Akinola 'barred' from Jordan

Extroardinary scenes at Gafcon, where David Virtue tells me the Nigerian primate Dr Peter Akinola has apparently been denied entry to Jordan and so has gone direct to Jerusalem instead. This has left the organisers in a bit of a fix: Dr Akinola is one of the key players in the Global South and the whole Gafcon movement. Southern Cone primate Greg Venables who is not in Jordan either. So the 100 or so who are at the small, behind-closed-doors meeting in Amman are packing their bags and tomorrow morning, getting on a bus to Jerusalem. The plan originally was not to go to the Holy Land until Sunday. The main conference will begin in Jerusalem on Sunday with more than 1,000 delgates, including 280 bishops, launching Gafcon in dramatic service on the Mount of Olives. And guess what folks, I'll be there, bringing you a live blog from the spot. Bet you can't wait!

Sources at the conference tell me that the Nigerian delegation landed in Tel Aviv and went to the northern crossing point. Archbishop Akinola was travelling on his diplomatic passport. After being questioned for four hours, he was turned back, although the rest of the Nigerian delegation was allowed in. He got his passport back, and apparently was told that they needed a particular clearance on a diplomatic passport which he did not possess.

Gregory Venables is not in Jordan because his wife is in hospital after complications following a hip operation. He is hoping to join Gafcon in Jerusalem.

So as they say, if Mohammed won't go to the mountain, the mountain must come to Mohammed. The entire Gafcon is moving to Jerusalem, where rooms have suddenly become available in hotels, because their leader Peter Akinola cannot come to them.

Virtue's story below:

Virtue writes: In a surprise development, conveners of the Global Anglican Future Conference  were told last night that a principal figure in the pre consultation in Jordan, Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola was not given a visa to Jordan, even though he holds a diplomatic passport, thus throwing the leaders of the consultation into dismay because of the important role he was to play at this assembly of orthodox Anglicans.

“The time in Jordan was very valuable for prayer, fellowship, and networking,” said Peter Jensen, a chief GAFCON organizer. GAFCON speaker Archbishop Gregory Venables of the Southern Cone was also not able to be in Jordan. Both, however, are expected to play significant roles at GAFCON in Jerusalem.

Leaders scrambled to find an alternative way forward allowing the inclusion of everyone expected to attend the consultation.

As a result GAFCON leaders decided to move their consultation to Jerusalem and will leave on buses Thursday morning instead of Sunday as originally planned.

“We originally planned to do everything in Jerusalem, but logistical problems forced us to have the pre-consultation in Jordan,” said Dr Arne Fjeldstad, GAFCON communications head. “We will now have a
more efficient and productive preparation for the conference in the land where Jesus was born.”

The 100 participants left Jordan in high spirits many of whom made a moving visit to the baptismal sites at the Jordan and also visited Mt. Nebo where Moses looked into the Promised Land.

Jordanians have undertaken major excavation and restoration at the Baptismal site which is to be the site of a church for each major Christian denomination with the full support of the Jordanian Government, this exhibiting a striking example of Christian ecumenical endeavor in a supportive Muslim country

GAFCON book, The Way, The Truth and the Life, will also be released on Thursday, 19th June, in Jerusalem. The 94-page book is published by Latimer Trust and was prepared by GAFCON Theological Resource Team. It provides the theological and historical foundation for the movement of orthodox Anglicans that is meeting in Jerusalem June 22 – 29. More than 1,000 Anglican leaders from 25 countries, including 280 bishops, are expected to attend the conference.

After outlining the recent history of conflicts within the Anglican Communion, “The Way, the Truth and the Life,” sets out to define authentic Anglicanism, discuss what is at stake in the conflict, and what the future holds for orthodox Anglicans.  “Our journey is a witnessthat the truth of God is accessible.  We are convinced that God has made himself known, sufficiently for us to be able to respond to him, and to make truly moral choices between obedience and disobedience.”

