Christianity's growth will be in global South, Pew study shows

From Catholic Register-

Most of Christianity's future growth is likely to be in the global South, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where the Christian population is relatively young, according to a new analysis from the U.S.-based Pew Research Center.

And, while at last count more babies were born to Christian mothers than to members of any other religion, reflecting Christianity's status as the world's largest religious group, Muslim births will start to outnumber Christian births by 2035.

The share of Christians worldwide who live in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to increase dramatically between 2015 and 2060, from 26 per cent to 42 per cent, due to high fertility in the region. At the same time, lower fertility and religion switching are among factors that will lead to a drop in numbers of Christians living in Europe and North America, according to Pew Research Center demographic estimates released April 5.

More here-

http://www.catholicregister.org/home/international/item/24813-christianity-s-growth-will-be-in-global-south-pew-study-shows

Only traditionalist Archbishop of Canterbury can save Anglican church, warn primates

From The London Telegraph-

THE worldwide Anglican Church risks a permanent split unless someone committed to traditional values is chosen as the new Archbishop of Canterbury, the leaders of 55 million churchgoers have warned.

In a major intervention in the selection process, an alliance of archbishops and bishops from four continents has written directly to the selection committee urging them to choose someone prepared to halt a drift towards liberal values on issues such as homosexuality.

The next Archbishop must be willing to “uphold the orthodoxy of the Christian faith” in order to secure the “future and unity” of the church “at a foundational level”, they say in a letter seen by The Daily Telegraph.

Only someone with an understanding of the more traditional views of Anglicans in Africa and elsewhere and the ability to gain their “respect” would be acceptable they add.
The warning comes in a letter to Lord Luce, the chairman of the Crown Nominations Commission, which is selecting the next Archbishop, by the leaders of the Church in the so-called "Global South", who met earlier this week in Singapore.

More here-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9427171/Only-traditionalist-Archbishop-of-Canterbury-can-save-Anglican-church-warn-primates.html

Global South Primates Raise Urgent Questions

From The Living Church-

Eleven Global South Anglican primates released a communiqué at the end of their China visit in September. The discussions in China clearly build on many exchanges and face-to-face meetings between these primates in recent times, especially in the Fourth South-to-South Encounter in Singapore in April 2010. These protracted meetings have taken much time, personnel, and financial resources. And much more resources need to be in place to carry out the plans in the communiqué. The China communiqué, therefore, raises urgent questions. The key issue turns on the ecclesiological nature of whatever Global South Anglican churches plan to do. Briefly:

Can the Global South primates come up with a coherent ecclesiastical structure that can hold their “mission and networking” together, once the existing Communion instruments are deemed dysfunctional? This is all the more urgent since the primates have decided to withdraw participation from key Communion-level instruments. Alternative ecclesial structures (interim or permanent) need to be in place to give corporate expression to their Anglican identity.

Will their churches adopt the Anglican Communion Covenant, in which the existing four instruments assume a central place? After all, Global South churches have played a key role in drafting the Covenant from the start. A Global South Anglican paper was commissioned for study in the South-to-South encounter in 2010 to defend the Covenant. Why the perhaps hesitant note on the Covenant in the communiqué, as if it is something new?

More here-

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2011/9/29/global-south-primates-raise-urgent-questions

Plea to rebel Primates: ‘Bring your wisdom to next meeting’

From The Church Times-

A BISHOP in the Church of Nigeria has urged Primates from the Global South not to boycott the Primates’ Meeting in Dublin in January (News, 26 November).

Writing in the Church Times today, the Bishop of Kaduna, Dr Josiah Idowu-Fearon, who was a member of the Lambeth Commission which produced the Windsor report, pleads with the Primates “not . . . to give room for the Communion to break up, during the time God has given [them] the privilege to represent [their] various provinces”.

“An archbishop may hold a strong position on a particular theological debate, but that should not be a reason to silence those of his colleagues with an alternative opinion as representatives of their dioceses,” Dr Idowu-Fearon writes.

Speaking on Friday, he said that his intervention was not prompted by pressure from any individual, “but by my conviction to work for the unity of this communion”.

He said that he feared that some of the Primates had “not actually consulted properly” before announcing their intention to boycott the meeting. There was “a huge desire” among “ordinary members” of the Church of Nigeria for the Communion to stay together, he said.

Responding to the suggestion made by the Primates that “the current text” of the Anglican Covenant is “fatally flawed”, Dr Idowu-Fearon said: “If those Primates believe they have a superior wisdom than the collective wisdom of those who produced the Covenant, let them meet and present their wisdom and not start throwing tantrums.”

