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Africa gives refuge to
rebel US anglicans
27 August 2007-
Nairobi, Kenya - Plans by African bishops to consecrate American
colleagues will not deepen an Anglican rift over gay clergy but instead
provide refuge to U.S. believers at odds with their liberal church,
Kenya's archbishop said.
Growing numbers of
conservative Anglican priests are abandoning the liberal U.S. church and
pledging alliance to traditionalist African bishops who take a tough
line against homosexuality.
Benjamin Nzimbi
told Reuters on Monday he would consecrate dissident U.S. clerics Bill
Atwood and Bill Murdoch as bishops on Thursday at a ceremony in Nairobi.
Uganda's Henry Orombi is due to consecrate John Guernsey next week.
"Since the talk
about gay marriage started, many congregations in America have been
looking for oversight from overseas," Nzimbi said.
In Africa, gay relationships are denounced as immoral and are outlawed
in many countries.
The 77
million-strong Anglican Church has been split since 2003 when its 2.4
million member U.S. branch consecrated Gene Robinson as its first openly
gay bishop.
The move enraged conservative Anglicans, who accuse the Episcopal church
of flouting Biblical commandments. Nzimbi said Kenya had been approached
by more then 30 congregations from across the United States asking for
leadership since then.
"REPENTANCE"
Liberals, who
support a looser interpretation of scripture, say the African clergy are
violating church rules by creating conservative outposts in the United
States and deepening a crisis that threatens to split the Anglican
communion -- a worldwide federation of 38 churches.
"We are not
invading other people's territory as such but preaching the gospel, the
way it was brought to us, the way it is written," Nzimbi said.
And he said the
only way to bridge the schism was for the liberal churches to repent:
"The way we can have one understanding is through repentance, that is
the key word." The primate denied the Africans were motivated by
monetary gain to consecrate American priests.
"It is not a
question of finances," Nzimbi said. "Here in Africa we are used to
living under difficult situations and we are not ready to compromise
because of finances. No."
Nigerian
Archbishop Peter Akinola raised a storm in May when he consecrated
Martyn Minns as a bishop in the Convocation of Anglicans in North
America, which is linked to the Church of Nigeria, despite being asked
not to by the Anglican's spiritual head, Rowan Williams, the Archbishop
of Canterbury.
Williams did not
invite Minns to the 2008 Lambeth conference, a key 10-yearly meeting of
Anglican leaders -- a fate that the African consecrated bishops are
likely to face. "If they are invited it is well and good, if not, well
and good. The word of God will still be preached," Nzimbi said.
Thursday's
ceremony in Nairobi will be attended by bishops from the West Indies,
Rwanda, Uganda, the Central African Republic and Nigeria, among others,
he said. |
