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Ecumenism
An Anti-Anglo Anglican 'Church'
Atila S. Guimarães - September 2, 2003
The split in the so-called Anglican Church regarding homosexuality is becoming deeper every day, and promises to break up the entire 77-million-member denomination very shortly. Let me divide the pro and con wings and relate the numbers of members for each according to the World Christian Encyclopedia, quoted by Reuters.
Anglicans burying the church of England Corriere della Serra, February 25, 1994 |
In the “left” wing you have:
• The English Anglicans led by Rowan Williams, Anglican primate, who supports gay bishops, even though he recently advised his old friend Jeffrey John, a known gay, to renounce his appointment as bishop of Reading to prevent further divisions: 26.3 million.
• The American Episcopalians who support the election of Gene Robinson as the first homosexual bishop elected as such. The gay bishop has become a very common occurrence in the Anglican confession, but Robinson is an innovation in that that he is the first gay openly living with his “partner” to be elected: 2.4 million.
• The Canadian Episcopalians who approve the Vancouver “blessing” of same-sex unions: 0.8 million.
The total of the “left” wing comes to 29.5 million.
The “right” wing is composed mainly of African Anglicans, all them opposed to the Anglo-American front that supports homosexuality. They are:
• Nigerian Anglicans: 20.1 million.
• Uganda Anglicans: 8.6 million.
• Kenya Anglicans: 3 million.
• South African Anglicans: 2.7 million.
• Tanzania Anglicans: 2.6 million.
• Sudan Anglicans: 2.3 million.
The total of the “right” wing comes to 39.3 million.
The remaining 9 million members of the denomination are in Australia, New Zealand, and spread out around the world.
The Africans are the most vociferous of the southern hemisphere Anglicans, and moving toward a clear break with the English head of the confession. Analyzing the present situation, Greg Vegnables, a South American Anglican archbishop, recently stated that “there is a very serious threat the church may break up into North and South, with the archbishop of Canterbury heading only the northern hemisphere. The primates of the global south are mobilizing themselves. There is an insistence that the church not be manipulated by the white Anglo-Saxon side” (Our Sunday Visitor, August 24, 2003).
Gene Robinson celebrates his appointment as bishop - The Los Angeles Times, August 4, 2003 |
Nigerian primate Peter Akinola already broke with the Vancouver diocese after it blessed same-sex unions, and threatened to break with primate Rowan Williams and the Church of England when Jeffrey John was chosen bishop of Reading. When Williams advised him to renounce, the imminent schism was postponed. As for the American situation, Akinola classified the confirmation of Gene Robinson as “a satanic attack on the Church of God” (ibid).
One can see that the positions are defined, and the official break seems to be certain. The “right” wing appears to be simply waiting for the most convenient moment to make its break. It seems to be just a question of time.
The interesting point is that the less corrupted and more numerous part of the so-called Anglican Church is outside of England and revolted against the official leadership, the archbishop of Canterbury. It seems to me a deserved end for this arrogant confession that was born from a pretension of Henry VIII to put England outside of Rome’s government and to make his authority greater than that of the Pope.
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