The So-Called Global South Primates Meeting in Singapore

I assume that those who read my blog are already well connected to other leading Episcopal blogs, particularly those I have at the right sidebar, including news/analysis sites like Episcopal Café’s The Lead, Thinking Anglicans, and Mark Harris’ Preludium. I also assume you subscribe to the news feeds of the Anglican Communion News Service and Episcopal News Service. So I assume I don’t have to tell you what news is breaking in TEC or the Anglican Communion.

We’ve all known that some of the “Global South” primates and others would be meeting in Singapore this week, and I expect that you – like me – have been eager to hear news about that meeting.

I say “some” because the GS group refuses to include Global South nations like Brazil and Mexico, because – while those nations face the same economic and political challenges as the rest of the Global South – the so-called “Global South Primates” group thinks they might be too friendly to the U.S. Therefore, Brazil and Mexico have been banned from the “Global South” meetings. So have Australia and New Zealand, except for the couple of bishops they know are friendly to them. And you’ll observe the “Global South Primates” do not invite South Africa – which is square in the heart of the Global South – lest they have to include a saint like Desmond Tutu in their midst.

By contrast, the “Global South Primates” include many lily-white American guys (and one gal) like the Most Rev. Robert Duncan (purportedArchbishop), the Rt. Rev. John Guernsey, the Rev. Phil Ashey, and Mr. Hugo Blakingship [sic] (all from the purported Anglican Communion in North America]; the Rt. Rev. Bill Atwood (purportedly from Kenya); the Rt. Rev. Chuck Murphy (purportedly from Rwanda); the Rev. Canon Dr. Alison Barfoot and the Rev. Dr. Professor Stephen Noll (purportedly of Uganda); the Most Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Driver (Archbishop of Adelaide), the Most Rev. Peter Jensen (Archbishop of Sydney), and Mr. Robert Tong of Australia; the Rt. Rev. Richard Eliena (Bishop of Nelson) and the Rev. Dr. Timothy Harris of New Zealand; and the Rt. Rev. John Howe, Central Florida, and the Rt. Rev. Mark Lawrence, South Carolina (whom they term “Communion Partners Representatives” from the Episcopal Church).

You can see the full list of participants (as of today) here at AnglicansUnited.

So … at least 16 of the 130 participants in the “Global South” meeting are lily-white colonialists – mostly from the U.S. I’m having a hard time understanding how the “Global South” meeting can say it’s shucking off the yoke of colonialism. They have their white handlers from the U.S., and they’re getting their funding from groups like the IRD. Please explain to me: How is this “shedding the yoke of colonialism”?

I wonder just how much those American guys understand the horrible economic, social, health, and political issues confront real people in the Global South every day. Do they understand as much as I do, after my four years of involvement with Sudan’s Diocese of Lui? I doubt it.

So make no mistake: This isn’t a meeting of the “Global South.” This is a meeting of like-minded primates and dioceses of self-selected members of the “Global South.” And what brings them together is hatred of the United States and Canada and – even more – hatred of gay men and lesbians. That is the one and only uniting bond of the so-called “Global South Encounter” meeting in Singapore this week. It would be a bit like having a “Southern Encounter” in the 1860s, but only inviting those who were inclined to join the Confederacy – people whose only commonality was hatred of “nigger slaves.”

So much for their integrity.

I don’t need to tell you that the narrow and self-selected “Global South” primates, bishops, and a few others began meeting in Singapore on Monday. You know you can get that news at the Global South Anglicans website and from their Dallas-based mouthpiece, Cherie Wetzel, at Anglicans United. You know you can also get propaganda and venom from Stand Firm in Faith and from the ill-named “Virtue” Online.

I probably don’t need to tell you all that.

Unfortunately, I must tell you that – as far as I can tell – you will not find any reports from mainstream media. Not from leading journalists, and certainly not from the Episcopal News Service or any other organization that’s aligned with the Episcopal mainstream. I expect that’s because the Global South meeting in Singapore this week has barred any mainstream journalists from covering their sessions.

And doesn’t that say a lot in itself? When the Episcopal Church holds its General Convention, and when the Church of England holds its General Synod, press passes seem to be distributed like lollipops. I wonder why the Global South meeting isn’t as transparent, but only allows fellow travellers to be admitted.

Oh well. …