Comments

Good Morning, Nigerian Primate Peter Akinola does not speak for me or have any credence at allin my view as an Episcopalian. The African Bishops are in this for one thing, power. If these men can point to any concrete difference they have made in the lives of the people of their own nation I would like to hear it. Nigeria is an ongoing decent into madness and chaos while Uganda is not far behind. Let them minister and provide the healing they profess they have for the church to their own people and stay out of our back yard. They ignore the one thing that can bring healing, the love of Christ. They don't profess it, they don't live it, and they are not an example if it. I pray you allow this to pass because the truth does need to be made manifest and it will only happen in an open dialog. In the meantime I pray God will manifest the hearts of all concerned, including myself. Brad Ryden

This Akinola is nothing more than a money grabbing fraud. He wants his hands on the churches in America inorder to get their riches.
He can't take care of the people in his own country.
He is a scoundrel of the worse kind and should be thrown out of the church for all the dissent he has caused. There is no place for him in the US.

I am shocked at the mean spirited comments about Abp. Akinola. I have followed closely his career and his stated positions for several years and can only pray that certain Episcopal Bishops could/would emulate him. You won't find a more Godly and Christ centered cleric anywhere. More new Christians are made in a day in the African dioceses of the Anglican Communion than are made in a year in England, Canada or the U.S. Further, they have provided the minority of conservative, orthodox Anglicans in the U.S. a path out of the wilderness of Episcopal heresies which seem to get worse with each passing year. God Bless Akinola and all like him.

I am so sad reading the above comments. The above comments are lies. These men have stood for the Truth of Holy Scriptures in the face of so many other comments even death threats. These brave men are the only hope for those in the Worldwide Anglican communion who profess the saving grace of Jesus Christ to transform our lives to His will.

Even in the face of not attending Lambeth, The Bishops are using reconcilation as their motivation. I am sure that Almighty God will guide them.

I have not had the privelege of hearing Akinola in person, but I have had a number of meetingws with Henry Orombi, archbishop of Uganda and leader of nine million + communicants. As far as I am concerned their message has been a simmple one. They came to North America beginning approximately 10 years ago to restore the faith and express gratitude for the work of English and American missionaries in Africa. It has now become a rescue operation to give shelter to North American Anglicans who are being oppresed by revisionist former brethern who would impose an alien gospel. Earlier this year Orombi promised that the archbishops involved would send the faithful Americans home when the Americans no longer needed this shelter.

Such comments about a man you do not know cannot be christian. Please let us know where your evidence is of the money grabbing tendencies of Bishop Akinola & of Nigeria's descent into chaos?

Please get your facts straight before spitting such venom against a man on his course...the glorious gospel of our lord, Jesus.

As a Third World Christian living in the First World I take issue with the two comments above questioning the integrity of Archbishop Akinola and African Bishops. If the Archbishop had been in this for money, the best thing would have been to support the US Episcopal Church which is the wealthiest of the constitutents of the Anglican Communion. Some of the Bishops and the churches they represent have suffered the loss of mission funds from TECUSA because of the stand they have taken in support of Orthodox Christian faith. One wonders how many American Episcopalians realize the shame and consternation their compromising of moral standards for churh leadership has caused these fellow believers in front of pagans and Moslems (esp. in Nigeria) they live among. One day you sent or supported missionaries who taught homosexual practices and polygamy are contrary to the Christian faith and the Scriptures; now all on a sudden you declare such practices are acceptable even for church leaders. You have bishops in this country who are practicing homosexuals, others continuing in their marriages while keeping homosexual relationship on the side, and heterosexual bishops going though multiple divorces. What a witness to the world at large!

Contrary to the posts above, Archbishops Akinola and Orombi are courageous and faithful men of God. Many African countries are in shambles; it makes no sense to put all of the blame on two Archbishops who have, at considerable risk, spoken out against government corruption in their countries. (++Orombi stood up to Idi Amin). ++Akinola has risked a great deal to defend his Christian flock in a Muslim majority country. The Anglican Church in Nigeria is growing at an even faster rate than the Episcopal Church is declining. There are thousands of Muslims who risk their lives to become Anglican converts under Archbishop Akinola.

