Thursday, October 22, 2009

Africa's Anglicans Weigh Vatican Offer


OCTOBER 21, 2009
By WILL CONNORS

LAGOS, Nigeria -- The Vatican's invitation to Anglicans could have far-reaching repercussions across Africa, where about half of the world's 80 million Anglicans now live.

African clergymen have been some of the harshest critics of their Anglican colleagues in the West, whom they accuse of liberally interpreting the Bible. But it's far from clear whether churches here, many of which have already distanced themselves from Anglican churches in the U.S., Canada and England, would see the need to embrace the Vatican's offer.

Unlike the more tightly controlled Catholic Church, Anglican churches in Africa are largely autonomous, operating with a level of freedom that they wouldn't likely enjoy under Rome's fold.
Archbishop Peter Akinola, head of the Church of Nigeria, and the spiritual leader of Africa's 40 million Anglicans, is "still weighing the implications of the Vatican's offer" and is consulting with colleagues, according to an aide reached by telephone Wednesday. the rest

Vatican Complicates Anglican Leader's Job
Archbishop Williams is the top official in the Church of England and the "first among equals" of the global church leaders that guide the 80-million-strong Anglican Communion. That puts him in the crucial position of holding the Anglican faithful together in the wake of the Vatican's surprise move this week to make it easier for disgruntled Anglicans to convert to Catholicism.

Hundreds of Anglican clergy to meet after Vatican offer
About 500 members of Forward in Faith, the leading traditionalist grouping, will be in London to debate Pope Benedict XVI’s offer of an Anglican “ordinariate” or diocese to operate under a new Apostolic Constitution.

Will Michael Nazir-Ali go to Rome?
A former Catholic, he was received into the Anglican church into his country of birth, Pakistan, at the age of 20. He is married with two children and has just retired as Bishop of Rochester in order to work with the persecuted church.


Rome's Anglican option may change both churches
But the Pope has made a decision that may bring about the most profound change in relations between Rome and Canterbury since Henry VIII repudiated papal authority in the 16th century.

Priests in London and Yorkshire say they are tempted to join Rome
The three parishes in the united benefice voted in the 1990s for resolutions granting them distance from the Bradford Diocese. Now the three parochial church councils may face a further vote: whether to join their priest and defect en masse to Rome, albeit a version of Roman Catholicism that would allow them to maintain much of their Anglican identity.

Anglican leaders welcome new Catholic structure
"We rejoice that the Holy See has opened this doorway, which represents another step in the growing cooperation and relationship between our Churches," commented the Most Rev Robert Duncan, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh (Anglican).

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