Synod members support for Bishop Minns
The CEN Daily Edition for May 3 reports that around 30 members of the Church of England General Synod have signed a message of support for the new head of a breakaway Anglican denomination who is due to be installed this weekend.The Synod group, which is made up of members from over 20 different dioceses, include lay member GerryO’Brien from the Diocese of Rochester, who will be attending the service of installation in Virginia for the Rev Martyn Minns on Saturday.
Mr Minns will become head of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA). The controversial installation which further threatens the future of the worldwide Anglican Communion is due to be carried out by the Archbishop of Nigeria, the Most Rev Peter Akinola.
Lambeth Palace today confirmed the Archbishop of Canterbury has written to the African Primate asking him to cancel his trip to Virginia to carry out the service. A spokesman for Dr Rowan Williams confirmed a letter had been sent to the Archbishop of Nigeria, while it has also been reported that the Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has also appealed to Bishop Akinola not to carry out the installation at Hylton Memorial Chapel in Woodbridge, Virginia. She is reported to have said such an action would “violatethe ancient customs of thechurch, in terms of the sacrosanct boundaries of individual bishops†and would not “help the efforts of reconciliation that are taking place in the Episcopal Church and in the Anglican Communion as a wholeâ€. But Mr O’Brien said he would be giving the greeting to Mr Minns to show solidarity with orthodox Anglicans inNorth America.
He said: “We’re wanting to stand together with orthodox Anglicans who find themselves under intense pressure. We wish it hadn’t come to this but we want them to know that they haven’t been abandoned.†Eleven parishes have left the Diocese of Virginia and the Episcopal Church to join CANA over the row of Biblical authority and the consecration of a practising gayBishop, Gene Robinson, in 2003.
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