Ten days and Counting and Still No Word From Bp. Orama

On September 2, this article appeared on the UPI site.

Since then, there has been no retraction from UPI, and no denial from Bp. Orama. A secondary source is claiming that a spokesperson for the Anglican Church of Nigeria has said that the bishop never made those statements. Another source is claiming that a half-page text represents the relevant section of Bp. Orama's address in which the quote from the article was apparently drawn. However, there has been no word from Abp. Akinola, no statement appears on the Nigerian website, and Bp. Orama has remained silent. No statement has been passed on to any official Anglican news agency, including the Episcopal News Service.

This silence, in light of the Archbishop of Canterbury's expression of shock at the the alleged comments, is quite disturbing.

Imagine that you are an Anglican bishop and the Archbishop of Canterbury expresses deep shock at something you were erroneously quoted as saying. Would you not run to the nearest media source and shout your denial for all the world to hear?

I would hope that no bishop would ever utter such words. But, the longer Bp. Orama waits to make a public statement, the more it causes me to wonder what his silence might mean.

J.

UPDATE: Bishop Orama has now made this public statement. It is helpful that he is now on record as denying such hateful language. Thank you, Bishop.