Princes of the Church Over Us All

...at least in our air space flying first class.

Madpriest has a scoop about African Bishops flying to the Global South Bash in Singapore in first class seats paid for by American right-wing funders. He found this news on an African Anglican blogsite.

Albert Chama, who is now in Singapore, is accompanied by Bishops William Mchama of Eastern Zambia and Godfrey Tawonzi of Masvingo, Zimbabwe, also with travelling them is the Rev’d Christopher Mwawa of Malawi. The cost of first class flights and accommodation for the four of them amounts to the value of approximately a whole year’s pay for all the currently unpaid priests in Zimbabwe and Lake Malawi! Pictures of the bishops in all their glory fronting the magnificent St Andrew’s Cathedral in Singapore are available on our blogsites.

It is not clear where the monies have come from to support this venture but they are assumed to be from conservative and schismatic North American Anglicans? These are currently pursuing a fissiparous agenda in their battle against the American Episcopal Church and a disruptive and schismatic programme in the Anglican Communion.

Neither is it clear where Albert Chama’s authority to attend on behalf of the Central African Province has come from? By agreeing to attend the Conference in Singapore Albert Chama has allowed the Province to be counted as supportive of the schismatic movement. This has happened with neither Provincial synodical approval nor support from the other bishops.

Understandably, voices of dismay and anger are now being raised against the acting Dean for the profligate waste of money that could have been so much better spent.

Ironically, the new letter from the Diocesan Secretary of Lake Malawi once again asks donors for desperately needed money for the Diocese and gives banking details for transfers. Thanks to acting Dean Chama’s unwise junketing trip in South East Asia support and donations, which come largely from the U.K. and the U.S.A. and from the very churches which the Global South Conference has been called to condemn, are likely to be in short supply.

The hard-working clergy of Zimbabwe and Lake Malawi will need to go on scratching a living from their smallholdings in order to survive.

I suppose we should be grateful that the princes of the Church are not taxing the peasants mercilessly. However it seems that the peasants are very unhappy with their prince.

As far as I'm concerned, this is the whole Anglican schism in a nutshell, a princely coup. It is a bishop-driven war on an increasingly independent and assertive laity. Hostility to gays and women is a pretext, a flag for the threatened bishop boys' club to rally around. The Episcopal Church with its 200 year old democratic polity represents the biggest threat. It attracts global anti-American resentment making it an easy target. So now these princes of the Church are traveling in style (funded by wealthy right wing Americans determined to destroy the Episcopal Church) to Singapore to consider how to expel the North Americans for being themselves.

Frankly I don't think the rest of the Anglican Communion will bite. I think expelling the Episcopal Church and the Canadians would be more trouble than it's worth causing splits in other churches (like the Church of England perhaps). Much as some churches may resent American money from the Episcopal Church, they relish even less being tied to the strings that come from the right wing oligarchy funding ACNA and its international efforts. A large part of the Episcopal money comes from collection plates. The larger part of ACNA's money comes from a handful of checkbooks.

And of course there's not one penny for the defense of Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimalanga in Malawi as they face long prison sentences for daring to marry.