In a March 2005 column I predicted that the battle within the Anglican Church over the role of women and gays would eventually blow its worldwide communion asunder. Back then, some of the most influential dioceses in the United States and overseas – especially in Latin America and Africa where the Anglicans are competing with Catholics to win souls for Christ – threatened to secede over this issue. Because, they claimed, the ordination of women and gays as bishops (to say nothing of consecrating gay marriages) was tantamount to a “Satanic attack” on the Church.
And even though many overseas dioceses made good on their threat in short order, the news of this “new day” for the Anglican Church did not dawn on the Episcopal Church (the American branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion) until yesterday. Because that’s when seven of its parishes – located in my home state of Virginia – defected as well.
But, truth be told, what really confounded, if not upset, many Episcopalian loyalists is the fact that these white Virginians abandoned their white leader, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams of England, to pledge their allegiance to a black leader, Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria (and his rival worldwide communion).
It is worth noting, however, that Williams recognizes Akinola as a charismatic and formidable adversary. In fact, he has conceded that Akinola advocates such an appealing – even if ignorant and parochial – interpretation of the Holy Scriptures (e.g. Homosexuality is “unnatural and un-African”), that the Church may have to:
…create a two-tier system of membership, with branches that ordain partnered gays given a lesser status.
We deplore the act of those bishops who have taken part in the consecration, which has now divided the church in violation of their obligation to guard the faith and unity of the church.
Therefore, the internecine struggle that has beset every other established church known to man now looms for the Episcopal Church. Because no one doubts that the Virginia secessions constitute the breach in the levee of Church unity that will lead to a flood of defections from the 77 million-member Anglican Communion.
NOTE: But, where Williams concedes that he may be unable to prevent Akinola from stealing Anglican souls, he seems determined to prevent him from stealing Church property. Accordingly, he has decreed that if these unruly secessionists want to join Akinola’s church, they will have to purchase separate facilities to worship their God. Therefore, it seems very likely that the fight to save souls for Christ will be a mere undercard to the main event: the mother of all battles between Anglican factions to procure Church property for themselves (especially the multi-million dollar holdings in the U.S.)
UPDATE: I’ve received a number of emails today asking which leader do I support in this internicne battle: Akinola or William? Frankly, I don’t have a dog in this fight. Nonetheless, I shall suffice to reiterate what I lamented years ago when this row over the role of women and gays first erupted:
What is ironic and, frankly, disappointing is that Archbishop Peter Akinola and Archbishop Drexel Gomez are misleading African and Caribbean blacks, respectively, into using perverse religious and cultural rationalizations to discriminate against women and gays. After all, white bigots used similar rationalizations to discriminate against blacks not so long ago.
If I were pressed, however, I would support Williams and bid good riddance to the Virginia parishes and any others that wish to pledge allegiance to a self-righteous leader who presumes God’s ordination upon his bigoted religious practices. Although I wonder how these Virginians – who now seem so devoted to the prospect of interracial worship with Africans – would feel about interracial marriages with them….
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