Archbishop Peter Akinola has written an open letter to Archbishop Robin Eames, primate of all Ireland, in response to the recent comments that Eames made during a question and answer period two weeks ago at Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) in Alexandria, Va.
Eames chairs the Lambeth Commission, a group formed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, established to help the Communion through a controversy over the role of homosexuals within the Church.Akinola is the leader of Anglican conservatives and leads the Communion’s second largest province. His church recently removed all references to the Communion with the See of Canterbury from its constitution in its Synod last month. The revisions now place the church in communion with all Anglican churches, dioceses and provinces that "hold and maintain the Historic Faith, Doctrine, Sacrament and Discipline of the one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church."
"I was personally very, very anxious when I heard about this development," Eames said. "What happens when an individual province redefines orthodoxy? It is cutting across the due process that I and others have lived by.
"My plea to my brother Peter, the Primate of Nigeria would be, 'Pause, Peter, pause, because we are all in this together, because a preemptive strike like this would have the consequences of making the tensions greater and therefore, I ask that you would pause and take on the reservations that the rest of us have.' "
In response, Nigeria’s primate wrote an open letter on 16th October to Eames, stating his ‘profound sadness’ at the pronouncements in Virginia about the actions of the Church of Nigeria.
He reiterated that the recent actions of the Church of Nigeria were not the “preemptive strike” of a single voice but a unanimous action of over 800 members of its General Synod. He wrote that it is their intention to make clear their commitment to the faith once delivered to the Saints and expressed in historic Anglicanism and its traditional formularies at a time when these understandings are being challenged and distorted.
“We are not making up our own faith nor are we asking others to submit to our own interpretation of the Holy Scriptures,” he wrote. Akinola continued: “We have made it clear that if others choose to redefine the Faith that we once held in common, and walk alone they will do so without us because we will not, we dare not, follow them.”
Akinola recently expressed the Church of Nigeria’s desire to see the torn Anglican Communion restored and that said it will continue to work to that end. “I pray that you still share a similar commitment.”