The book deals frankly with the crisis facing the Anglican Communion.  “We have made enormous efforts since 1997 in seeking to avoid this crisis, but without success. Now we confront a moment of decision. If we fail to act, we risk leading millions of people away from the faith revealed in the Holy Scriptures and also, even more seriously, we face the real possibility of denying our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ,” writes the Most. Rev. Peter Akinola, Archbishop of Abuja, Primate of All Nigeria and chairman of the Global Anglican Future Conference.

“The Way, the Truth and the Life,” which is being released digitally as well as handed out in hardcopy to all GAFCON attendees, reaffirms “our Christian faith as it relates to some prime topics:  Anglican identity and orthodoxy, the Lordship of Jesus Christ and its implications for personal morality and missions, and the whole issue of authority, Christ’s authority in the church and the authority of the Bible,” writes the Most Rev Nicholas D. Okoh, Archbishop of Bendel, Nigeria, and chairman of the Theological Resource Team.

The 25 members of the Theological Resource team come from 10 Anglican Provinces.  Members of the Theological Resource Team are: Chairman: Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, Bishop of Asaba and Archbishop of Bendel, Nigeria; Convenor: Canon Dr Vinay Samuel, South India; Archbishop Okoro, Archbishop of Orlu, Nigeria; Bishop Onuoha, Bishop of Okigwe, Nigeria; Bishop Simeon Adebola, Bishop of Yewa, Nigeria; Bishop John Akao, Bishop of Sabongidda-Ora, Nigeria; Professor Dapo Asaju, Department of Religious Studies, Lagos State University, Nigeria; Canon Festus Yeboah-Asuamah, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana; Revd Roger Beckwith, England; Bishop Wallace Benn, Bishop of
Lewes, England; Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti, Bishop of Recife, Brazil, Southern Cone; Bishop John Ellison, former Bishop of Paraguay; Bishop Michael Fape, Bishop of Remo, Nigeria; Dr Steven Ferguson, USA; Canon Alistair MacDonald-Radcliff, sometime Dean of All Saints Cathedral, Cairo, Egypt; Revd Professor Stephen Noll, Vice Chancellor, Uganda Christian University; Bishop Ikechi Nwosu, Bishop of Umuahia, Nigeria; Bishop Joel Obetia, Bishop of Madi and West Nile, Uganda; Revd Dr Emily Onyango, St Paul’s University, Limuru, Kenya; Revd Dr Mike Ovey, Principal of Oak Hill Theological College, England; Revd Dr Mark Thompson, Head of Theology and Academic Dean, Moore Theological College,
Sydney, Australia; Bishop Eliud Wabukala, Chair of National Council of Churches, Bishop of Bungoma, Kenya;  Editor: Mrs Sarah Finch, Member of General Synod, England; Secretary: Canon Dr Chris Sugden, England.

GAFCON begins on Sunday, 22nd of June in Jerusalem. Over seven days, Anglican leaders and laypeople representing 75 percent of the Anglican Communion will meet for prayer, bible study and worship. Jerusalem was chosen as it represents the historical roots of the Christian faith.

Comments

[Malcolm+]

I have an axe to grind with phony conservatives who seek to destroy.

Akinola is just the loudest and most boorish of the lot.

[Isaac Tejevbo]

It's interesting reading Malcom's views;looks like he has an axe to grind with +Akinola.The Nigerian Anglican Church is doing well to the honour and glory of God,and is pleased with Akinola's role in this whole process of maintaining the Biblical foundation and base of the Anglican Communion!We pray for God's continued guidance and direction,in Jesus Christ's Name,Amen!!!

[Malcolm+]

If a groups of people organize a conference and give it a highly satirizable name like "GAFCON," I suggest the appellation "GAFFEPRONE" is entirely appropriate.

[Bill Channon]

What does "GAFFEPRONE" mean? It surely can't refer to the primates, bishops, clergy and youth leaders (and their wives) who are attending the Gafcon conference and pilgrimage.