More here-

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=106098

If Jefferts Schori is at meeting, I won’t come, says Primate

From The Church Times-

PRIMATES from the Global South are contemplating a boycott of the next Primates’ Meeting because the US Presiding Bishop, Dr Katharine Jefferts Schori, will be present.

The Archbishop of the Indian Ocean, the Most Revd Ian Ernest, has confirmed that he will not attend the meeting, due to take place in Dublin, 25-31 January.

Archbishop Ernest said last week that he had written to the Archbishop of Canterbury in the summer to convey his distress at the election in the United States of the Rt Revd Mary Glasspool, a partnered lesbian, as Bishop of Los Angeles. He had urged Dr Williams to exclude Dr Jefferts Schori from future Primates’ Meet ngs.

“There were conditions attached in that letter,” he said last week, “and I can confirm I will not attend if those conditions are not fulfilled.”

Dr Jefferts Schori has already con firmed that she will attend the meeting.
Primates of the Global South are expected to meet this month to discuss whether they will refuse en masse to attend.

They are being encouraged to attend by, among others, the presid ent of the American Anglican Council, the Rt Revd David Anderson, a suffragan bishop within the Con vocation of Anglicans in North America, who has posted a letter on a website urging traditionalist bishops to go to the meeting.

In a bizarre suggestion, he advises that Dr Jefferts Schori be shut out of the room, or removed “by force of numbers” if she attends. If Dr Williams objects to this, the meeting could go ahead in a separate room without him.

He writes: “Dr Williams is being advised that numerous provinces won’t attend the Primates’ Meeting if Jefferts Schori attends. Having booked the venue, he might as well have the meeting since he is committed to paying for it, but without the orthodox Primates in attendance it could be a dangerous meeting, giving opinion and credence to teachings and beliefs that are not representative of orthodox Anglicanism.

“If asked my opinion, I would strongly advise the orthodox Primates to: 1) organise before the Prim­ates’ Meeting; and 2) attend and remove by force of numbers the Presiding Bishop of the American Episcopal Church (not physically, but by either voting her off the ‘island’, or reces sing to another room and not letting her in).

“The meeting is a place to gather and potentially to settle some of the issues that are pulling the Anglican Communion apart, and to begin to restore health to a most wonderful communion.
“In the above case, if Dr Williams did not go along with Jefferts Schori’s exclusion, then I would suggest having the next-door meeting with out him. I just don’t believe staying home from the field of battle helps win a war over the truth and nature of Christianity within Anglicanism.”
Lambeth Palace declined to comment.

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=101953

Archbishop of Canterbury imposes first sanctions on Anglican provinces over gay bishops dispute

From The London Telegraph-

Dr Rowan Williams announced that provinces which had ignored his “pleading” for restraint would be banned from attending official discussions with other Christian denominations and prevented from voting on a key body on doctrine.
He admitted the 80 million-strong Anglican Communion was in a time of “substantial transition” but held back from taking the most serious step of expelling national churches from it.

His action, taken after years of patiently asking both conservatives and liberals to abide by agreed rules, will affect both sides in the dispute over whether the Bible permits openly homosexual clergy.

It has been triggered by the progressive Episcopal Church of the USA, which ordained its first lesbian bishop, the Rt Rev Mary Glasspool, earlier this month. The Episcopal Church also elected the first openly homosexual bishop in the Communion, the Rt Rev Gene Robinson, in 2003.

But the move will also hit orthodox provinces in the developing world – known as the Global South – that reacted to the liberal innovations in America and Canada by taking conservative American clergy and congregations out of their national churches and giving them roles in Africa and South America. This has triggered bitter legal battles over the fate of church buildings.
The Anglican provinces found to have broken the “moratoria” - on ordaining homosexual clergy; blessing same-sex unions in church; and making “cross-border interventions” - will soon be sent letters telling them about the proposed punishment for straying from the Communion’s agreed positions.

More here-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/7779040/Archbishop-of-Canterbury-imposes-first-sanctions-on-Anglican-provinces-over-gay-bishops-dispute.html

Ten Years and a New Anglican Congregationalism

From Ephraim Radner via David Virtue-

It is ten years since Anglicanism's current travails were formally inaugurated with the formation of an alternative "Communion" church in North America, the Anglican Mission in America. Not the cause, it was nonetheless the first major sign that "communion" was no longer a given in Anglicanism, but something to be variously asserted, antagonistically claimed, and built up or torn down as the case may be.

