Who's leading whom?

Reading the caption to the photo in the NY Times article on GAFCON (see below), I was struck by how strange it is to have Americans being ordained in the Anglican Church of Nigeria. Americans looking to the Third World for leadership? That just seems strangely ironic to me.

I don't mean to sound xenophobic or racist about Africa. I just find it strange that Americans are looking for leadership to a part of the world where equality for all is less of a possibility than it is here, where a comprehensive educational system for all doesn't exist, where food for all is a problem more so than elsewhere in the world. Essentially, aside from our shared humanity and belief in Jesus Christ, the only thing it seems that an Episcopal parish in the United States and an Anglican parish in Nigeria might really have in common is a dislike of homosexuals. Please correct me if I'm wrong. For a church in Africa to remove itself from the resources (both monetary and charitable) of its fellow First World parishes in order to make a point about homosexuals seems absurd. To me, it translates to "Sorry, poor Nigerians, but we won't be getting aid from churches in the Anglican Communion because they accept homosexuals as equal members of the body of Christ." And while America is not a perfect place of freedom and equality, we certainly have figured out how to get closer to it than many other countries, I believe.

So for American parishes to look to African churches for leadership seems fascistic to me, since they're essentially aligning themselves with churches in an unjust part of the world that instead of fighting that injustice instead concern themselves with denying respect towards and fellowship with one particular group of people. And this from a group that did not enjoy being marginalized, . . .