The
Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd and Rt. Hon. Dr. Rowan Williams took
over the leadership of the Anglican Communion in 2002 when it was a happy
family. Unfortunately, he is leaving behind a Communion in tatters: highly
polarized, bitterly factionalized, with issues of revisionist interpretation of
the Holy Scriptures and human sexuality as stumbling blocks to oneness,
evangelism and mission all around the Anglican world.
It might
not have been entirely his own making, but certainly “crucified under Pontius
Pilate”. The lowest ebb of this degeneration came in 2008, when there were, so
to say, two “Lambeth” Conferences one in the UK, and an alternative one, GAFCON
in Jerusalem. The trend continued recently when many Global South Primates
decided not to attend the last Primates’ meeting in Dublin, Ireland.
Since Dr.
Rowan Williams did not resign in 2008, over the split Lambeth Conference, one
would have expected him to stay on in office, and work assiduously to ‘mend the
net’ or repair the breach, before bowing out of office. The only attempt, the
covenant proposal, was doomed to fail from the start, as “two cannot walk
together unless they have agreed”.
For us,
the announcement does not present any opportunity for excitement. It is not
good news here, until whoever comes as the next leader pulls back the Communion
from the edge of total destruction. To this end, we commit our Church, the
Church of Nigeria, (Anglican Communion) to serious fasting and prayers that God
will do “a new thing”, in the Communion.
Nevertheless,
we join others to continue in prayer for Dr. Rowan Williams and his family for
a more fruitful endeavour in their post – Canterbury life.
+Nicholas D. Okoh
Archbishop,
Metropolitan and Primate of All Nigeria
Don't hold back, Abp. Okoh. Tell us what you really think.
The Nigerian bishops use the phrase, "two cannot walk together unless they have agreed," time and again to justify their decision to "walk apart" from the churches in the Anglican Communion with whom they do not agree. Is the quote from the prophet Amos in the KJV? Not really. The words that come closest to Abp. Okoh's quote are in the form of a question.
Amos 3:3-8
KJV
Can two walk together, except they be agreed?
I first heard of the phrase from
Abp Peter Akinola, who said, "
The Bible says that two cannot walk together unless they are agreed." The Bible says no such thing that I can find, therefore it appears that Abp Okoh quotes his predecessor, rather than the Bible, when he uses the words. The two other translations below wouldn't really make the case for
walking apart at all. Of course, people cannot walk together unless
they agree to walk together, but they do not have to agree about everything in order to walk together. I find the apparent misattribution of the words to the Scriptures annoying in the extreme. Besides, even the GAFCONites do not agree on
everything,
NRSV
Do two walk together
unless they have made an appointment?
NIV
Do two walk together
unless they have agreed to do so?
Abp Okoh's claim that the Anglican Communion was "a happy family" back in 2002 when Rowan Williams became Archbishop of Canterbury is absurd. The beginning of the end of the "
happy family" began at least as early as Lambeth 1998.
