Anglican Mainstream

Andrew Carey comments and gives further details of the ‘banning’ of Archbishop Akinola, who was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. The only other church leader included in the list was the Pope.

Was he or wasn’t he refused permission to preach in
Sheffield? Last month, my father, the former Archbishop of
Canterbury, was banned from giving a lecture at Bangor
Cathedral by the ever-so tolerant Dean, so I had a natural
interest in the news story.

It seemed pretty clear cut when I spoke to the Rev Ben
Enwuchola, chaplain to the Nigerian community in London.
He told me that in advance of a hospital appointment in
Sheffield, one of Archbishop Peter Akinola’s doctors asked
whether he would preach at St Thomas’s. The Archbishop
agreed to do so but asked the church to contact the Bishop
of Sheffield to seek his permission. The Chaplain was then
phoned by one of the clergy and told that the Bishop would
allow him to bring greetings but not to preach. He recalls
unambiguously and clearly that this was what he was told.

As I began to look into the truth of the story it became less
clear-cut. First of all it was taking hours to get an answer
from St Thomas’s. Eventually out of the blue there came a
phone call from Rob Marshall, press officer to the diocese of Sheffield. There was no truth to the story, he told me smoothly, the
Bishop said neither ‘yea or nay’ to the request. In fact, he only pointed out that it was customary for a visiting Archbishop to
seek the permission of the Archbishop of the Province and since there were only a couple of days to go, it would be difficult to go
ahead.

In fact, there were at least three or four days to go and this is only
one account of the obscure ‘protocols’ that govern the
visits of bishops and primates to other dioceses and provinces. It is customary for a visiting bishop to seek permission from the diocesan
bishop before performing any pastoral acts of ministry. But accounts vary as to whether a visiting Archbishop has to seek permission
from a fellow Archbishop before preaching. After all, preaching
is not an Episcopal act of ministry. In any case, it is clear that the Archbishop of Nigeria did not believe that separate permission
had to be sought from the Archbishop of York for entering his province for a hospital appointment with a free sermon flung in free
for his doctor.

In fact, it is mystifying why the diocese of Sheffield in its confusion didn’t just pick up the phone to the Archbishop of York’s office
and get the permission there and then. I understand from several well-informed sources that these courtesies do not have to be signed and sealed in triplicate but are usually the matter of a letter, an email or a telephone call.

But then I am assuming that this was an innocent cock-up rather than a conspiracy. After a day of waiting for phone calls to be
returned and trawling through the worldwide web to try and find a written-down explanation of the protocols governing visiting
bishops and primates (which doesn’t incidentally seem to exist anywhere and it is not addressed clearly or directly in the
Canons of the Church of England) I am distinctly suspicious.

I suspect for one thing that had Archbishop Peter Akinola and Bishop
Jack Nicholls been on the same page theologically that there would have been no equivocation. The necessary phone calls would have been
made to satisfy the Bishop of Sheffield’s view of the matter
and a welcome would have been extended with perhaps
an invitation to drop in for a cup of tea.

The fact is Archbishop Akinola is viewed as the devil incarnate by many Church of England liberals and many of these ‘inclusive-church types’ have an extremely exclusive side to them.

Whether or not this is a cock-up or conspiracy, the whole thing has been handled very shabbily indeed. The chaplain to the Nigerian community in London and the Archbishop of Nigeria believe that a door
has been slammed in their faces by a Church of England Bishop. A visiting primate has returned to his country believing that his
ministry is not acceptable in parts of the Church of England. Given the parlous state of affairs in the Anglican Communion this is
not a very helpful statement to make. I suggest that the Bishop of Sheffield needs to send a very clear apology to the Archbishop
of Nigeria for this ‘administrative slip’.

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