Sunday, June 17, 2007

Anglican Kenyans name U.S. bishop

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20070615-115455-7335r.htm

[The Washington Times] 17 June 2007--The Anglican Province of Kenya has appointed its own bishop to oversee about 30 churches in the United States -- the third such effort by conservative African bishops to carve out pieces of the U.S. Episcopal Church.

Canon Bill Atwood, 57, of Carollton, Texas, will be consecrated a suffragan bishop at All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi on Aug. 30, joining several other American bishops overseeing former Episcopal parishes now affiliated with the Anglican provinces of Rwanda and Nigeria.

"We are just working as rescuers," Kenyan Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi said yesterday, referring to conservatives distressed by liberal trends in the Episcopal Church. "We needed someone there [in America] who understands their culture. I am not there for name and fame and to build myself."

About 10 of the 30 congregations were immigrant groups overseen by a group of Kenyan bishops and never affiliated with the Episcopal Church. The other 20 congregations were mainly Caucasians who left the denomination over disagreements on biblical authority and the denomination's 2003 consecration of openly homosexual New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson.

The churches, together with 37 belonging to the Nigerian-affiliated Convocation of Anglicans in America and 116 under the Rwanda-connected Anglican Mission in America, constitute at least 183 houses of worship under African leadership. Several Ugandan bishops also oversee former Episcopal churches.

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