Last candidate for Bishop of Northern Malawi withdraws

The sole candidate standing for election as Bishop of the Diocese of Northern Malawi has withdrawn from the Aug 1 election.

However, suggestions that the Very Rev. J. Scott Wilson, SSC of the Diocese of Forth Worth withdrew from the election after questions were raised about his being a member of the breakaway diocese are unfounded, The Church of England Newspaper has learned.

On July 22 the Daily Telegraph blogger Damien Thompson published an extract of an email he received from Anglican Information---a pressure group associated with the one-time bishop-elect of Lake Malawi, Ealing vicar the Rev. Nicholas Henderson.

Anglican Information claimed that Fr. Wilson, “formerly of Fort Worth diocese in the Episcopal Church of the United States has withdrawn his candidacy. Although he was runner-up to former Bishop Christopher Boyle (now retired to England) Wilson has left the Episcopal Church and actively joined a new breakaway faction in the United States known as ACNA (Anglican Church of North America). This has a very doubtful status in the Anglican Communion or with Canterbury. Bishop Trevor Mwamba of Botswana pointed out only last week that Wilson would not be able to subscribe to Canon 6 of the Provincial Canons as he is not in a Province in communion with Canterbury.”

On July 9 the Dean of the Church of the Province of Central Africa confirmed to CEN that Fr. Wilson was the sole candidate on the ballot in Northern Malawi. However, upon his return to Texas after a final visit in June to the diocese before the election, Fr. Wilson decided to stand down.

On July 27 Fr. Wilson told CEN that after prayerful consideration he did not believe he was called to be the bishop of the central African diocese. “I was not at peace” about this, he explained, adding he wrote to the vicar general of the diocese, the Rev. James Chifisi upon his return to Texas.

However, “at no time” was the question of his membership in the ACNA ever raised “by anyone connected” to the election, and it played no part in his decision to withdraw.

A spokesman for the Diocese of Fort Worth challenged the assertion that its clergy were not in communion with Canterbury, noting they were bona fide members of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, a status affirmed by the February primates meeting in Alexandria.

Although Fr. Wilson has withdrawn, the vicar general reports the election will go forward with a local candidate likely to be put forward for consideration.

The Diocese of Lake Malawi will also elect a bishop on Aug 1, completing the ranks of the provinces House of Bishops for the first time since 2005. After the two Malawi sees are filled, the province will then be able to elect a new archbishop to succeed Archbishop Bernard Malango—who stepped down in 2007. The Central African canons require a full House of Bishops to elect a new archbishop.