LONDON – Archbishop Peter Akinola won't pretend it is business as usual for the Anglican Communion. The Primate of Nigeria refused to attend one of the church's routine annual committee meetings, saying the presence of two American members, the Rev. Dr. Ian Douglas and Presiding Bishop of the United States Frank Griswold, gave legitimacy to the U.S. branch of the church consecrating a practicing homosexual bishop.

The Church of England Newspaper reports that the Archbishop has led the hard line against the consecration from the majority of Anglicans on the African continent.

He e-mailed a statement to the Anglican Communion Office in London last week saying he would not attend any meeting with representatives of the Episcopal Church of the USA.

"Archbishop Akinola is baffled that the Anglican Communion Office continues to act as if what ECUSA did does not really matter," said the Ven Oluranti Odubogun, the General Secretary of the Church of Nigeria.

Akinola's absence obviates the fact that the Anglican Communion is broken, in spite of efforts to hold things together.

Since 1998 a number of leaders from churches in the developing world have raised concerns over the efforts of the Lambeth Commission, which is charged with creating a compromise to keep the church together.

Senior Church of England evangelicals have repeatedly complained about the church's failure of the Anglican Communion News Service to carry news from provinces in the global south. But Archbishop Desmond Tutu's remarks calling for inclusion of practicing homosexuals were given prominence by the church's news service.