIS JUST WENT THROUGH. IF IS DID, OBVIOUSLY NO POINT IN DUPLICATING IT. RM
ReplyDeleteAkinTunde Popoola's Thinking Anglicans post of Tuesday last, accusing Ms. Griswold of "demonising" Akinola, suggested an element of panic over there. Do you remember Jimmy Carter's comment during the 1976 presidential election, when Lester Maddox accused him of lying, that being called a liar by Maddox was akin to being called ugly by a frog?
John... you are right... I corrected the post. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI've had the Honor Moore article on my mind a good bit and in the late hour just had a slippage of mind.