Oklahoma -- not too far from Nigeria, after all . . .

[Tock]

Oklahoma -- it's not too far from Nigeria, after all . . .
Check out the two stories . . .
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061211/...f/nigeria_gays

Nigeria considers same-sex marriage ban

By KATHARINE HOURELD, Associated Press Writer
Mon Dec 11, 5:02 PM ET

LAGOS, Nigeria - Lawmakers in Nigeria are debating a bill that would ban same-sex marriage and any form of association among gays, even sharing a meal at a restaurant.

Few in Nigeria's deeply closeted gay community have publicly opposed the legislation, which proposes penalties of up to five years in prison and is widely expected to pass.

Engaging in homosexual acts is already illegal in Nigeria, with those convicted facing jail terms in the mainly Christian south and execution in the mainly Muslim north.

"This meeting, right here, would be illegal," said activist Bisi Alimi, stabbing the air with a French fry for emphasis as he sat at a table with three gay friends and a reporter.

Other activities prohibited under the proposed law include belonging to gay clubs or reading books, watching films or accessing Internet sites that "promote" homosexuality.

Alimi has been trying to drum up opposition to the legislation, but says Nigeria's gay community is too far underground and the subject too taboo.

The 27-year-old activist is one of few openly gay Nigerians, having been "outed" by a university newspaper three years ago. None of his companions have told their families of their sexual orientation. They asked to be identified only by their first names, citing the risk of arrest, beatings or even death.

"A few of my best friends know, but I don't have the courage to tell my parents," said Ipadeola, a 23-year-old medical student.
"I don't tell people because it is none of their business," said Mukajuloa, a 21-year-old beautician. "Do heterosexual men go around telling the world they are attracted to women?"

Haruna Yerima, a member of Nigeria's House of Representatives, said he supported the proposed ban. Social contact between gays should be limited, he said, because it might encourage behavior that was "against our culture ... against our religion."
Attitudes toward gays in Nigeria are typical of those across the continent. In neighboring Cameroon, Amnesty International says accusations of homosexuality and anti-gay laws have been used as a weapon against political opponents.

South Africa legalized gay marriages last month in fiercely debated legislation, making it the only country on the continent to do so. But the impetus was more a desire to stamp out all forms of discrimination in a reaction to apartheid than tolerance of gays, who are subject to prejudice and violence in South Africa.

The hostility in Nigeria means that there are very few gay or lesbian organizations. Oludare "Erelu" Odumuye — the nickname means "queen mother" in Yoruba — heads one, Alliance Rights.

"That bill would criminalize me if it was passed into law. It would criminalize my organization, it would criminalize my friends," he said.
Thousands of people use Alliance Rights for health services, to gather information or to meet, Odumuye says. To avoid harassment, the group has no membership list and its buildings are not in town centers or identified by signs.

Visitors find them through word-of-mouth, Odumuye said. To give an idea of their size, he says the group received more than 1,500 responses to a recent health survey among gay Nigerians.

Odumuye said the bill is aimed at pleasing the ruling party's political base — which includes powerful religious groups — ahead of April elections.

Akin Marinho, a Nigerian human rights lawyer, argued the bill's prohibitions are illegal under Nigeria's constitution and international treaty obligations. Not only does the legislation affect freedoms of speech and expression, but foreign companies could face lawsuits if gay or lesbian staff are unable to take up positions in Nigeria, he said.

Even some conservative religious leaders say the bill goes too far. Though Bishop Joseph Ojo, who presides over the congregation at the evangelical Calvary Kingdom Church, contends gay relationships are "foreign to Africans" and should be outlawed, he adds that gays should "have freedom of speech and expression."

Nigerians have been publicly flogged or beaten severely in prison after being charged with homosexuality.
"There is a lot of ignorance, and that is why people are afraid," Alimi said. "We are not willing to come out and say, "Yes, I am gay. Here I am. I am human, too.'"





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http://www.oklahoman.net/article/2985001

Two attacks raise alarm within Ada's gay community

Police seek the FBI's help in the face of accusations they have been indifferent

By Julie Bisbee
Staff Writer

ADA — Police asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation to help investigate a possible hate crime after two women in Pontotoc County claimed they were attacked because of their sexual orientation.

