In short: All is well ;=)

{Yawn}

...but of course, queer lil' me in the USA---in relative safety---can remain merely bored w/ Akinola's latest "emissions". LGBTs in Nigeria can only WISH for such boredom...

Lord have mercy!

"A few months ago, my immediate support staff and I attended early morning Communion service. It was in a magnificent Cathedral sitting on a hilltop and overlooking much of the city below. In all there were only about thirty people at the service. - Archbishop Peter Akinola - CON Report

So. We get the true picture of the state of Christian discipleship in the Church of Nigeria. Here is the Archbishop, together with his clergy at an early morning Eucharist - with only 30 people present. How can this be? When we are assured in every other proclamation that comes from the Global South that the Church in Nigeria is far stronger numerically and more vitalised than that of the Mother Church in England? This admission by the Primate of Nigeria of the paucity of attendance in the Cathedral of Abuja is something new. Perhaps, at last he is willing to dissemble and resile from his position of superiority in numbers and missional viability in his home patch. By their fruits you shall know them?

Perhaps they might go somewhere else than the UK for blowing their fourth trumpet.

"On my return from Egypt, I issued a letter to the faithful titled ‘a wake up call’. I also sent an open letter to our chairman, Dr Rowan. In both, I made it clear that America is not thinking of backing off from its new religion. And the rest of us desiring to keep the unity and structures of the Communion by all means including losing our faith and churches risk the danger of becoming a church that has the appearance of being alive but in reality are no more than what Prof John Mbiti once described as the ‘living-dead.’" - Archbishop Peter Akinola -

Having, at last, got down to reading the Nigerian Archbishop's prefatory remarks at the recent CON Standing Committee Meeting (having got sick and tired of reading most of what he churns out at such gatherings in other places), I see that his fear and hatred of TEC Christianity is about equivalent to his hatred and fear of the Islamic community in his own patch.

If His Grace were able to sit down and actually dialogue with both entities, he might perhaps not find them so threatening to his own personal understanding of God's place in the world which he seems to find uncomfortable to deal with. This is one area where Akinola might find profit in studying the strategy of the Archbishop of Canterbury, whose willingness to dialogue with other Faith Communities - in the hope of finding some common ground, that might make the world a better place - is at least fruit-bearing.

It does seem that ++Nigeria has a great distrust of anyone's religious sensitivities except his own - displaying a lack of trust in the Holy Spirit's ability to work in any other Faith entity than that in which he was raised.

Does it ever occur to His Grace, I wonder, that all humanity has been created in the Image and Likeness of God and that God is not solely dependent on any one of the bearers of episcopal office, alone, to bring about God's will in the Church and the world? A little kenotic humility might better serve the mission of the Gospel, than any attempt to bully other people into submission to one's own particular cultural spiritual vision.

Fundamentalist religion - in any form - will not bring about that 'Coming of The Kingdom' which Jesus Christ spoke about in the Gospel - whether that fundamentalism be 'Christian' or of any other Faith Community.

The Cathedral in Abuja does not overlook the city so this was not the one he referred to. Also, early morning communion is not as popular in many Nigerian churches as many people say they prefer the longer matins where there is ample time for thanksgivings in songs and dance.

The focus we got from the Archbishop's speech was that much work needs to be done to get more youths into the church. We noticed a problem and we are not ready to fold our hands and just keep talking.

"The Cathedral in Abuja does not overlook the city so this was not the one he referred to. Also, early morning communion is not as popular in many Nigerian churches as many people say they prefer the longer matins where there is ample time for thanksgivings in songs and dance." - Tunde on Friday -

How interesting to hear that 'many people' in the Nigerian Church 'prefer the longer Matins' - as opposed to the gift of Himself that Jesus Christ left to the Church as our primary remembrance of his passion, death, resurrection and ascension! Maybe this departure from the ancient Church Tradition - in the celebration of the Eucharist - says all that is necessary about the lack of Christian discipleship in Nigeria. To prefer Matins to the Eucharist is one of the signs of an amazing deficiency in teaching about the basic sacramental worship of the Church - in favour of song and dance. This does not sound very Anglican, to say the least.