Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola's Anglican coup continues.

A Nigerian source confirms that the homophobic troublemaker plans on ordaining a so-called "flying bishop" before next year's Lambeth Conference - the international Anglican Communion's international meet and greet.

Describing Akinola's scheme as common knowledge, the anonymous tipster squealed, "It is possible that Archbishop Peter Akinola will have somebody appointed by the next Lambeth Conference in July 2008." Akinola's been taking on the Church of England, which heads the Anglican Communion, ever since openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson's 2003 ascension as New Hampshire's highest Episcopal official.

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Peter Akinola will not budge when it comes to his homo-hating. The Nigerian Archbishop and his conservative allies may boycott next year's Lambeth Conference unless the American Episcopals change their gay loving ways.

He tells The Times:

The condition for having communion together is for [the Episcopal Church of the United States] to return to where we were by giving up its agenda. The problem is [the US Church’s] and the Western Church’s way of seeing and handling Scripture. Gene Robinson is just a symptom. I kept on saying, you do not have to go through Canterbury to get to Christ.

Akinola's referring to Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion. Williams recentl announced that New Hampshire-based Bishop Gene Robinson, who is gay, can attend next year's conference. Martyn Minns, who leads one of Akinola's American colonies, has not been invited.

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Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams remains "hopeful" the International Communion can survive their protracted culture wars, he says in Time's new issue, which hits streets on Friday.

As we all know, the Anglicans have been duking it out over the ever-contentious place of the queer. Tensions have become increasingly thick since the 2004 ascension of New Hampshire Bishop and professed gay, Gene Robinson's. Robinson's religious rise led Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola and his conservative comrades to take on the American Anglican branch, The Episcopal Church.

Akinola's gone so far as to defy Anglican laws to lure a number of American churches to the dark side. The holy war's led some people to wonder if the Anglicans can survive. While Williams acknowledges these are difficult times, he's confident they'll survive:

I don't think schism is inevitable. The task I've got is to try and maintain as long as possible the space in which people can have constructive disagreements, learn from each other, and try and hold that within an agreed framework of discipline and practice… I'm hopeful.

He went on to describe "hopeful" as a "safer" word than "optimistic". Safer, huh? How about "desperate"?

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Another one bites the dust. Or, rather, another one deals with the devil.

Trinity Episcopal Church of Bristol, Connecticut has aligned itself with Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola and his homo-hating Anglican offshoot, Convocation of Anglicans in North America.

Akinola founded the movement to counteract the Episcopal Church's increasingly inclusive - and thus "alarmingly" progressive - stance on gays, especially openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson's 2003 ascension in New Hampshire.

In a statement following the split, Trinity's rector, Rev. Donald Helmandollar, echoed Akinola's conservative views:

We have remained with the Anglican Communion. The Episcopal Church has demonstrated, continues to demonstrate, that they are walking apart from the communion.

Helmandollar's church now joins a number of Virginia churches who have gone over to the dark side, exasperating the Anglican schism.

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Mankind may have originated on the African continent, but homophobia certainly didn't. That's what South African gay activist Nonhlanhla Mkhize said in a statement commemorating International Day Against Homophobia.

Mkhize definitely has a point. The idea of homosexuality came from the West, a special colonial social import. So, too, are declarations of homosexuality's sinfulness and, thus, homophobia. Indigenous or not, homo-hating sure did stick…

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Nigeria Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola's tightening his grip on America's soul. The virulent homophobe will pay Woodbridge, Virginia a little visit to appoint former Episcopal clergyman Martyn Minns as the leader of Akinola's Convocation of Anglicans in North America.

Born from the never-ending gay debate, Akinola's Nigeria-based Convocation aims to recruit conservative Americans into his Bible-thumping fold. American Episcopal leader Katharine Jefferts Schori has pleaded with Akinola to back off her territory, but it seems Akinola's hellbent on a bit of religious colonization. Akinola replied by saying that the CANA will:

provide a safe place for those who wish to remain faithful Anglicans but can no longer do so within the Episcopal Church as it is currently being led.

Holy bitchiness!

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Some Nigerian activists may be busy battling Outrage!, but pro-gay peer and director of Changing Attitude Nigeria, Davis Mac-Iyalla has been busy running from death threats.

Mac-Iyalla's made quite a few enemies in recent weeks, particularly after he traveled to Tanzania to plead with homophobic Archbishop Peter Akinola to include gays in the Anglican Communion.

Now a few shady seeming individuals showed up at his work looking to have some words, while another called his unlisted number to offer a little telephonic threat. The intimidation, Mac-Iyalla and others claim, comes straight from anti-gay rivals and Akinola-supporters, the Church of Nigeria. Fearing for his life, Mac-Iyalla's gone into hiding.

This isn't the first time Mac-Iyalla's garnered such warnings: he got a batch back in January. While certainly a shame that Mac-Iyalla's living in fear, at least he knows he's got the homophobe's attention.

America's Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori (aka Bad Ass Bible Babe) will not be intimidated.

She's down in Tanzania, where international Anglican leaders have congregated to duke it out over the role of gays in the 77 million strong church. Conservatives, such as the ever lovable Archbishop Peter Akinola, says there's no place for the homos but hell. More - shudder - liberal scrupulous skippers, meanwhile believe in the sanctity of homosexuality. Schori, of course, counts herself among the latter. Though a number of conservatives have spoken out against her attendance - she is, after all, a woman: a sinful breed who are incapable of operating on the same level as men- , the church will go on, Schori insists, albeit through a loyal attendant. The Globe and Mail reports:

“The spirit of Anglicanism will prevail here and there will be a middle way forward,” said Ms. Jefferts Schori's aide, Robert Williams.

But he said she “will not waver in her stand for justice and inclusion of all people in the body of Christ.”

The you have it, folks. Schori's not playing. In fact, she's so busy sharpening her scriptural claws that she can't even fuck with the press. She'll lose her focus. And you know what happens if she loses her focus: apocalypse.

All right, enough of that lovey dovey bullshit. There are bigger things going on in the world, like Nigeria's public hearings on faggotry's legalities. People are coming forward to the House of Representatives to voice their opinions on the place of homosexuality in Nigerian society.

As happens, religious institutions have come to support the bill. The Christian Association of Nigeria and The National Muslim Center have both condemned homosexuality as being antithetical to Nigerian society at large, a sentiment echoed by some politicians.

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Anglican leaders will gather in Tanzania later this week to duke it out on the international churches most divisive issues, particularly the institution's stance on the homos. It will certainly be an eventful weekend, as more conservative leaders take a stand against Presiding Episcopal Bishop Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson. Of those leaders, Nigerian archbishop and virulent homophobe Peter Akinola's voice will undoubtedly be the loudest. Before Akinola wears out his vocal cords, however, a number of Nigerian activists are asking him to raise his fist against the African nation's proposed ban on homosexuality.

You may recall the long-dormant bill got a breath of fresh air a few months back, a resurrection Nigerian activists blame on the British-based Outrage! and other international gay rights organizations. Regardless of who's to blame, the discriminatory documents will effectively outlaw same-sex relations. In a list ditch effort, pro-gay Christian non-profit, Changing Attitude Nigeria has penned a desperate letter to Akinola and his allies.

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