The attacks have troubled members of the local gay community, who say law enforcement officials haven't taken the attacks seriously. In one incident, "lesbian” was carved into a woman's left forearm. In another incident, a woman said she was blindfolded and bound to a tree. "Hellbound” was written deeply in pen across her chest. Members of the Gay-Straight Alliance, a community organization based at East Central University, rallied Tuesday, hoping to raise awareness of attacks on members of the gay community.

About 20 people stood on a street corner holding signs as people drove by either honking or yelling insults.

"We just want the students to come together and stand up as a group,” said Christine Pappas, an assistant professor of political science at East Central and adviser to the Gay-Straight Alliance. "This is clearly targeting gay people, leaving messages carved into their bodies. It's just very disturbing.”

Sarah Kaspereit, 20, said she was coming home from work when two men jumped out of a black truck, threw her down and carved "lesbian” into her left forearm, according to an account she gave police.

"We just want to raise awareness that stuff like this is going on in small towns,” said Kaspereit, who is still on crutches from injuries suffered in the Dec. 4 attack. "There are sick people out there who would do this to a human being. Sexual preference aside, we are still human.”

Ada police still are investigating the attack, said Mark Bratcher, spokesman for the department.
"We've also called in the FBI. They have more knowledge about these kinds of things, since they have a hate crimes unit,” he said. "We're treating it very seriously.”

FBI spokesman Gary Johnson said the bureau was aware of the incident and was evaluating it.

Police have interviewed Kaspereit's neighbors who say they didn't notice anything out of the ordinary Dec. 4. One neighbor told police his front windows were open the night of the attack and he "didn't see or hear anything.”

"A lot of people don't think the stories add up,” said Kaspereit. "It hurts that people think this would be a scam that we would be making this up. It's not made up. It really happened. If they want to live life in my shoes and experience the nightmares I have, they are more than welcome to.”

Kaspereit is the second woman in a month to claim to be targeted because of her sexual orientation.
Brenda Johnson said she woke up blindfolded and tied to a tree after being attacked Nov. 28. Johnson, 20, said she had taken a walk into the woods near her rural Pontotoc County home and was reading when she was hit from behind and knocked out.

"I just thought I'd take a walk; it was the last nice day before it got cold,” Johnson said.

When she awoke, Johnson said, she had been tied up with her undershirt and "hellbound” was written on her chest. She said she was able to reach her cell phone and call a friend, the first number that came up. Her friend called Johnson's mother, who came and untied her and took her to the hospital.

"I was sitting there reading. It was windy. I didn't really hear anything, I figured it was the leaves,” Johnson said. "I don't even flaunt my sexuality. I don't have any enemies that I know of.”

Johnson, who hasn't filed a report with police, said the incident wasn't taken seriously when she went to the hospital and later law enforcement seemed uninterested in her story.

"I might have filed a report if I had been treated better,” Johnson said.

Pappas said attacks on members of the gay community in Ada have been rare, and young men are mostly targeted.

"We've been a lot more confrontational in the past,” Pappas said. "We've staged a mock wedding on campus and nothing happened. I really thought things were looking good. This is the worst thing that's ever happened.

[Logan13]

Oklahoma -- it's not too far from Nigeria, after all . . .
Check out the two stories . . .
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061211/...f/nigeria_gays

Nigeria considers same-sex marriage ban

By KATHARINE HOURELD, Associated Press Writer
Mon Dec 11, 5:02 PM ET

LAGOS, Nigeria - Lawmakers in Nigeria are debating a bill that would ban same-sex marriage and any form of association among gays, even sharing a meal at a restaurant.

Few in Nigeria's deeply closeted gay community have publicly opposed the legislation, which proposes penalties of up to five years in prison and is widely expected to pass.

Engaging in homosexual acts is already illegal in Nigeria, with those convicted facing jail terms in the mainly Christian south and execution in the mainly Muslim north.

"This meeting, right here, would be illegal," said activist Bisi Alimi, stabbing the air with a French fry for emphasis as he sat at a table with three gay friends and a reporter.

Other activities prohibited under the proposed law include belonging to gay clubs or reading books, watching films or accessing Internet sites that "promote" homosexuality.

Alimi has been trying to drum up opposition to the legislation, but says Nigeria's gay community is too far underground and the subject too taboo.

The 27-year-old activist is one of few openly gay Nigerians, having been "outed" by a university newspaper three years ago. None of his companions have told their families of their sexual orientation. They asked to be identified only by their first names, citing the risk of arrest, beatings or even death.

