4 July 2008
Lagos — Archbishop Peter Akinola, Primate, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), said yesterday that refusal by Jordanian officials to allow him entry into Amman a fortnight ago was satanic and was aimed at scuttling a major Anglican conference.
He, however, said Nigerian bishops would not be at the Lambeth Conference, which begins this month.
Lambeth Conference is a once-a-decade meeting for all bishops in the world, usually held in London, under the chair of the Archbishop of Canterbury (ABC).
On June 18, Akinola, traveling with his diplomatic passport, was barred from Jordan where he was meant to play a key role in a pre-conference meeting of leaders of Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON).
His denial of entry into Jordan led organisers of the meeting to hurriedly depart Amman, the Jordan capital, to Jerusalem, three days ahead of the main GAFCON meeting.
"No matter the humiliation I suffered, I took it as a body lotion, rubbed it all over my body, so that I can shine for Christ,"Akinola said in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
"Categorically we are not going to Lambeth. What we have heard at the just-concluded Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) is a million and one conference," Akinola told the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja.
GAFCON emerged in response to a crisis within the Anglican Communion, brought about by divisions on biblical teachings on holy matrimony and homosexuality.
Akinola described GAFCON as a huge achievement, citing a statement from the meeting and the Jerusalem declaration, which charts a major re-alignment in the more than 400 years old Anglican Communion.
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