[Bill Channon]

"Aren't you pleased and glorying in God that the Nigerian church is growing so rapidly?'
To be blunt, Bill ...no, especially as the only real growth is in moneygrabbing charismatic cults, not mainstream churches.
Far from regarding Akinola as a man of 'quality',
It would be a sad day if he was ever regarded as more than a bad joke outside his own country, and will be a good one when some sanity is restored to Nigeria, where far too much blood is spilt as a result of faith-based hatemongering."

Stuart, I suggest you google the Anglican Church of Nigeria and read some of the links.

I fail to find any reference whatsoever by any of these links or by anyone I know who has visited Nigeria (or any of my students from Nigeria (all of whom are RCC) that are negative about the ACofN. I do know that most revisionists dislike ++Akinola but that is hardly surprising. I assume they dislike most other orthodox primates, bishops, clergy and conservative laity in the same way.
Perhaps you have read of the constant threat of persecution from Muslims that many Nigerian Christians live with.
I fail to understand where you get your information about ++Akinola and the Nigerian Anglican church from.

I'll make the assumption that you are a Christian in which case I suggest that you pray for the church of Nigeria and its leadership.

[jay]

most literate Nigerians I speak to worry that he is someone who might be willing to do deals with even the worst politicians in order to retain his power base.

You know GAFcon should not be so naive to have this power hungry individual as their leader. Disagreements over doctrine I can understand bu Akinola's shrill divism stinks of megalomania.

Here's hoping he's barred from Israel too ;)

[Malcolm+]

I'm surprised that both David and Jeffrey have such trouble reading plain English.

I have never denied that the anti-gay position likely represents a significant majority of Anglican opinion across the globe. I'm quite convinced it does.

(Of course, there was also a time when Semi-Arianism represented the majority opinion across the Christian world. That didn't make Athanasius wrong.)

Objective readers will also note that I expressly said there was a valid argument for discounting the membership figures in North America and the UK o the grounds that some significant number of those members are "pro forma" rather than active members. What I did dispute was that the proportion by which the GAFFEPRONE apologists discount is an arbitrary figure based on nothing in particular. I also point out that, while the proportion of "inactive" Anglicans in the Global South is likely far lower, the phenomenon also exists there.

Now, GAFFEPRONE apologists who have described their numbers in terms of "active Anglicans" or some such are at least being honest about what the numbers represent. Recent reports have been spun to reply that those numbers are objective and demographically verifiable. That simply ain't the case.

GAFFEPRONE apologists quite rightly deny that Archbishops Jefferts Schori, Hiltz et al do not represent the views of all of their members - perhaps not even a majority of their members. The same applies in every province. There are Nigerian Anglicans who do not agree with Akinola, Sydney Anglicans who do not agree with Jensen, Kenyan Anglicans who do not agree with Orombi.

The irony is that the GAFFEPRONE apologists are so accustomed to dissembling over numbers that they continue to do so even when it isn't necessary. It would hurt their case not at all to admit that there is a smallish but significant minority of Anglicans in each of their jurisdictions who dissent from their view, especially since, proportioally, that dissenting minority is probably smaller than the conservative dissenting minority in North America.

To Christopher's point, I have always foud that the management of membership lists in Anglican parishes is pretty inconsistent. I've been in places where the parish council were loathe ever to remove anyone unless they died or moved away or told us they wanted off. Where I've been, there was little enough pressure to manage the lists since diocesan calculations, like the commitment to the diocese, were based on "identifiable givers," which had definitive criteria, as opposed to "members," which did not. In Canada, there was always a significant discrepancy between our diocesan membership numbers and the census numbers, where several times as many people identified themselves as Anglican.

[Julie (Juliet Pain)]

Hope they all enjoy the Gay Pride celebrations.

[Stuart Hartill]

'Aren't you pleased and glorying in God that the Nigerian church is growing so rapidly?'
To be blunt, Bill ...no, especially as the only real growth is in moneygrabbing charismatic cults, not mainstream churches.
Far from regarding Akinola as a man of 'quality', most literate Nigerians I speak to worry that he is someone who might be willing to do deals with even the worst politicians in order to retain his power base.
It would be a sad day if he was ever regarded as more than a bad joke outside his own country, and will be a good one when some sanity is restored to Nigeria, where far too much blood is spilt as a result of faith-based hatemongering.