"A few of my best friends know, but I don't have the courage to tell my parents," said Ipadeola, a 23-year-old medical student.
"I don't tell people because it is none of their business," said Mukajuloa, a 21-year-old beautician. "Do heterosexual men go around telling the world they are attracted to women?"

Haruna Yerima, a member of Nigeria's House of Representatives, said he supported the proposed ban. Social contact between gays should be limited, he said, because it might encourage behavior that was "against our culture ... against our religion."
Attitudes toward gays in Nigeria are typical of those across the continent. In neighboring Cameroon, Amnesty International says accusations of homosexuality and anti-gay laws have been used as a weapon against political opponents.

South Africa legalized gay marriages last month in fiercely debated legislation, making it the only country on the continent to do so. But the impetus was more a desire to stamp out all forms of discrimination in a reaction to apartheid than tolerance of gays, who are subject to prejudice and violence in South Africa.

The hostility in Nigeria means that there are very few gay or lesbian organizations. Oludare "Erelu" Odumuye — the nickname means "queen mother" in Yoruba — heads one, Alliance Rights.

"That bill would criminalize me if it was passed into law. It would criminalize my organization, it would criminalize my friends," he said.
Thousands of people use Alliance Rights for health services, to gather information or to meet, Odumuye says. To avoid harassment, the group has no membership list and its buildings are not in town centers or identified by signs.

Visitors find them through word-of-mouth, Odumuye said. To give an idea of their size, he says the group received more than 1,500 responses to a recent health survey among gay Nigerians.

Odumuye said the bill is aimed at pleasing the ruling party's political base — which includes powerful religious groups — ahead of April elections.

Akin Marinho, a Nigerian human rights lawyer, argued the bill's prohibitions are illegal under Nigeria's constitution and international treaty obligations. Not only does the legislation affect freedoms of speech and expression, but foreign companies could face lawsuits if gay or lesbian staff are unable to take up positions in Nigeria, he said.

Even some conservative religious leaders say the bill goes too far. Though Bishop Joseph Ojo, who presides over the congregation at the evangelical Calvary Kingdom Church, contends gay relationships are "foreign to Africans" and should be outlawed, he adds that gays should "have freedom of speech and expression."

Nigerians have been publicly flogged or beaten severely in prison after being charged with homosexuality.
"There is a lot of ignorance, and that is why people are afraid," Alimi said. "We are not willing to come out and say, "Yes, I am gay. Here I am. I am human, too.'"

wow!

[Tock]

Oddly enough, Nigeria's Episcopal Church is supporting the law which would jail gay people for 5 years if they so much as appear in public together. Then all the $$$ collected from those congregations would filter up to his bank account . . .

And, as you may know, the Episcopal Church in the US has been nearing a split, mostly over liberal-conservative differences over homosexuality and abortion. Sniffing opportunity, the head of Nigeria's Episcopal Church has set up a mission in the USA should Conservative US Christians vote to leave the US Episcopal church, so that they can join the Nigerian mission, and become subject to the Nigerian Episcopal Bishop who has vigorously advocated prison sentences for gay people.

Pretty weird, IMHO . . .

I think there are 6 Episcopal congregations in Virginia that are voting to leave the US church and join the Nigerian one, right now. I understand the Bishop of the Fort Worth US Episcopal church wants to leave the US church and join the Nigerian one, as well . . .

Isn't Nigeria basically a rats-nest of corruption and spammers? And now this . . .

Sheesh . . .

[Tock]

Here's the deal with the anti-gay Nigerian Episcopalians and some US churches . . .


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/17/us...syahoo&emc=rss

Episcopalians Are Reaching Point of Revolt

For about 30 years, the Episcopal Church has been one big unhappy family. Under one roof there were female bishops and male bishops who would not ordain women. There were parishes that celebrated gay weddings and parishes that denounced them; theologians sure that Jesus was the only route to salvation, and theologians who disagreed.

Now, after years of threats, the family is breaking up.

As many as eight conservative Episcopal churches in Virginia are expected to announce today that their parishioners have voted to cut their ties with the Episcopal Church. Two are large, historic congregations that minister to the Washington elite and occupy real estate worth a combined $27 million, which could result in a legal battle over who keeps the property.