And after ten years, I think it necessary to say that most of the work thus far has been one of tearing down. Tearing down, but also of exposing new things and clearer lines of calling, so that what had been emerging as a communion might now be seen as demanding deeper commitment for its flourishing than anybody had imagined. The work that many of us have been doing out of a commitment to the traditional Christian faith as Anglicans (and others) had received it has been worth the effort, and continues to be demanded. But what we are seeing, especially as Christian communion is being assaulted not only from within the Church, but more importantly by a rapidly dissolving Christian culture in the West, is that there are deeper roots to put down and nourish than we had perhaps first thought.

The tearing down, in any case, is what is most obvious, perhaps, to outsiders or onlookers from within. One by one, for instance, the so-called "Instruments of Unity" for Anglicans around the world have been eroded in their perceived integrity, and certainly in their effectiveness.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, over the past decade (from Lord Carey through Rowan Williams), has issued pleas, statements, constructive ideas, hopes. But when, last month, a schedule conflict, not to mention in any case the ash of an Icelandic volcano, kept him from the South to South Encounter of non-Western churches in Singapore, the transient and quivering video image of his unfocused greeting was symbolically all that was left of his presence to an increasingly estranged majority of world Anglicans. For whatever reasons - the constraint imposed on Lambeth's voice by America's money monopoly on Communion bureaucracy, loyalties divided between Britain and Communion, mixed convictions within his own mind, an under-appreciation of the demanded influence of his own witness? - ten years of people all going their own way has rendered the moral authority of his voice almost inaudible.

More here-

http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=12638

Editorial: After Singapore

From The Living Church-

Like those from previous encounters, the communiqué or “trumpet” from the fourth Global South to South Encounter in Singapore strives to address at once the Anglican churches of the global south and the wider Communion, and this is as it should be. The communion of Christ calls us both to speak to our own contexts — in this case, to cultivate a conversation among “the vast majority of the active membership of the Anglican Communion” that happens to share many challenges in church and society as well as a largely evangelical theological and missionary idiom — and the larger Body and its members, spread throughout the earth. At the intersection of these two audiences this latest communiqué speaks reflexively of a singular Church, following the theme of the encounter: “The Gospel of Jesus Christ — Covenant for the People, Light for the Nations,” from Isaiah. Unfortunately, the text falls short of the ecclesial confidence, and clarity, that it rightly aims for, even in the narrowed context of specifically Anglican communion.

The thesis of the communiqué may be found in its ninth paragraph: “We encourage Provinces to develop intentional plans and structures for Church growth in the post-Christendom context of today’s world. Above all, we call for a new quest for personal and corporate holiness in the [Anglican] Communion.” The final seven paragraphs, aimed at the wider Communion, break very little new ground, and where new suggestions are made they are underdeveloped, as in the intriguing final sentence of the communiqué proper: “We believe that there is a need to review the entire Anglican Communion structure; especially the Instruments of Communion and the Anglican Communion office; in order to achieve an authentic expression of the current reality of our Anglican Communion.” What precisely is being proposed here? The recently convened Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity Faith and Order has been tasked with this very work, following on and consolidating the foundation of the Covenant text. Are the global south leaders effectively commending this labor, or rather suggesting a parallel, and perhaps quite different, kind of “review”? It is impossible to say. Similarly, the text proposes in a single sentence that “the Primates Meeting ... should be the body to oversee the Covenant in its implementation” because they are “responsible for Faith and Order” (para. 21) — a suggestion that would need to be shown with reference to current Anglican structures or otherwise argued for on independent grounds.

More here-

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2010/4/30/editorial-after-singapore

Peter Jensen: The Anglican Crisis is Over.

From Australia-


The leader of Sydney’s Anglicans, Archbishop Peter Jensen, has declared the crisis in the Anglican communion over. Jensen attended a meeting of the Anglican “Global South” group, which represents an overwhelming majority of the world’s Anglicans in Singapore in April.

The Anglican Communion has been fracturing since the election of Bishop Gene Robinson, a partnered gay man in the USA in 2003.

Jensen has in effect declared the war over. “The crisis moment has now passed” he says. “Many of the Global South provinces have given up on the official North American Anglicans (TEC and the Canadian Church) and regard themselves as being out of communion with them. They renew the call for repentance but can see that, failing something like the Great Awakening, it will not occur.