Both provinces run hospitals, schools, health care clinics, support for widows, extensive AIDS/HIV programs, food pantries--all the sorts of social outreach ministries that churches normally engage in. What probably offends Mr.Ryden of ECUSA (post 1) is that these churches are unequivocal in proclaiming that Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and that a central part of their mission is bringing people to the saving grace of Christ. No doubt Mr. Ryden agrees with Presiding Bishop Schori that the church's main mission is the UN MDG's, and that Jesus is merely one among many equally valid "vehicles to the divine."

The Global South Primates have done absolutely nothing to try to touch the wealth of the Episcopal Church. Rather, it is Presiding Bishop Schori who has openly said that she is not worried about how many people flee ECUSA, so long as the national church hangs on to the buildings. She has stated under oath that she would permit bishops to sell empty churches to saloon keepers, but not to other Anglicans.

I stumbled on this article and am truly appalled by the comments posted by 'Brad' and 'lori'. "Money grabbing fraud"? "African bishops in it for power"? Are the both of you living under a log in the Bayou?

Who are you people, and why do you take pot shots at a situation you clearly know nothing about. You are supposed to be responding to the contents of the above article, not airing your ignorance. However, you demonstrate oblivion regarding both. Nice work.

You both need to get a life, and you can start by repenting for your gross display of U.S. arrogance - a much more established reality than Akinola's supposed greed. The Africans do not need the American church's money (which I thought was God's money, at least according to the rather firm idea that the world is God's also). Rather, the American church needs their resolve to feed a hungry population with only five loaves and two fish.

A Former Canadian Anglican.

lori marin, it is interesting that you think akinola is a 'money grabbing fraud'. if he wanted the 'riches' of America, one would think that he would do much better to keep quiet and embrace the new practices.

What pride and plain hatred is evident in the first two responses above, and maybe even a little bit of racism too. Where is the love and understanding in their comments on Akinola. Are they saying that there is no failure in TEC and the Church of Canada? Have these Africans and those from TEC who have joined them no cause? Isn't this attitude one of the very reasons for the present situation?

Faith and truth are not always easy partners are they? As members of evangelical congregations in South Africa "outside" the Communion, we are nvertheless deeply concerned for its future. Its obvious to me that Archbishop Akinola and all those associated with GAFCON are DOING something in terms of their understanding of faith & truth and may God bless their efforts.We still do HAVE the Bible dont we? The truth must be defended, or have we forgotten the reformation, as Akinola suggests? Perhaps we need to discover whether the "soul" of Anglicanism is not the same soul as that of the church universal?

I am sorry to read the comments from Brad and Lori who are definitely ignorant Americans who have never visited Nigeria or heard what the LORD is doing in Nigeria thru the Anglican communion.
I am not an Anglican but my best loved preachers of righteousness in Nigeria today are Anglican Bishops.

Akinola is a fortright advocate of the Word of God.He is not a power monger or he will not be planning for retirement later this year.He is a champion of upholding the TRUTH.

Anyone that thinks homosexuality is not sin against God should go and bury his head in Scripture until his eyes are open to his folly and blindness.

If upholding sin and money is what America and its cohorts have they can have them and let the rest of the world get busy with preaching the true word.

I pray that GAFCON will succeed in separating the sheep from the goats.

If the measure of a church is the changes that it has made in a society, then the Episcopal and other churches in the USA are as much in trouble as the Anglican Churches in Nigeria or Uganda. From my point of view the Most Rev Akinola is more a voice than a force. We have to face the facts that (1) the concerns that he gives voice to have been talked about for decades, (2) the post-colonial majority have now given numerical force to what was a minority position in the north, and (3) the high levels of anxiety seen in the rhetoric and the suits and counter-suits in North America reveal a lack of leadership is to be found there. Akinola and others fill the vacuum.

The notion that a spiritual leader had to "take care of his own house" before preaching the Gospel abroad is contrary to the Church's history. Certainly Augustine could not have effectively preached to those in the Italian peninsusla while it was under seige, nor other apostles when Jerusalem was being sacked. For those at the ground level though, Bp Akinola presents a compelling reason to stay within the Anglican communion by trying to "remain Episcopalian." Once the faithless leaders of this era have gone to their reward, it will be the disciples of Akinola, and the other reformers who will be left to pick up the sundered pieces of a church that has lost its moorings.