In a twist, these wealthy American congregations are essentially putting themselves up for adoption by Anglican archbishops in poorer dioceses in Africa, Asia and Latin America who share conservative theological views about homosexuality and the interpretation of Scripture with the breakaway Americans.

“The Episcopalian ship is in trouble,” said the Rev. John Yates, rector of The Falls Church, one of the two large Virginia congregations, where George Washington served on the vestry. “So we’re climbing over the rails down to various little lifeboats. There’s a lifeboat from Bolivia, one from Rwanda, another from Nigeria. Their desire is to help us build a new ship in North America, and design it and get it sailing.”

Together, these Americans and their overseas allies say they intend to form a new American branch that would rival or even supplant the Episcopal Church in the worldwide Anglican Communion, a confederation of national churches that trace their roots to the Church of England and the archbishop of Canterbury.

The archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, is now struggling to hold the communion together while facing a revolt on many fronts from emboldened conservatives. Last week, conservative priests in the Church of England warned him that they would depart if he did not allow them to sidestep liberal bishops and report instead to sympathetic conservatives.

In Virginia, the two large churches are voting on whether they want to report to the powerful archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola, an outspoken opponent of homosexuality who supports legislation in his country that would make it illegal for gay men and lesbians to form organizations, read gay literature or eat together in a restaurant. Archbishop Akinola presides over the largest province in the 77-million-member Anglican Communion; it has more than 17 million members, dwarfing the Episcopal Church, with 2.3 million.

If all eight Virginia churches vote to separate, the Diocese of Virginia, the largest Episcopal diocese in the country, will lose about 10 percent of its 90,000 members. In addition, four churches in Virginia have already voted to secede, and two more are expected to vote soon, said Patrick N. Getlein, secretary of the diocese.

Two weeks ago, the entire diocese in San Joaquin, Calif., voted to sever its ties with the Episcopal Church, a decision it would have to confirm in a second vote next year. Six or more American dioceses say they are considering such a move.

In the last three years, since the Episcopal Church consecrated V. Gene Robinson, a gay man who lives with his partner, as bishop of New Hampshire, about three dozen American churches have voted to secede and affiliate with provinces overseas, according to The Episcopal News Service.

However, the secession effort in Virginia is being closely watched by Anglicans around the world because so many churches are poised to depart simultaneously. Virginia has become a central stage, both for those pushing for secession and for those trying to prevent it.

The Diocese of Virginia is led by Bishop Peter James Lee, the longest-serving Episcopal bishop and a centrist who, both sides agree, has been gracious to the disaffected churches and worked to keep them in the fold.

Bishop Lee has made concessions other bishops would not. He has allowed the churches to keep their seats in diocesan councils, even though they stopped contributing to the diocesan budget in protest. When some of the churches refused to have Bishop Lee perform confirmations in their parishes, he flew in the former archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. George Carey, a conservative evangelical, to take his place.

“Our Anglican tradition has always been a very large tent in which people with different theological emphases can live together,” Bishop Lee said in a telephone interview. “I’m very sorry some in these churches feel that this is no longer the case for them. It certainly is their choice and their decision. No one is forcing them to do this.”

The Diocese of Virginia is also home to the Rev. Martyn Minns, a main organizer in the global effort by conservative Anglicans to ostracize the Episcopal Church. Mr. Minns is the priest in charge of Truro Church, the second of the two historic Virginia parishes now voting on secession.

Anglican rules and traditions prohibit bishops from crossing geographical boundaries to take control of churches or priests not in their territory. So Archbishop Akinola and his American allies have tried to bypass that by establishing a branch of the Nigerian church in the United States, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America. Archbishop Akinola has appointed Mr. Minns as his key “missionary bishop” to spread the gospel to Americans on his behalf.

Mr. Minns and other advocates of secession have suggested to the voters that the convocation arrangement has the blessing of the Anglican hierarchy. But on Friday, the Anglican Communion office in London issued a terse statement saying the convocation had not been granted “any official status within the communion’s structures, nor has the archbishop of Canterbury indicated any support for its establishment.”

The voting in Virginia, however, was already well under way, with ballot boxes open for a week starting last Sunday. Church leaders say they need 70 percent of the voters to approve the secession for it to take effect.

If the vote is to secede, the churches and the diocese will fight to keep ownership of Truro Church, in Fairfax, and The Falls Church, in Falls Church, Va., a city named for the church.

