Cairo rips Canterbury selection of Egyptian to archbishop’s Task Group
by George Conger, Anglican Ink:
The Archbishop of Egypt has greeted the news of the appointment of the Dean of Alexandria to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Task Group with some small concern. The Most Rev. Mouneer Anis has told members of his leadership team that he very much doubts the Very Rev. Sammy Shehata will be part of the task group.
He characterized the selection of the Dean of St Mark’s Cathedral in Alexandria as a “game and a deceit” — remarks that have underscored the growing chasm between the Archbishop of Canterbury and the staff of the Anglican Consultative Council and the Global South and GAFCON primates.
Formed by the Archbishop of Canterbury to monitor compliance by the US Episcopal Church with the church’s teachings on human sexuality in response to the requests of the primates at their January 2016 gathering in Canterbury, the Task Group quickly was discredited in the eyes of many of the primates by the exclusion of GAFCON from the group and the appointment of the Primate of the Episcopal Church and the Bishop of Huron to the group. The appointment of a Kenyan representative to the group was done without the consultation of the Kenyan church, and was seen as a deliberate slight by Archbishop Justin Welby to the African Church.
The situation further deteriorated with statements by the outgoing chairman of the Anglican Consultative Council to an American audience that the primates had no authority outside their own gathering, and by the empowerment of corrupt elements of the African church by the secretary general of the Anglican Consultative Council.
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