Nigeria’s Akinola Creates "Safe Harbour" for US Anglicans

The Archbishop of Nigeria, the Most Rev Peter Akinola has made an historical announcement for the Anglican Communion this week. Akinola has declared the formation of a Convocation of Anglican Nigerian Churches in America. The purpose of the new organisation he said was to create a "safe harbour" for the Nigerian faithful – many of whom now feel unable to attend the Episcopal Church in the US (ECUSA), which is the Anglican arm of the worldwide denominational body.

In relation to the ECUSA, Akinola has said that until the Episcopal Church in America realises the serious reality of the situation that there would be no hope at all for any "meaningful reconciliation."

With regards to the moratorium that the ECUSA recently agreed with, not to consecrate any new bishops at all until 2006, Akinola believed the move to be insincere and "disingenuous". He also said that the bishops’ "explicit permission" for clergy to continue to bless same-sex partnerships as "duplicitous".

The outspoken Nigerian leader also stated that any suggestion that the American conservatives "manipulated" Primates from the global South at Newry was "an insult".

"Maintaining good order is important for the work of the gospel, but it can never be used to silence those who are standing for the faith and resisting doctrinal error," said Akinola.

He continued, "It was our common understanding in Newry that the extraordinary pastoral relationships and initiatives now under way would be maintained until this crisis is resolved. If, however, the measures proposed in our communiqué to protect the legitimate needs of groups in serious theological disputes prove to be ineffectual, and if acts of oppression against those who seek to uphold our common faith persist, then we will have no choice but to offer safe harbour for those in distress."

The new organisation, he confirmed, would initially be operated under the guidance of the canons and constitutions of the Church of Nigeria. However, the Church Times newspaper reported Akinola as saying that the new Convocation would have its own legal and ecclesial structure and local suffragan episcopate.

The Anglican Communion Network was also mentioned by Archbishop Akinola, as a body that he hopes will work in co-operation with the new Convocation to appoint "Episcopal visitors from among already consecrated bishops to provide pastoral and Episcopal oversight for those congregations already in operation and formation."