Henry D. W. Burt, a member of the standing committee of the Virginia Diocese, grew up in The Falls Church and recently urged members not to secede. He said in an interview: “We’re not talking about Class A office space in Arlington, Va. We’re talking about sacred ground.”

Neither side says it wants to go to court over control of the church property, but both say the law is on their side.

At one of the four Virginia parishes that has already voted to secede, All Saints Church in Dale City, the tally was 402 to 6. But that church had already negotiated a settlement to rent its property from the diocese for $1 each year until it builds another church.

The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, said in an e-mail response to a request for an interview that such splits reflect a polarized society, as well as the “anxiety” and “discomfort” that many people feel when they are asked to live with diversity.

“The quick fix embraced in drawing lines or in departing is not going to be an ultimate solution for our discomfort,” she said.

Soon, Bishop Jefferts Schori herself will become the issue. Archbishop Akinola and some other leaders of provinces in developing countries have said they will boycott their primates’ meeting in Tanzania in February unless the archbishop of Canterbury sends a second representative for the American conservatives.

“It’s a huge amount of mess,” said the Rev. Dr. Kendall Harmon, canon theologian of the Diocese of South Carolina, who is aligned with the conservatives. “As these two sides fight, a lot of people in the middle of the Episcopal Church are exhausted and trying to hide, and you can’t. When you’re in a family and the two sides are fighting, it affects everybody.”

[Tock]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/25/wo...syahoo&emc=rss

ABUJA, Nigeria, Dec. 20 —
The way he tells the story, the first and only time Archbishop Peter J. Akinola knowingly shook a gay person’s hand, he sprang backward the moment he realized what he had done.

Archbishop Akinola, the conservative leader of Nigeria’s Anglican Church who has emerged at the center of a schism over homosexuality in the global Anglican Communion, re-enacted the scene from behind his desk Tuesday, shaking his head in wonder and horror.

“This man came up to me after a service, in New York I think, and said, ‘Oh, good to see you bishop, this is my partner of many years,’ ” he recalled. “I said, ‘Oh!’ I jumped back.”

Archbishop Akinola, a man whose international reputation has largely been built on his tough stance against homosexuality, has become the spiritual head of 21 conservative churches in the United States. They opted to leave the Episcopal Church over its decision to consecrate an openly gay bishop and allow churches to bless same-sex unions. Among the eight Virginia churches to announce they had joined the archbishop’s fold last week are The Falls Church and Truro Church, two large, historic and wealthy parishes.

In a move attacked by some church leaders as a violation of geographical boundaries, Archbishop Akinola has created an offshoot of his Nigerian church in North America for the discontented Americans. In doing so, he has made himself the kingpin of a remarkable alliance between theological conservatives in North America and the developing world that could tip the power to conservatives in the Anglican Communion, a 77-million member confederation of national churches that trace their roots to the Church of England and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

“He sees himself as the spokesperson for a new Anglicanism, and thus is a direct challenge to the historic authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury,” said the Rev. Dr. Ian T. Douglas of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass.

The 62-year-old son of an illiterate widow, Archbishop Akinola now heads not only Nigeria — the most populous province, or region, in the Anglican Communion, with at least 17 million members — but also the organizations representing the leaders of Anglican provinces in Africa and the developing world. He has also become the most visible advocate for a literal interpretation of Scripture, challenging the traditional Anglican approach of embracing diverse theological viewpoints.

“Why didn’t God make a lion to be a man’s companion?” Archbishop Akinola said at his office here in Abuja. “Why didn’t he make a tree to be a man’s companion? Or better still, why didn’t he make another man to be man’s companion? So even from the creation story, you can see that the mind of God, God’s intention, is for man and woman to be together.”

Archbishop Akinola’s views on homosexuality — that it is an abomination akin to bestiality and pedophilia — are fairly mainstream here. Nigeria is a deeply religious country, evenly divided between Christians and Muslims, and attitudes toward homosexuality, women’s rights and marriage are dictated largely by scripture and enforced by deep social taboos.

Archbishop Akinola spoke forcefully about his unswerving convictions against homosexuality, the ordination of women and the rise of what he called “the liberal agenda,” which he said had “infiltrated our seminaries” in the Anglican Communion.

