Nicholas D. Okoh, the Primate of the Anglican Church in Nigeria, has responded to the announcement of the resignation of Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.
The following press release gives some idea of the impossible task Rowan Williams set himself when he became the Archbishop of Canterbury. How could anyone have ever hoped to hold this together?
PRESS STATEMENT
CHURCH OF NIGERIA REACTS TO ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY’S RESIGNATION
The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd and Rt. Hon. Dr. Rowan Williams took over the leadership of the Anglican Communion in 2002 when it was a happy family. Unfortunately, he is leaving behind a Communion in tatters: highly polarized, bitterly factionalized, with issues of revisionist interpretation of the Holy Scriptures and human sexuality as stumbling blocks to oneness, evangelism and mission all around the Anglican world.
It might not have been entirely his own making, but certainly “crucified under Pontius Pilate”. The lowest ebb of this degeneration came in 2008, when there were, so to say, two “Lambeth” Conferences one in the UK, and an alternative one, GAFCON in Jerusalem. The trend continued recently when many Global South Primates decided not to attend the last Primates’ meeting in Dublin, Ireland.
Since Dr. Rowan Williams did not resign in 2008, over the split Lambeth Conference, one would have expected him to stay on in office, and work assiduously to ‘mend the net’ or repair the breach, before bowing out of office. The only attempt, the covenant proposal, was doomed to fail from the start, as “two cannot walk together unless they have agreed”.
For us, the announcement does not present any opportunity for excitement. It is not good news here, until whoever comes as the next leader pulls back the Communion from the edge of total destruction. To this end, we commit our Church, the Church of Nigeria, (Anglican Communion) to serious fasting and prayers that God will do “a new thing”, in the Communion.
Nevertheless, we join others to continue in prayer for Dr. Rowan Williams and his family for a more fruitful endeavour in their post – Canterbury life.
+Nicholas D. Okoh
Archbishop, Metropolitan and Primate of All Nigeria
********************
The tone of this press release from Nigeria makes it difficult not to wonder whether the leaky ship of the worldwide Anglican Communion was actually worth all the work and struggle Rowan Williams exerted in his struggle to keep it afloat.
After Williams’ announcement, the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu was asked if he wanted the job. He replied with a tone that could almost be characterized as angry, “You can’t be serious!” Who can blame him?
Speculating on the future for the Anglican Communion after Williams, one conservative commentator suggests,
Whichever way it goes one thing is certain, there will be no stopping the rise of the Global South with its millions of evangelical Anglicans and the slow but inevitable death of Western Anglicanism if it does not repent of its sin. And that it would seem, is not going to happen.
If “the rise of the Global South” means an increase in the kind of leadership the Archbishop of Nigerira appears likely to provide, the worldwide Anglican Communion will be a very different family ten years from now than it is today.
5 comments
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March 21, 2012 at 6:39 am
jaqueline
One big happy family? hmmmm.
Are we supposed to be taking communiques from long lost relatives via Nigeria seriously now, are we?
March 21, 2012 at 9:18 am
Tress
And the earth continues to circle the sun and the moon to circle the earth and the seasons come and go.
The universe evolves as it is meant to do.
In our short span, should the opinions of God’s squabbling children draw us in .
Perhaps these thoughts should draw us through the Lenten season so that we may rejoice that spring always comes and we are reminded that we were shown that love is all.
March 21, 2012 at 9:55 am
Chris Eve
Why worry about “the slow but inevitable death of Western Anglicanism”? We pray regularly to be the church that bears its fruit in dying.
This is God’s church and it will cease to be only when God’s purposes have been fulfilled. That’s not likely to be in our lifetime.
So we should be of good courage, keep calm and carry on, ministering in the place where we are as best as we are able.
March 21, 2012 at 10:14 am
lindsay
We assume Rowan Williams gave up trying to hold the Anglican church together, and his act of resignation is a sign of his despair at the impossible task of trying to unite the Anglican church. How about we give Rowan Williams the benefit of the doubt. He is a wise man who thinks deeply of the repercussions of his actions and wants more than anything to unite the Anglican church but being a man of deep faith, he is willing to follow God’s lead and God is leading him away from where he is now.
Perhaps the Anglican needs to be shaken up … There is a lot of public talk about the Anglican church, the liberal vs conservative perspective of the prospective successor to the role, the role of the church in modern society. People are talking, and in all the talking and possibly thinking about our own perspective of where the church is at. Crisis has a way of shaking things up .. not easy when it’s happening, but sometimes necessary.
Perhaps Rowan Williams is stepping aside to contemplate the role of the church and publish his thoughts … and in doing this to allow the crack to widen to allow much needed light to shine in. Perhaps it is time for us re-evaluate our own historical myths … and get a better sense of what the future holds if we choose one way versus another …
Rev Simon Marsh writes ….
“Archbishop Rowan, speaking to the Press Association the other day, said:
‘Over the last few years, there have been all kinds of ideas about the Church, about the faith, which I have longed for more time to explore and write up a bit. So I’m hoping for more space to write and to think in that way.’
So, all is not lost. Even the exhausting Archbishopric of Canterbury will not have prevailed over the life and soul of this pilgrim, and the richness of humanity is seen as pure gift in Diarmaid MacCulloch’s willingness to explore – before the very eyes of a million armchair critics.”
http://simonmarsh.org/2012/03/18/the-power-of-a-myth/
March 27, 2012 at 5:13 pm
ZM Smith
“To this end, we commit our Church, the Church of Nigeria, (Anglican Communion) to serious fasting and prayers that God will do “a new thing”, in the Communion.”
What’s wrong with this kind of leadership?
Tone…hmmm….
Since you’ve critiqued the tone of the letter of the Archbishop of Nigeria, perhaps you could look at the tone of your defeatist article, and the presumption to question Okah’s leadership and dissatisfaction with a fellow primate’s leadership. I see in your article, not a prayerful response, but a fatalistic response.