The Rev Nicholas Henderson, urbane vicar for Ealing in West London, has been elected to be the next Bishop of Lake Malawi based on his 18-year relationship with the Lake Malawi diocese in the province of Central Africa, Malawi. During that time, he had visited and helped raise £250,000 for religious, social and humanitarian projects which electors in the diocese considered carefully when electing him.

However, not many in the African diocese knew of his record as a leading liberal theologian until his recent position as the chairman of pro-gay Modern Churchpeople’s Union, an Anglican society promoting liberal theology. Since the election, Mr Henderson has been facing protests over the choice to make him bishop of one of the four dioceses in Malawi.

Anglicans in Malawi are now mounting a canonical challenge to the election which is due to be confirmed by Church procedures in the first week of September. A petition has now been placed in the Malawian Church’s provincial court claiming that the electoral assembly did not follow procedure to secure the post for Mr Henderson.

Investigations will be led by the Primate of Central Africa, Archbishop Bernard Malango, a leading conservative evangelical who was a member of the Lambeth Commission set up by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, to resolve the crisis over homosexuality in the Anglican Communion. He will meet protestors tomorrow.

He one of many African leaders who are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the response of Dr Williams and the American and Canadian Anglican churches to the crisis that has developed since the authorisation of same-sex blessings in New Westminster, in Canada, and the consecration of the openly gay Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire. Mr Malango himself, is well known for his staunch opposition of western liberal theologies from advancing in the Anglican Church.

Mr Henderson has had links with Lake Malawi for 18 years and Mr Henderson is already learning Chichewa, the local language, spoken alongside English, and notice has gone out in Acton and Ealing that he is leaving for Africa. His Parish was home to the late Bishop of Malawi, Peter Nyanja, and Mr Henderson also arranged treatment for him at St Luke’s Hospital for the Clergy in London.

Allegations have been made that the electoral commission “twisted the formalities” to ensure that he was he was first choice of the three candidates short listed for the position. Mr Henderson was selected by an overwhelming majority of votes in the elective assembly. However there is concern that his liberal views may be less welcome to the people in a notably conservative province.

The Modern Churchpeople’s Union of which Mr Henderson is a member, recently released a collection of essays urging the Church to move forward on the gay issue and be more inclusive on questions of gender and sexuality. However, Mr Henderson himself did not contribute to the book and also states that “Although I am a liberal theologian, I am first and foremost a Christian and secondly an Anglican”.