There are several press releases from the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) telling us about the twenty new bishops all consecrated in one service last Sunday, and the further election of another six.
See: Challenges of missionary dioceses:, and Buildup to unprecedented consecration service: and Six more bishops elected: and last but by no means least, House of Bishop’s statement on CANA, Primates’ meeting:.
This last includes the following:
We also heard a report from the Bishop of CANA, the Rt. Rev’d Martyn Minns, on the growth of the ministry in the USA and pledged our enthusiastic support for this vital mission initiative of our Church. We welcomed the news that the Rt. Rev’d David Bena, recently retired Suffragen Bishop of Albany, has now transferred to the Church of Nigeria to assist with the work of CANA.
In light of the report from the recent meeting of Primates in Dar es Salaam we agreed to defer the request for additional Episcopal elections for CANA until our meeting in September 2007.
The House of Bishops expressed profound gratitude to Archbishop Peter J. Akinola and his colleagues in the Global South for the strong stand taken at the meeting, together with the gracious leadership of Archbishop Rowan Williams, and continue to pray that the Anglican Communion can move forward in truth and unity.
There is more detail about this from the Diocese of Albany (h/t BB).
Sarah Dylan Breuer has commented on this timescale for returning to the issue of more bishops for CANA.
OK, let’s ditch the G&S analogy I suggested here in commenting on the Covenant a few weeks ago – this is really turning into Alice in Wonderland.
Here are some possibilities for characters – anyone else have some ideas?
Akinola = the Queen of Hearts? (or perhaps Humpty-Dumpty?!)
Williams = the Cheshire Cat?
Who would be the Mad Hatter?
Who could be Alice………?
Apparently the Mad Hatter as used by Lewis Carroll was a probably based on a local cabinet maker who was also an eccentric inventor, and once invented an alarm clock bed that tipped people out of bed at the set time. So this must be Akinola with TEC in bed. But being a Mad Hatter he might leave the room, and someone might switch the alarm off. Rowan Williams can play Humpty Dumpty because his words mean what you want them to mean, neither more nor less. He could well fall off the wall. Alice is a blogger. The Cheshire… Read more »