Signs of Tension at the Primates Meeting

Pictured above is Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, a very controversial figure in the Anglican Communion recently. At the Anglican Primates meeting now going on in Tanzania, he and six other self-designated "Global South" archbishops refused to receive Holy Communion with their fellow Primates (on Friday February 16).

The seven gave as their reason that they were "unable to come to the Holy Table with the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church because to do so would be a violation of Scriptural teaching and the traditional Anglican understanding."

The Episcopal News Service also reports the following: "Throughout the day, Akinola was seen moving between the Primates' enclave and the area of the White Sands Hotel where the media are housed to join consultations with Bishop Martin Minns of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), a conservative mission of the Nigerian Anglican Church." Minns works here in Northern Virginia, not far from VTS, and the formation of CANA has caused particular stress and grief in this corner of Anglicanism.