“The positive side to this is that they are committed to achieving self-sufficiency so that they will cease to rely on the Western churches for aid. That is something the Global South has been working on for some time, with success.”

The Anglican Communion has quietly, and politely split apart. There will still be Communion meetings, attended by varying numbers of member provinces, but the Global South will set up its own structures and seek financial independence.

More here-

http://eternity.biz/news/peter_jensen_the_anglican_crisis_is_over/1004290144/

Archbishop to lead global body

From Singapore-

THE leader of Singapore's 30,000-strong Anglican Church was elected chairman of an international body of Anglican churches this week.

Archbishop John Chew, 62, now leads the Global South Anglican Communion, a group comprising bishops from 20 of the 38 provinces of the Anglican communion, representing about 75 per cent of Anglicans globally. The 20 provinces are in Asia, Africa and South America.

The post was previously held by Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria.

Dr Chew, who has led the Anglican Church here since 2000, is also the president of the National Council of Churches of Singapore.

The election took place on Wednesday amid week-long meetings in Singapore aimed at building ties among the leaders.

The 130 delegates, who have been meeting at St Andrew's Cathedral in Stamford Road since Monday, issued a joint summary of the conference yesterday.

More here-

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_518693.html

SINGAPORE: Global South Anglicans call for action against Episcopal Church, Anglican Church of Canada

From Episcopal Life Online-

A communiqué issued April 23 at the end of the Fourth Anglican Global South to South Encounter in Singapore called on Anglican Communion provinces to "reconsider their communion relationships" with the Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church.
The communiqué said the two provinces must show "genuine repentance" for actions that it said show they "continue in their defiance as they set themselves on a course that contradicts the plain teaching of the Holy Scriptures on matters so fundamental that they affect the very salvation of those involved."

The statement contrasted the work of two Nepalese Anglicans, whom the communiqué said were bringing the gospel to that "principally Hindu and Buddhist nation," with the Episcopal Church, the Anglican Church of Canada "and all those churches that have rejected the way of the Lord as expressed in Holy Scripture."

The only action specially mentioned in connection with such rejection is the Episcopal Church's recent consent to the ordination and consecration of Diocese of Los Angeles Bishop-elect Mary Glasspool, a partnered lesbian, which the communiqué said "has demonstrated, yet again, a total disregard for the mind of the Communion."

Some 130 delegates from 20 Anglican provinces in Africa, West Indies, Asia and South America attended, according to the communiqué, along with what it called a number of "our partners in the Gospel" from Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. The statement welcomed two Communion Partners bishops from the Episcopal Church and "acknowledge[d] that with them there are many within TEC who do not accept their church’s innovations. We assure them of our loving and prayerful support."

More here-

http://www.episcopal-life.org/81808_121838_ENG_HTM.htm

Global South's final statement calls for greater holiness, purpose and discipline

From ACNS

The "Fourth Trumpet" statement from the Global South to South Encounter has called called for greater holiness, purpose and discipline after acknowledging two decades of conflict and controversy has affected their ability to fulfil the Great Commission.

Delegates at the Fourth Anglican Global South to South Encounter meeting said today that for two decades they have been "distracted by conflicts and controversies" that had kept them from effectively fulfilling the Great Commission. However, they stated a "renewed determination" to assist each other "...to make disciples of all nations and to do all that Christ has commanded."
In the meeting’s "Fourth Trumpet" statement, the more than 130 attendees from 20 Provinces at the Singapore meeting called for a "new quest" for personal and corporate holiness in the Communion. They also encouraged Provinces to both develop plans and structures for Church growth in today’s post-Christendom context and to find ways to better understand and reach out to young people.

"The future of the Communion lies in winning the next generation for Christ," said the statement. "We urge each region to adopt initiatives to better understand the needs and characteristics of this new generation so that we might better communicate the Gospel and Christian values to them. It is essential that the ethos and traditions of the Church be imparted to the youth in creative and dynamic ways so that they will be equipped to live for Christ for their generation and beyond."

The group said that during their plenary sessions, bible studies and small group discussions they were "drawn back to a fresh vision of God, of the Church and of Christian leadership."

More here-

http://www.aco.org/acns/news.cfm/2010/4/23/ACNS4700

Anglican Global South Attracts Major Potential Ecumenical Partners

From Christian Post-

Though it has been struggling with an internal crisis, the worldwide Anglican Communion is still attracting positive attention.

Casting sights on possible ecumenical partnerships with the Communion are the registered Protestant Church in China and Coptic Orthodox Church.

