A heretic, you may remember, originally was one who would divide the church over a point of doctrine, not a person who strays from orthodoxy in the slightest degree.

Archbishop Peter Akinola has shown his true colors and character by defying the worldwide Anglican Communion as well as 2,000 years of Church history by taking upon himself the right to install a competing bishop to Presiding Bishop Jeffords-Schori, the woman who is the leader of all Anglicans in the USA whether they want to acknowledge that or not.

Akinola is an arrogant, power-hungry old fool. The issue of homosexuality is nothing more than his convenient tool to increase his influence and authority. The people who now celebrate his assertion of authority over them will soon realize that he will not pastor them, will not lead them. All Akinola can do is condemn and judge. He has only one message and is certainly going to make sure that his underlings, such as "bishop" Martyn Minns, have only that message as well. The churches that reject the true Church for Akinola's poor imitation will become, if they are not already, as obsessed with homosexuality as Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, the church of the infamous Phelps clan. They may not embrace violence or the extremes of their rhetoric and behavior, but the obsession is the same.

Rowan Williams has succeeded where war and the collapse of the British Empire failed: he has allowed his position as Archbishop of Canterbury to become entirely irrelevant. Any attempt on his part to preserve the Anglican Communion - which has already ceased to exist - will result only in Akinola and his disciples declaring their status openly. They will be the ones to break the Church apart. They will be the ones who will call for all those provinces loyal to Akinola - "loyal to the Bible" they will say - to fully break with Canterbury and all provinces that wish to remain in relationship with he Episcopal Church, USA.

Good riddance to bad rubbish, I say.

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