[Jeffrey A. Roberts (aka Jeff in Ohio)]

Malcolm +;

"Chicken Dinners" refers to the insulting charge that conservitive American Bishops bought the votes of African Bishops at the last Lambeth conferance with fine dining. +Akinola responded with something like--we have chickens in Africa. I can assure you that the vast majority of people in the pews in most parts of the world have more in common with the folks at GAFCON than with the folks at 815 Second Ave., NY, NY.

[Michael Stevens]

And given that New Zealand is geographically part of "the South" it's interesting to notice that no one from here is at gafcon.

[David Cohen]

You are never too good with the facts, Malcolm, when they are inconvenient!

The claim is routinely made that there are 24m Anglicans in the Church of England. As the Established Church it could claim that everyone in England is a member. The reality is rather different: just 800,000 in church on a typical Sunday.

Take away the non-existent 23.2m from the Anglican Communion's claimed membership, and the Global South (as opposed to American satellites) is revealed indisputably as the great majority within Anglicanism.

No doubt there are some in the Global South who take the "western" view on sexual morality, but all the evidence from elections in those provinces indicates that it is the west which is seriously out of step with the voice of Anglicanism.

The money, the subsidies, the scholarships to liberal seminaries, the effortless condescension by western liberals towards African christians, just does not work any longer. You will have to face up to the fact that they are more effective as evangelists, better educated, and unfailingly orthodox in their teaching. The rich western tail will not wag the Anglican dog for much longer.

[Christopher Johnson]

So. As part of the sinister plot, the GAFCON organizers arranged with the government of Jordan to deny entrance to Dr. Akinola in order to facilitate their move back to Jerusalem. Makes sense. But I had no idea that Third World Anglcian bishops were so Machiavellian.

As far as the number of GAFCON Anglicans is concerned, I don't know of any claim by any GAFCON bishop that "virtually every single Anglican in their dioceses agrees with them." I do know that TEC grossly inflates its own numbers. The reason that I know that is that I am still included among the membership of a TEC church and I haven't been inside of a TEC outlet since Robbie got his pointy hat.

[Bill Channon]

Most of the comments above are startling in their triteness and malice.

For instance, how anyone could say that the Gafcon conference is intent on hijacking the Anglican Communion is beyond me.

You priests who have written here. Oughtn't your prayers be that Gafcon be a true blessing to those who participate and that their walks with Jesus be enriched while in the holy land. Why wouldn't you pray that? Surely you would want that for men of God?

"... bile ...", Stuart? Why would you say that and why would you think that men of this quality are concerned that the world take this conference seriously? Most of the world is not Christian and i doubt that this conference is even a blip on their horizon.

"I mention this in case you may have American readers who might be misled into crediting +Akinola with academic credentials he doesn't have."
Again, why are you so anxious to denigrate folk like ++Akinola and presumably ++s Venables, Jenkins and Orombi as well as others?

Aren't you pleased and glorying in God that the Nigerian church is growing so rapidly? You ought to be.

[Josh Hoover]

I have to admit some curiosity about why he wasn't admitted. Noone from wither side of the current debates is saying anything official.
GAFCON seems to hint that it was simply a problem with paperwork, while Episcopal Cafe is hinting it may have had something to do with his refusal to answer questions about the reprisals agains Muslims.
But I assume no one really knows or they would be saying it much louder. Has anyone heard anything?

[Malcolm+]

I have no idea what the chicken dinners reference is supposed to be about. I was referring to well established facts.

1. The GAFFEPRONE leaders anounced their intention to meet in Jerusalem without any consultation with the Anglican ordinary, Bishop Dawani.

2. Bishop Dawani (who is actually on their side of the presenting issue) immediately expressed his concerns.

3. The GAFFEPRONE leadership made a commitment to Bishop Dawani that their conference would be held in Jordan, and that the Jerusalem portion of the event would be a pilgimage only.