This is mainly due to the rise of the Anglican Global South.

Representatives of both church bodies were invited to the fourth Anglican Global South summit held this week in Singapore.

The church leaders have expressed an interest in deepening their relationship with the Anglican Communion.

“I hope that the Chinese Church and the Anglican Global South can expand their cooperation,” said Elder Fu Xianwei.

The Chairman of the Three Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) was making his parting speech before leaving earlier today.

Opportunities for dialogue at the summit have benefited him, Elder Fu expressed.

“The Bible studies, talks and discussions have been helpful for my spiritual growth and for church management,” he said.

Elder Fu told Anglican leaders that he had increased confidence in building his Church. He had attended all the public talks and most of the discussion groups.

Both the Anglican Communion and the Chinese Church face similar challenges of serving God in a multi-religious, globalised and secularised context.

Because of this, dialogue has increased understanding and counsel between the two church bodies.

More here-

http://sg.christianpost.com/dbase/church/2497/section/1.htm

Frustrated Anglicans Seek Way Forward Amid Greater Tension

From Christian Post-

As the Anglican Communion continues to deal with divisions and tension within the global body, the Archbishop of Canterbury reminded leaders on Tuesday that there are no quick solutions for the wounds.

"It is the work of the Spirit that heals the Body of Christ, not the plans or the statements of any group, or any person, or any instrument of communion," Dr. Rowan Williams said in a video address to the Fourth Global South to South Encounter.

Dozens of conservative Anglican leaders opened a five-day conference Monday in Singapore. Participants intend to build on the vision of the "One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ" as they confront the brokenness of the 77 million-member body.

They are there to discuss the Anglican Covenant – a document aimed at preventing a split in the Anglican Communion.

"Initially, it was felt that a comprehensive Anglican covenant would help heal the wounds and restore confidence in our relationships within the Anglican family, as it would provide for accountability," said retired Archbishop of Nigeria the Most Rev. Peter Akinola in his opening address Monday.

"But as things stand today in the Communion, this Encounter gathered here in Singapore needs to assure itself if the proposed covenant offers any such hope."

More here-

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100420/frustrated-anglicans-seek-way-forward-amid-greater-tension/

Archbishop of Canterbury: Video Address to the Global South Gathering

From ACNS (Text of address and video)

Archbishop tells global south gathering: "There are no quick solutions for the wounds of the body of Christ."

The Archbishop of Canterbury has used his video address to the Fourth Global South to South Encounter meeting in Singapore to emphasise that it is the work of God’s Spirit that can heal the tensions within the Anglican family.

Dr Williams was speaking specifically to two items on the meeting’s agenda: challenges for the Church’s mission and the Anglican Communion Covenant, which he described as a new way of "grounding our mission".

He went on to say that the Anglican Communion had been reflecting on the need for a covenant "in the light of confusion, brokenness and tension within our Anglican family – brokenness and a tension that has been made still more acute by recent decisions in some of our Provinces.?

"In all your minds there will be questions around the election and consecration of Mary Glasspool in Los Angeles. All of us share the concern that in this decision and action the Episcopal Church has deepened the divide between itself and the rest of the Anglican family. And as I speak to you now, I am in discussion with a number of people around the world about what consequences might follow from that decision, and how we express the sense that most Anglicans will want to express, that this decision cannot speak for our common mind.

More here-

http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/news.cfm/2010/4/20/ACNS4699

Nigerian Archbishops Call for Repentance

From The Living Church-

In welcoming remarks to the fourth Global South Encounter, both the current and recently retired archbishops of Nigeria referred to the turmoil of the Anglican Communion.

“Everyone thinks it is the other person who needs to repent, but it is all of us,” said the Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh in the conference’s first plenary address.

Okoh succeeded the Most Rev. Peter J. Akinola in March.

Turning to the theme of transformation, Okoh added: “We must reject the so-called ‘gospel’ which encourages a man or woman to remain and feel good and fulfilled in a state of sin from which he/she should seek gracious escape in Christ. But it must be emphasized that this transformation is not just a matter of personal devotion and piety. It must be made to affect individuals — building families and societies, especially fighting corruptions, poverty, despotic and greedy government, polygamy in Africa as well as serial monogamy elsewhere — some of whom make profession of faith.”

Similar themes appeared in a Participants’ Handbook and Journal.

“There is a battle going on in our beloved Communion and so there is a desperate need for an authentic and passionate proclamation of the truth of God,” Akinola wrote. “People are perishing and we dare not remain silent. We must proclaim the word that brings life and hope. I pray that we will have the inspiration and courage to do so.”

