Akinola's personal attempt to resolve the issue came after the crisis meeting of the primates (provincial leaders) at Lambeth Palace almost collapsed.

"At a point, the meeting became tense -- very, very tense," he said. "[Archbishop of Canterbury] Rowan [Williams] said sort of jokingly, 'Are you calling for the dissolution of the Communion?'"

Akinola replied: "Well, not quite, but if there [is to be dissolution], well, so be it -- and we laughed."

When the primates took a tea break shortly thereafter, Akinola recalled, "I called Frank Griswold...out, and we embraced each other. And I said 'You and I have come a long way in the past three or four years; we have established a new relationship, new friendship, new rapport, new understanding.'

But he told Griswold: "'Look at the situation your church has led us into. Look at [your brother from] Pakistan, in tears, [from] India, in tears over what you have done. Our hearts are bleeding. You can save the Communion this costly problem by putting a stop to this agenda. You can stop the consecration of a practicing gay priest.'"

According to Akinola, Griswold answered: "We have gone through the normal process. I as presiding bishop have no authority. I cannot stop it."

Again Akinola pleaded with him. "What does the Bible say? If by eating meat, my friend, my neighbor stumbles, I can live without eating meat. that's what Paul told the Corinthians. Even if you think it is very dear to your culture, to your people, for the sake of the rest of the world, you can't do it," Akinola told the p.b.

But Griswold said "no."

"At that moment I knew the fabric of our Communion was going to be torn to pieces," Akinola said, "because it was very clear to me then that what was being done was being done deliberately and intentionally."

The leader of over 17 million Nigerian Anglicans faulted Griswold for claiming he had no power to influence Robinson, the Diocese of New Hampashire, or the House of Bishops to prevent the consecration, arguing that the p.b. had persuasive and moral power.

"He simply said no," Akinola said. "At that point .I knew that there was no turning back."

Jim Naughton, spokesman for the Diocese of Washington, asked Akinola if he thought that if Griswold actually had agreed to stop the consecration that he had the power to do so.

"It wasn't impossible to find a way to stop it," Akinola responded.

He noted that Griswold could have reminded the bishops of the resoundingly-adopted 1998 Lambeth Conference sexuality resolution, which deemed homosexual behavior "incompatible with scripture."

Akinola also noted that Griswold could have urged the American Church to honor the relevant statements of the primates since 1998. Griswold "had been a party to every decision of the primates" in their various meetings since Lambeth, and should have stood up for those decisions, Akinola said.

Griswold, he added, could have told ECUSA, "I believe in the corporate decisions of the body of primates; I have respect for the primates; and we should be accountable to the primates." But he did not.

Griswold -- while agreeing with fellow primates in mid-October that Robinson's consecration would have devastating consequences for the global church -- did not even absent himself from that November 2 rite, rather serving as the gay prelate's chief consecrator, Akinola noted.

The Archbishop was asked if he thought it "ironic" that the Africans were now pushing the British to remain faithful to what they had been taught by missionaries from the north in the 19th century.

English missionaries were the ones who gave Christianity "roots" in Africa, he replied, and told the Africans how to live a Christian life, "at the expense of our culture. We accepted it, because Christianity is light and life," Akinola said. But now some northern brethren are saying that "what we were taught not to do is not that bad; you can do it now!"

"We know what is right. We won't let you mislead us. If you want to create a new religion, go ahead and do it, but you won't impose it on us," the prelate stated. Africans no longer need to go to Canterbury to become Christian, or to New York to learn to conduct services, he said.

"We don't want a new religion; the religion we have is good enough for us," Akinola declared.

But when he was asked if the global South primates see themselves as taking on a larger role, as steering the ship of the Communion, he replied: "I wouldn't say we are steering the ship. No one is interested in taking that away from [the Archbishop of Canterbury]."

"All we are concerned with is making sure that the historic faith...is kept," he said.

In response to another question, Akinola said that the provinces within the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa (which he leads) already consider themselves out of communion with ECUSA, and that the only hope for restoring the unity of the Communion was if ECUSA "repented" and took steps to have Bishop Robinson reomved as Bishop of New Hampshire.

Asked about the ultimate exclusion of ECUSA from the Communion, Akinola said: "Can two walk together unless they agree?"

END