4. They have now welched on their commitment.

5. No objective observer is at all surprised by the dissembling behaviour of Akinola et al.

WRT the 75% issue.

The GAFFEPRONE bishops would count a significant majority of the world's Anglicans as part of their flocks. There are two problems with their 75% claim.

1. The number 75% is derived by altering the membership statistics of the Communion and discounting the data from North America and Europe. They justify this by pointing to the discrepancy between membership statistics and attendance statistics in Canada, the US and the UK. While there is an argument to be made for this, the proportion by which they discount the First World numbers is entirely arbitrary and based on no demographic analysis. The fact that the Two Thirds World numbers are taken at face value with no analysis is likewise problematical.

2. The claim depends on the assumption that virtually every single Anglican in their dioceses agrees with them. If that is true, it is probably the first time in the history of the Christian Church that this has ever happened. It is as ridiculous as Dr. Jeffert Schori claiming that she represents the views of every single Episcopalian (a claim she has never been so stupid as to make). However, any evidence of dissent by Global South Anglicans is consistently dismissed by the GAFFEPRONE.

[Stuart Hartill]

If they wanted the world to take this conference seriously, couldn't they have chosen a name that sounds a little less like a remedy for stomach upsets?
Mind you, with Akinola about there'll probably be bile by the bucketload.

[Octavian]

It shows that Akinola has delusions of grandeur - a bishop who travels with a diplomatic passport!

[joe]

A rather curious development, given that the dictatorship (sorry, absolute monarchy) of Jordan is normally a fairly easy place to visit for most international travellers. Once can only suspect that the Archbishop forgot to get the right visas before leaving home.

[Frank Chima]

The gates of hell shall not prevail.May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you all and direct you in your deliberations.

[Christopher Johnsno]

I'm surprised you didn't work in the chicken dinners slur there, Malcolm. Better luck next time. As far as "self-centered arrogance" and "trespassing uninvited" is concerned, American universalist pointy-hats who dress funny might not want men like Akinola, Orombi, Kolini, Venables and others around but those of us who still profess the Christian religion most enthusiatically do.

[Malcolm+]

Is "to hell with the Bishop in Jerusalem" official GAFFEPRONE policy? Or is it merely the usual self-centred arrogance of the GAFFEPRONE leadership that they've forgotten the commitment they reluctantly made to the ordinary in whose diocese they are trespassing uninvited?

[Michael P Stephenson]

Do you think Bsp. Akinola's position on Islam is a factor?

(rg writes: possibly. See Father Jake:
http://frjakestopstheworld.blogspot.com/2008/02/abp-akinola-and-massacre-of-yelwa.html

The King of Jordan has close contacts with Britain. The Jordanian royal family is friendly with clerics at the highest level of the Church of England.)

[David Palmer]

Fantastic. Up, up and away.

May our Loving heavenly Father bless them in all their deliberations! May Gospel ministry be strengthened.

Loved all those African names!

[EPfizH]

just to remind... +Akinola's doctorate is honorary and unearned. In the US,when used as in the above instance, the title is only used to address or refer to those who have actually earned the degree. I mention this in case you may have American readers who might be misled into crediting +Akinola with academic credentials he doesn't have.

[Father Ron Smith]

Does GAFCON really represent "75%" of the membership of the Anglican Communion? Or does it more really represent the Leaders of 75% of the Anglican Communion, which is a different matter altogether?

When most of the members of the congregations of the African Churches represented at GAFCON are largely unaware of the ambition of their leaders to high-jack the Anglican Communion, can this be in any way described as a confernece which "represents 75% of the Anglican Communion"?

The degree of consultation amongst the groundswell of African Anglican congregations by their monarchical bishops is minimal. How then could the African Church leaders present at GAFCON be said to represent them?

The numbers game, unfortunately in this instance, only serves to reveal the duplicity of the organisers of GAFCON, and cannot be taken too seriously, surely?

[Michael]

Who says the Almighty doesn't have a sense of humor?