IHT: Anglican conservatives move to form power bloc

Posted by Kendall Harmon

The announcement came at the close of an unprecedented meeting in Jerusalem by conservatives, who contend that they represent a majority of the 77 million members of the Anglican Communion.

They depicted their efforts as the culmination of an anti-colonial struggle against the church's seat of power in Britain, whose missionaries first brought Anglican Christianity to the developing world. The conservatives say that many of the descendants of those Anglican missionaries in Britain and North America are now following what they call a "false gospel" that allows a malleable, liberal interpretation of Scripture.

After more than 1,000 delegates to the meeting at a Jerusalem hotel affirmed their platform statement, African women, Australians, South Americans and Indians danced and swayed to a Swahili hymn and shouted full-throated hallelujahs.

Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, who leads the largest province in the Communion, said at a news conference afterward: "It's quite clear we have been in turmoil. With this decision we have a fresh beginning."

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Global South Churches & Primates • GAFCON 2008

8 Comments
Posted June 29, 2008 at 5:28 pm [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. Betty See wrote:

Not one sentence of the statement is quoted here.

June 29, 6:45 pm | [comment link]
2. The_Elves wrote:

Good catch, Betty.  Looks like you’re right, and there doesn’t seem to be a link to the statement anywhere either.  Odd.

Did notice in a sidebar that this was the most e-mailed story on the IHT site today.  http://www.iht.com/indexes/mostemailed/index.php

June 29, 6:51 pm | [comment link]
3. John A. wrote:

Some liberal American bloggers sought to play down the conservatives’ actions, dismissing them as an attempt to hijack the Communion when, in their view, there are much more important issues for the church to confront, like poverty, AIDS and global warming.

While important issues, these issues do not constitute the mission of the church.  And what, exactly, do they propose to do about these issues?  The most effective thing would be to sell off all church property and donate the proceeds to the UN.

June 29, 7:49 pm | [comment link]
4. Jeffersonian wrote:

Liberals:  How dare that 80% hijack our church!!

LOL

June 29, 7:52 pm | [comment link]
5. ElaineF. wrote:

“Some liberal American bloggers sought to play down the conservatives’ actions, dismissing them as an attempt to hijack the Communion when, in their view, there are much more important issues for the church to confront, like poverty, AIDS and global warming.”
This minimizing will only stand them in good stead for a limited period of time before some of the people in the pews start asking questions.

June 29, 9:45 pm | [comment link]
6. LBStringer wrote:

According to the article, VGR was consecrated BoNH in 1993.  Very sloppy journalism.

June 30, 1:54 am | [comment link]
7. WanderingTexan wrote:

[blockqoute]Anglican conservatives… declared Sunday that they would defy the church’s historic lines of authority and establish a new power bloc within the church that will be led by a council of predominantly African archbishops.

What lines of authority?  I thought this was the root of the problem—there are no established “lines of authority” to deal with the situation in TEC.  This is the ABC we’re talking about here, not the Pope.

June 30, 5:36 am | [comment link]
8. WanderingTexan wrote:

Anglican conservatives… declared Sunday that they would defy the church’s historic lines of authority and establish a new power bloc within the church that will be led by a council of predominantly African archbishops.

What lines of authority?  I thought this was the root of the problem—there are no established “lines of authority” to deal with the situation in TEC.  This is the ABC we’re talking about here, not the Pope.

June 30, 5:38 am | [comment link]
Registered members must log in to comment.



Next entry (above): Jerusalem Post: African Anglicans aiming to usurp UK Archbishop

Previous entry (below): Christian Science Monitor: Traditionalists lay out bold challenge to Anglican leadership

Return to blog homepage

Return to Mobile view (headlines)