John Bingham, Religious Affairs Editor of the Telegraph claims Choice of new Archbishop a 'colonial' stitch-up. His article is subtitled: 'Tens of millions of Anglicans around world feel excluded by the “colonial” way the next Archbishop of Canterbury is being chosen, the leader of Church in Middle East and North Africa has said.'
In a rare intervention, Bishop Mouneer Anis of Egypt warned that many of the estimated 55 million Anglicans across Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Australasia and the Americans felt they had “no say” in the process of selecting a successor for Dr Rowan Williams.
He voiced fears that the selection committee, dominated by liberal-leaning British church leaders, would be unlikely to represent the traditionalist views of most Anglicans overseas.Dr Mouneer Anis is the Primate of the Anglican Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East. He is cited as saying,
As a result, their decision might only serve to further fracture the Worldwide Anglican Communion, which has been rivven with disputes over issues such as homosexuality in recent years.
But he added that the choice of the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, as Archbishop of Canterbury could help heal the divisions, because he understood and shared the theology of many in the “Global South”.
“Not one single person comes from elsewhere in the Anglican Communion except the Archbishop of Wales which is part of the United Kingdom … the selection of the new Archbishop is an expression of not really caring for the Anglican family.”Read more here
He added: “We still very much look to the Archbishop of Canterbury as the primus inter pares, the spiritual father of the Anglican Communion but the Anglican Communion has no say whatsoever.
“It is giving the impression that we don’t own it at all – it is all something somehow run from England.
“It would be acceptable in the 19th Century but not now.
“It is a colonial approach.”
