So maybe Anglican Information is showing a way forwards - even small voices in the Anglican firmament can get a hearing. What is needed is persistance, a cause and a platform.
Or, more cynically, perhaps smaller voices can get a hearing if they chime with the terms of dispute as conducted in N0rth America - and only if they do.
However I think (hope) that another theme is increasing visible. Anglican Information's tag-line "a voice for the voiceless" is significant. See, as anoth example, the recent comment on the post "A curious corner of the Church of Nigeria"
The content is different but the message is the same as from Malawi and Zimbabwe: bishops should be held to high standards of probity and the clergy and laity of a diocese have the right to call their bishops to account.
At the moment public opinion is the only arena of accountability and public opinion won't unseat a bishop. Commentators have to be anonymous. Therefore their comments cannot be tested and can be ignored. But perhaps the day will come when there are real consequences for individuals who abuse the protection and security that purple robes currently offer.
Hear hear. The problem is that African bishops in particular and others in general have a tendency to take on the role of 'princes of the church' and become an autoctratic caste apart.
ReplyDeleteFortunately, easier access to modern communications, including your blog (which is accessed in mud-walled and straw-roofed internet cafes in otherwise inaccessible places all over Africa), is beginning to challenge this.
More power to your elbow and keep up the good work!
Penwatch, you have been consistently supportive of this blog, for which my thanks.
ReplyDeleteBut of 618 visits in the last month just 43 came from the whole of Africa.
The biggest group, perhaps not surprisingly, was visitors from the UK (378), well over half. 128 visits were from the US with the rest scattered around the globe.
I have a sense of astonishment that anyone in, say, Indonesia or Iran (2 visits each) would want to visit, but the stats largely reflect the ease of internet access in the western - predominantly white - world.
All visitors and (to date, anyway) all comments are welcome - and it is especially gratifying to receive comments from other perspectives than my own.
For Africa I think that's quite a lot at 7% of the total. I would be astonished anyway if NTSS had penetrated any further than that in Africa at this stage.
ReplyDelete618 visits is very good for a blogsite which is quite specialised and fairly new but you are also now beginning to be featured on the 'big' church sites.
It's early days yet and undoubtedly good work is being done by you that would otherwise be neglected or ignored.