New bid to elect bishop in Central Africa

The House of Bishops of the Church of the Province of Central Africa has scheduled episcopal elections for Aug 1 for the Dioceses of Lake Malawi and Northern Malawi.

Lake Malawi has been without a bishop since the death of Bishop Peter Nyanja in 2005. On July 29, 2005 the Vicar of Ealing the Rev. Nicholas Henderson was elected bishop of the rural Central African diocese. However, the election was challenged over procedural irregularities and on the grounds that his theological views evidenced by his onetime leadership of the Modern Church Peoples’ Union made him unfit for office. A court of confirmation led by Archbishop Bernard Malango in November of that year declined to affirm his election.

In 2007 the House of Bishops rejected an appeal lodged by supporters of Fr. Henderson and ordered a new election. However the Elective Assembly was prorogued on Feb 5, 2008 after a court issued an injunction on behalf of the “House of Laity of the Diocese of Lake Malawi” who charged that the required three month notice had not been met.

The names of the candidates for Lake Malawi have not yet been released, but Fr. Henderson is understood not to be under consideration.

Only one candidate is presently on the ballot for election as Bishop of Northern Malawi to succeed the Rt. Rev. Christopher Boyle, who was named Assistant Bishop of Leicester in March. The Very Rev. J. Scott Wilson, SSC, rector of All Saints Church in Weatherford, Texas in the Diocese of Forth Worth has extensive contacts with the diocese and was runner up to Bishop Boyle in the last election in 2001.

News of the new elections was released by the province after the consecration of Bishop Brighton Malasa as Bishop of Upper Shire on June 7 at Sts Peter and Paul Cathedral in Mangochi on June 7.

The President of Malawi, Bingu wa Mutharika urged the new bishop to be faithful to his office and asked all Malawians to “care, support and love one another so as to bring hope to those who have lost it in this life.”