This view emanating from the developing world is hardly unique to the Anglican church. More and more, churches of many denominations in what many Christian leaders call the “global south,” encompassing Latin America, Africa and parts of Asia, which share these views, are surging as church attendance lags in developed countries.

Bishop Martyn Minns, the rector of Truro Church in Fairfax, Va., who was consecrated by Archbishop Akinola this year to serve as his missionary bishop in North America, said Archbishop Akinola was motivated by a conviction that the Anglican Communion must change its colonial-era leadership structure and mentality.

“He doesn’t want to be the man; he just no longer wants to be the boy,” Bishop Minns said. “He wants to be treated as an equal leader, with equal respect.”

Even among Anglican conservatives, Archbishop Akinola is not universally beloved. In November 2005, he published a letter purporting to be from the leaders, known as primates, of provinces in the global south. It called Europe a “spiritual desert” and criticized the Church of England. Three of the bishops who supposedly signed it later denied adding their names. Some bishops in southern Africa have also challenged his fixation with homosexuality, when AIDS and poverty are a crisis for the continent.

He has been chastised more recently for creating a missionary branch of the Nigerian church in the United States, called the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, despite Anglican rules and traditions prohibiting bishops from taking control of churches or priests not in their territory.

“There are primates who are very, very concerned about it,” said Archbishop Drexel Gomez, the primate of the West Indies, because “it introduces more fragmentation.”

Other conservative American churches that have split from the Episcopal Church, the American branch of the Anglican Communion, have aligned themselves with other archbishops, in Rwanda, Uganda and several provinces in Latin America — often because they already had ties to these provinces through mission work.

Archbishop Gomez said he understood Archbishop Akinola’s actions because the American conservatives felt an urgent need to leave the Episcopal Church and were unwilling to wait for a new covenant being written for the Anglican Communion. The new covenant is a lengthy and uncertain process led by Archbishop Gomez that some conservatives hope will eventually end the impasse over homosexuality.

One of Archbishop Akinola’s principal arguments, often heard from other conservatives as well, is that Christianity in Nigeria, a country where religious violence has killed tens of thousands in the past decade, must guard its flank lest Islam overtake it. “The church is in the midst of Islam,” he said. “Should the church in this country begin to teach that it is appropriate, that it is right to have same sex unions and all that, the church will simply die.”

He supports a bill in Nigeria’s legislature that would make homosexual sex and any public expression of homosexual identity a crime punishable by five years in prison.

The bill ostensibly aims to ban gay marriage, but it includes measures so extreme that the State Department warned that they would violate basic human rights. Strictly interpreted, the bill would ban two gay people from going out to dinner or seeing a movie together.

It could also lead to the arrest and imprisonment of members of organizations providing all manner of services, particularly those helping people with AIDS.

“They are very loose, those provisions,” said Dorothy Aken ’Ova of the International Center for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, a charity that works with rape victims, AIDS patients and gay rights groups. “It could target just about anyone, based on any form of perception from anybody.”

Archbishop Akinola said he supported any law that limited marriage to heterosexuals, but declined to say whether he supported the specific provisions criminalizing gay associations. “No bishop in this church will go out and say, ‘This man is gay, put him in jail,’ ” the archbishop said. But, he added, Nigeria has the right to pass such a law if it reflects the country’s values.

“Does Nigeria tell America what laws to make?” he said. “Does Nigeria tell England what laws to make? This arrogance, this imperial tendency, should stop for God’s sake.”

Though he insisted that he was not seeking power or influence, he is clearly relishing the curious role reversal of African archbishops sending missionaries to a Western society he sees as increasingly godless.

Asked whether his installing a bishop in the United States violated the church’s longstanding rules, he responded heatedly that he was simply doing what Western churches had done for centuries, sending a bishop to serve Anglicans where there is no church to provide one.

Archbishop Akinola argues that the Convocation, his group in the United States, was established last year to serve Nigerian Anglicans unhappy with the direction of the Episcopal Church, and eventually began to attract non-Nigerians who shared their views. Other church officials and experts say Archbishop Akinola’s intention for the Convocation was to attract Americans and become a rival to the Episcopal Church.

“Self-seeking, self-glory, that is not me,” he said. “No. Many people say I embarrass them with my humility.”

Anyone who criticizes him as power-seeking is simply trying to undermine his message, he said. “The more they demonize, the stronger the works of God,” he said.