News from Kenya:

"The head of the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa, Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, said the Church in Africa will make the decision to either break away or not depending on whether Canterbury, the Church's headquarters in London, would have acted on their ultimatum.

"We have given the Anglican Church an ultimatum to review the situation and by September we will know whether to continue together or apart," Akinola said on Thursday."

Has the pompous Primate and Metropolitan of Abuja included the CofE among the Anglican provinces now on probation and under censure by the Anglican Primatial Circus?

Gays and Lesbians, take cover before the wrath of the God of Abuja strikes you!

The Anglican Communion has become a JOKE. Who would want to be part of it?

So reading the newspapers from Kenya & Uganda, I see that any hope of reconciliation is illusory.

Can anyone else get a different interpretation from these articles?

_"We have given the Anglican Church an ultimatum to review the situation and by September we will know whether to continue together or apart," Akinola said on Thursday_ East African Standard.

Well this is a development, this is new. So now we have it not that the Episcopal Church will be excluded in September, but that Nigeria will walk from the Church of England if Canterbury etc. does nothing.

Bring it on, bring it on.

"As a result, Akinalo said, the African bishops appointed a commission called 'The Windsor', to look into the matter and seek answers from the Episcopal Church."

The ABC appointed "The Windsor". Is this poor reporting or spin out of Africa?

I wonder if Rowan, and others, have made contingency plans for paying the bills if they ask the American Church to leave? Or will the impaired status not impair the letters to 815 in New York asking for the American cash they have enjoyed for so long?

Having the Primates' meeting in Tanzania assured a lot of publicity for gay marriage there.

I wonder which bills Dennis has in mind? Would those be for the ECUSA branch office in London?

In my book, making an ultimatum *is* walking apart. It is precisely taking an opportunity for dialogue, persuasion and difference, and making a binary friends-or-not choice out of it. That's downright offensive.

Dennis said:
"Or will the impaired status not impair the letters to 815 in New York asking for the American cash they have enjoyed for so long?"

Certainly you're not suggesting TEC is trying to BRIBE the AC!

It will be very good for the African churches NOT to depend on 815 money. The patron-client relationship might have been the style of ancient Rome and contemporary politcs, but it should be no part of the church. CANA and other churches may help mission work in Africa (with no strings), but they must not become either masters or milch-cows.

I'm at least glad the 'U word' (ultimatum) is at last out of ++Akinola's mouth.

There is NO possible Christian justification for surrendering to a (human!) ultimatum. None.

Lord have mercy!

Sounds like TEC should just stall for a bit and the problem will take care of itself.

_"We have given the Anglican Church an ultimatum to review the situation and by September we will know whether to continue together or apart,"

A misquote

"I wonder if Rowan, and others, have made contingency plans for paying the bills if they ask the American Church to leave? "

Oh my God! What is happening? I thought it was the poor Africans that were dependant on American dollars!

Dennis can not mean that Canterbury's decision will be influenced by money. No. No.

Tunde
If the East African Standard has misquoted your primate, please could you tell us what he did really say. I doubt the newspaper made it up entirely...

And, on the subject of money, there is a real fear inside the Church of England, that if ECUSA money is not contributed to the Lambeth Conference funding pot, the Church Commissioners of England will be asked to make up the substantial difference. I am not sure they would agree to do it, but it would be a very unwelcome development.

Alternatively the Conference could be cancelled. Would that be so unwelcome in Nigeria?

Simon, do you know how much ECUSA has been asked to contribute to Lambeth 2008? Does it not just fund its own bishops? I thought the Church Commissioners paid for the Conference itself, however many are invited/come?

I join Simon Sarmiento in asking Tunde for clarification -- not for a paraphrase, but for the exact quote upon which this report is based, with documentation. Only then would I know what to think about Bishop Akinola's position.