Curiouser and curiouser out of Kenya in the past few days. A few days ago a letter dated April 4 appeared on the Anglican Church of Kenya website. (It has since been taken down: it is available here.) In that letter, signed by Archbishop Wabukala, he explains that he has reversed his own decision that Kenya would not send its delegation of the Anglican Consultative Council 16 in Lusaka.
Yesterday we reported the Archbishop’s displeasure that the Kenyan delegation to ACC 16 was going, contrary to his orders to the delegation.
It is charged that the letter of April 4th is fraudulent.
It is unusual for letters from Wabukala to appear on the Church of Kenya website without a lag. Usually they appear at the Gafcon site (he is chairman of Gafcon) or at conservative websites like Anglican Ink.
Addendum. The Archbishop of Canterbury, present at ACC16, makes clear in an address that the primates have no authority to sanction. ACNS reports ,
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has this afternoon briefed members of the Anglican Consultative Council, meeting at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Lusaka, Zambia, on the outcome of the Primates’ gathering and meeting that took place in Canterbury Cathedral in January. This is the text of his address.
The text of a speech by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby to the members of the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Holy Cross Cathedral, Lusaka, Zambia
8 April 2016…
Like all the Instruments of Communion, whether the ACC, the Archbishop of Canterbury (for I am not a human being, I am an Instrument of Communion and for that matter a focus of unity) or the Lambeth Conference, the Primates’ meeting has no legal authority over Provinces. Any kind of synodical control of that kind has been rejected since the first Lambeth Conference. Neither can any one instrument legally bind another Instrument.
…
“The unanimous (note that, unanimous) decision of the Primates (there was only one absent by choice, there were two others absent, one through family bereavement and one through illness) … The unanimous decision of the Primates was to walk together, however painful this is, and despite our differences, as a deep expression of our unity in the body of Christ.”
Given this commitment to their unity, it is inaccurate always to speak of suspension and expulsion, or sanction….
And yet the (allegedly fraudalent?) letter of April 4 from the Archbishop of Kenya speaks of “conforming with TEC’s suspension.”
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I find these extraordinary claims made by George Conger of some plot and an unsubstantiated accusation of fraud against a serving Kenyan bishop contravenes every ethic of journalism I was taught to follow.
But the letter from the Kenyan Archbishop dated 6th April says he had personally appealed to the Kenyan delegation, he spoke to them personally, and they refused his request/instruction to remain. So it seems rather odd to me that a supposedly fraudulent document dated the day before his letter had any influence on the situation.
The timings just don’t make sense.
If the Primates unanimously agreed to walk together, then why have 4 provinces–count them: Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, and Egypt–announced that they are boycotting ACC-16?
Can anyone tell me if the supposedly fraudulent posting we see is a cached copy?
I’m just interested to know if there is evidence this actually appeared on the Internet.
If you follow the link you will we’re linking to a copy at Titus1:9. They in turn say the letter was on the Church of Kenya website. That does not answer your question which a good one — if we determine a cached copy exists then we know it was on the Kenyan website at one time. But that would still not tell us who put it there — Wabakula is saying it wasn’t him and couldn’t be because he didn’t write the letter.