Leaders at the conference are “keenly aware of the current issues and deepening crisis and challenges facing our Communion,” wrote the Most Rev. John Chew, Archbishop of South East Asia, General Secretary of the Global South Primates Steering Committee and host of the international gathering. “There is no denying that these issues will inevitably be of great concerns in our minds, prayers and conversations. We have the challenge of how we will respond to the Anglican Covenant. It is important that we can share our respective views, even if we differ.”

The conference continues at St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Singapore, until April 23.

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2010/4/19/nigerian-archbishops-call-for-repentance

Global South Primates Respond to Vatican Initiative

From the Living Church which has link to the statement-

Responding to the Vatican’s announcement for Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans, the six-member Global South Primates Steering Committee has said the Anglican Communion’s covenant “sets the necessary parameters in safeguarding the catholic and apostolic faith and order of the Communion.”

In their statement, “A Pastoral Exhortation to the Faithful in the Anglican Communion,” the leaders urge that Anglicans remain Anglicans and that the Archbishop of Canterbury help them do so.

“In God’s gracious purposes the Anglican Communion has moved beyond the historical beginnings and expressions of English Christianity into a worldwide Communion, of which the Church of England is a constitutive part,” the leaders said. “In view of the global nature of the Communion, matters of faith and order would inevitably have serious ramifications for the continuing well-being and coherence of the Communion as a whole, and not only for provinces of the British Isles and the Episcopal Church in the USA. We urge the Archbishop of Canterbury to work in close collegial consultation with fellow Primates in the Communion, act decisively on already agreed measures in the Primates’ Meetings, and exercise effective leadership in nourishing the flock under our charge, so that none would be left wandering and bereft of spiritual oversight.”

The leaders add about the covenant: “At the same time we believe that the proposed Anglican covenant sets the necessary parameters in safeguarding the catholic and apostolic faith and order of the Communion. It gives Anglican churches worldwide a clear and principled way forward in pursuing God’s divine purposes together in the one, holy catholic and apostolic church of Jesus Christ. We urge churches in the Communion to actively work together towards a speedy adoption of the covenant.”

The statement bears the names of the Most Rev. Peter J. Akinola, Nigeria (chairman); the Most Rev. Emmanuel Kolini, Rwanda (vice chairman); the Most Rev. John Chew, Southeast Asia (general secretary); the Most Revd Mouneer Anis, Jerusalem and the Middle East (treasurer); the Most Rev. Stephen Than Myint Oo, Myanmar; and the Very Rev. Albert Chama, dean of Central Africa.

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2009/10/26/global-south-primates-respond-to-vatican-initiative

Regulate churches - religious leaders

Another troubling report about the church in Africa.

Kenya urgently requires laws to govern church operations, say clergymen.

They say the lack of regulations made it easier for the mushrooming of denominations for use by their founders as centres of corruption and avenues to quick riches. Father Vincent Wambugu, the secretary-general of the Catholic Church’s Kenya Episcopal Conference, says: “We are guided by certain rules right from the top to the grassroots. You just do not get someone diverting church money to personal coffers.” Since it is the faithful who contribute money to finance church projects, he says, they should question when things go wrong. “The faithful are cowed and never ask questions. Church leaders must be held accountable by members.”

Rest is here-

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/479054/-/tkykfd/-/

Lambeth Conference 'dominated by western bishops'

"Surprise surprise, Sergeant Carter", he said tipping his hat. Lambeth was dominated by the west. Well if the "Global South" decides not to show up what do you expect?

"The majority of African bishops boycotted the Lambeth Conference with 209 of the continent’s 324 diocesan bishops absent. As many African as American bishops attended Lambeth with the continent sending 127 bishops: 115 diocesan and 12 suffragan. Bishops from every Province but Uganda registered for the conference. Two Nigerians bishops took part. The Church of Nigeria had one registration: the Rt Rev Cyril Okorocha of Owerri. However, Bishop Okorocha pulled out of the meeting at the last minute after having faxed in a confirmation of his attendance on July 19. The second Nigerian bishop at Lambeth was a Roman Catholic archbishop, part of the seven-man team from the Vatican. One Rwandan bishop was present, and Kenya had 17 bishops registered. However, only five of the Kenyan bishops were present for Lambeth and one left after the bishops’ retreat."

http://www.religiousintelligence.com/news/?NewsID=2554