Nigerian
archbishop Peter Akinola has rejected the U.S. Episcopal
Church's latest efforts to calm tensions over the
consecration of gay bishops -- an issue threatening to
split the global Anglican-Episcopalian family.
Akinola, a vocal
and influential leader of the faction seeking an
outright ban on gay bishops, said a resolution this week by
the U.S. Episcopalians that failed to explicitly bar
gay bishops from the pulpit meant his followers'
''pleas have once again been ignored.''
''Instead of the
change of heart (repentance) that we sought what we have
been offered is merely a temporary adjustment,'' Akinola
said in a statement posted on his church's Web site
late Wednesday.
Akinola said
church leaders would have to meet to coordinate their
response. He made no mention of a formal separation.
Anglican leaders
had set a Sunday deadline for the Episcopal Church,
which is the Anglican body in the United States, to pledge
unequivocally not to consecrate another gay bishop or
approve an official prayer service for same-sex
couples.
On Tuesday, U.S.
bishops affirmed a resolution passed last year by the
Episcopal General Convention that urged bishops to
''exercise restraint'' by not consenting to a
candidate for bishop ''whose manner of life presents a
challenge'' to Anglicans and the church.
The promise,
however, falls short of an outright ban. The Episcopal
leaders also promised they would not approve official
prayers to bless same-gender couples.
Akinola, who has
arranged and oversees breakaway Episcopal congregations
in the United States, said that wasn't enough.
''It was our
expressed desire to provide one final opportunity for an
unequivocal assurance from The Episcopal Church of their
commitment to the mind and teaching of the
Communion,'' Akinola wrote.
''We also made
clear that it is a time for clarity and a rejection of
what hitherto has been endless series of ambiguous and
misleading statements. Sadly it seems that our hopes
were not well founded and our pleas have once again
been ignored.''
The gay issue has
been divisive within the church as a whole and within
the American church. Four of the 110 Episcopal dioceses are
taking steps to split off from the national church and
align with an overseas Anglican church.
Anglican leaders
from Nigeria, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, and elsewhere have
violated Anglican tradition that they minister only within
their own provinces and have consecrated bishops to
oversee breakaway Episcopal congregations in the
United States.
In their
statement Tuesday, U.S. bishops said they ''deplore'' the
incursions and ''call for them to end.''
Akinola, a
traditionalist leader among developing-world clergy who
treat the Bible's words more literally than others,
set up the Convocation of Anglicans in North America
in 2005.
Akinola
administers his convocation from Nigeria, where
homosexuality is deeply shunned and considered by many
to be out of step with African practices. Such beliefs
are common across Africa. (Edward Harris, AP)