I would significantly disagree with both these previous comments. Archbishop Akinola is a wise, intelligent man who, yes, feels he knows what God is calling him to do in this current climate and is bold enough to do it.
Those who know Nigeria, agree that the country is not a bastion for peace, but they ALSO know it SHOULD be a LOT worse. In a country that is half-Muslim, half-Christian (the dynamic most inviting to Muslim extremism and those who would seek to make a country Islamic by force) and where multi-national corporations continually participate with corrupt Nigerian elements to siphon the countries rich oil resources, the (Anglican) Church of Nigeria has acted helpfully to enable peaceful transitions of power from Muslims to Christians and then vice versa.
Having sat down recently with one of Akinola's bishops from northern Nigeria, who spoke softly and powerfully of God's faithful work of good works and loving conversions of many Muslims (himself included), I saw how the Church of Nigeria is bringing peace and love. Certainly, too, this has brought out Islamic radicals who want to crush this movement of God with the sword. But I can't see how that kind of unrest is something to blame on Akinola.
Finally, I'm not sure how acting against the established leadership and authority of the Communion can rightly be construed as power-grabbing. Does it really give the Global South Primates more "power?" It seems they would get a lot more resources and affirmation if they would just "get in line" and "be quiet." I suppose critics think that this is a populist ploy by the Primates to get their national contingencies behind the leaders, but I think there is much more "power" to be lost than gained by this course of action - which makes it look all the more of God to those of us who support them.

If you Americans and Europeans believe the nonsense you just read about Bishop Akinola then maybe we should leave you all to fall into the hands of The Living God! Bishop Akinola is a man of God, a just man, called to this generation to call the church back to God and His ways. Please go on ordaining your gay Bishops and marrying them as well. God is not mocked. You cannnt pick and choose which part of His word you want to obey. He is a Just yet a loving God. Homosexuality is against God's Law, period! Take it or leave it. Whether you believe it or not, it doesn't make a difference to God. Your accpeting His word will not change Him nor the consequences of disobedience. Retun to Him while He is still near

I find it fascinating how so many have spoken to the issue of GAFCON without dealing with the story behind the need for GAFCON, which is the issue of the open practice and endorsement of homosexuality by the Anglican Church in the West.

Rather than deal with substance some have resorted to name calling, and to a level of abuse which is clearly non-Christian both in tone and spirit. Do these people intensely dislike Bishop Akinola for the reasons they claim, or because he and the African Anglican communion stand in stark opposition to their embrace of the homosexual lifestyle, and homosexual marriage?

The Anglican Church in Africa says the practice of homosexuality is both immoral and unscriptural. The Church in the West says it is their right to choose culture over scripture, and personal preference and modern precedence over historical opinion and traditional interpretation.

I wish persons commenting on GAFCON would stop villifying others and muddying the issue. If you are for homosexual practice and homosexual marriage say so, say why, and let the real discussion continue. If you are unable to add anything of substance to the dabate then I humbly suggest that you should refrain from speaking until you are able.

There are those who feel that the issue of homosexuality should not be the kind to split a church community. However, the issue of homosexuality and homosexual "marriage" is a defining societal issue with consequences not just for the Church but for family life as we know it. The terms marriage and family have been assigned new and unprecedented legal meanings. These new "rights" granted by secular and progressive legislators have the potential to usher in a world of behaviours totally alien and foreign to anything anticipated in scripture.

The Anglican Church in the West is playing with fire and the Bishops attending Lambeth may be fiddling while the West burns.

Make whatever arguments you want to make about Robinson and the general direction of the TEC. (And I dissociate myself from Mr. Ryden's and Ms. Morin's comments. Akinola is far from perfect, but he isn't the AntiChrist.)

However, two major facts stand out. Akinola consecrated Minns as a "bishop" outside of Akinola's area. What would be the reaction if Schori had returned the favor using the resources of the TEC??? The second fact is that because Williams did not recognize Minns as a bishop and invite him to Lambeth, then there is another meeting DURING Lambeth. If the intention of Akinola's faction was not schism, then they could have had a meeting AFTER Lambeth.