May 3, 2007

Nigerian Primate Peter Akinola has responded publicly to an April 30 emailed letter from Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, asking him to reconsider plans to install Nigerian Bishop Martyn Minns as head of the Nigerian-based Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA).

The installation service is set for May 5 at the Hylton Memorial Chapel, a nondenominational Christian event center in Woodbridge, Virginia.

Jefferts Schori said the installation "would violate the ancient customs of the church" and would "not help the efforts of reconciliation." Such action, she said, "would display to the world division and disunity that are not part of the mind of Christ."

After it was sent to Akinola, her letter was released to Episcopal News Service.

Akinola's reply, posted to the Church of Nigeria's website, describes CANA as providing "a safe place for those who wish to remain faithful Anglicans but can no longer do so within The Episcopal Church."

The Anglican Primates, said Akinola, "have established task forces, held numerous meetings and issued a variety of statements and communiqués but the brokenness remains, our Provinces are divided, and so the usual protocol and permissions are no longer applicable."

Acknowledging Jefferts Schori's reference to the church's ancient canons regarding the integrity of diocesan boundaries, Akinola said: "You are, of course, aware that the particular historical situation to which you make reference was intended to protect the church from false teaching not to prevent those who hold to the traditional teaching of the church from receiving faithful episcopal care."

He criticized Jefferts Schori for appealing to the ancient church "when it is your own Province's deliberate rejection of the biblical and historic teaching of the Church that has prompted our current crisis."

Akinola accused her of "continuing your own punitive legal actions against a number of CANA clergy and congregations. I fail to see how this is consistent with your own claim to be working towards reconciliation."

In January, the Executive Board of the Diocese of Virginia adopted a resolution declaring that the real and personal property of congregations where a majority voted to disaffiliate were "abandoned in accordance with the Canons of the Diocese," although the congregations continue to occupy the churches and use the property. The clergy of those congregations were inhibited and given six months to reverse their decision before they are removed from the Episcopal ministry.

The disaffiliated congregations filed civil actions with the Virginia circuit courts attempting to transfer ownership of the properties. The diocese filed responses denying any transfer of property, followed by new complaints asking courts to uphold the diocese's claims. The Episcopal Church then filed a complaint supporting the diocese's action and asking that they be consolidated.

CANA congregations consist largely of those who have disaffiliated from the Episcopal Church. Minns—English-born, a former Mobil Oil executive and former rector of Truro Parish in Fairfax, Virginia—was elected and consecrated by the bishops of the Anglican Church of Nigeria to serve as CANA's missionary bishop.

The full text of Jefferts Schori's letter is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_85463_ENG_HTM.htm.

The full text of Akinola's response is available at http://www.anglican-nig.org/response2KJSmay2007.htm.

Episcopal News Service