Conger

The Rev. Canon David Anderson, president of the American Anglican Council, is one of four new bishops that the Anglican Church of Nigeria announced it is adding to the roster of CANA, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America.

The Rev. Roger Ames, rector of St. Luke’s Anglican Church, Akron, Ohio, is another American elected by the Nigerian House of Bishops on Sept. 12. The other two bishops-elect are Nigerian priests serving expatriate African congregations in the United States, the Ven. Amos Fagbamiye and the Rev. Canon Nathan Kanu.

Plans call for the four to be consecrated in the United States either in late November or the first week of December, according to Fr. Ames, who said that he has been informed that a number of Global South primates will participate in the consecration.

The new bishops will join the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, missionary bishop of CANA, and the Rt. Rev. David Bena, the retired suffragan Bishop of Albany, in the oversight of Nigeria’s American congregations.

In an interview with The Living Church, Fr. Ames said all of the parish leadership and the congregation of St. Luke’s left The Episcopal Church about two years ago for the Diocese of Bolivia in the Province of the Southern Cone, but because the Diocese of Ohio has not to date included the departure in its parochial report filings with the national church, he and the congregation continue officially to be designated members in good standing of The Episcopal Church.

Fr. Ames said there are currently about 50 former Episcopal congregations affiliated with the Diocese of Bolivia. These are in the process of being transferred to CANA by mutual agreement of Bishop Minns and the Rt. Rev. Frank Lyons, Bishop of Bolivia. According to a press release published on CANA’s website, the convocation now has 60 congregations and 80 clergy in 20 states.

The election of the four will increase the number of African-sponsored missionary bishops in the United States to 17: six from Nigeria, two from Uganda, two from Kenya, and seven from Rwanda.

Published in The Living Church.