Akinola Says ECUSA Must Repent to Save Anglican Communion
By Robert Stowe England
The Christian Challenge
October 5, 2004
FAIRFAX, Virginia -- Nigerian Primate Archbishop Peter Akinola said here today that he still hopes that the Anglican Communion will not rupture after the Lambeth Commission releases what is now known as the Windsor Report October 18 in the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral, London.
The commission was set up by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams a year ago to deliberate and report out recommendations for dealing with the schism that has been pulling apart the Communion.
The split has occurred as a majority of provinces (22 of 38) in the Anglican Communion -- all from the Global South -- have severed or downgraded communion with the Episcopal Church in the United States (ECUSA) over the November 2003 consecration of a practicing homosexual -- Gene Robinson -- as Bishop of New Hampshire.
"We hope ECUSA will see this the way we see it," Akinola told a press gathering at Truro Episcopal Church.
The chances for salvaging the Communion will depend on the willingness of the bishops of ECUSA to repent for supporting the election of Robinson -- followed by steps to vacate Robinson from his office, Akinola told the reporters.
Repentance is necessary because "ECUSA has deliberately and willfully acted contrary to the norms of our faith," Akinola said.
"If ECUSA does not retrace its step -- can two work together unless they agree? No."
Akinola stated that the Provinces of Africa "already are not in communion" with ECUSA. Akinola heads the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA), which is slated to meet shortly after the Windsor Report is made public.
Akinola said his comments are based on the hope that the Windsor Report will include a proposal made by African bishops that would give ECUSA three months to repent and if the church's leaders did not, expel it from the Anglican Communion.
The three month countdown would begin from "the date of a communion decision" to adopt the proposal, Akinola says.
If the Windsor Report recommends the African proposal, it is not clear who would act on it, Akinola says. "Who implements the recommendation? Does Rowan have the powers" to implement it? he asked.
Speculation has increased in the last month that the Windsor Report will, at minimum, include an option to discipline ECUSA and call for its repentance under threat of expulsion.
One proposal before the Lambeth Commission, which was headed by Archbishop Robin Eames of Ireland, called for the immediate expulsion of ECUSA and its readmission only after it took steps to remove Robinson as bishop. If ECUSA failed to act, its expulsion would be permanent.
Upon its release, the Windsor Report goes to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who will consider its recommendations. The Primates Meeting will also discuss the report in February and consider what next steps they will take as a body.
Akinola also dismissed ECUSA's controversial plan for "delegated episcopal pastoral oversight" (DEPO), adopted by the House of Bishops in response to the primates' call for provinces to provide "adequate" alternate episcopal oversight for faithful Anglicans in revisionist dioceses.
Akinola said that the proposal gives the local bishop authority to determine who will provide pastoral care for those who object to the actions and views of the bishop. He said that "adequacy" is the proper standard for alternative oversight. "And adequacy [of pastoral care] is not determined by [the bishop] but by the people who are going to receive it."
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