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Wrangle on gays divides church
01 Mar 2008-
Kenya- A mass boycott of the Anglican Church to the 10-year gathering is
imminent following sharp criticism of the church’s leadership by leading
clerics in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria Rwanda and Australia.
Archbishop
Peter Akinola of Nigeria early this year said bishops from his country
along with Rwandese and Ugandan clerics “are not going to the Lambeth
Conference,” to take place in Canterbury, UK in July.
Soon
afterwards, his Kenyan counterpart Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi also
announced: “We are not attending the forthcoming Lambeth (Conference),”
but added: “We are not pulling out of the Anglican communion.”
The
archbishop’s pronouncement is expected to be confirmed at a meeting of
the House of Bishops next month (April). The meeting was scheduled to
take place in February but was postponed due to the post-election
violence.
The
announcement is yet another setback for the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr
Rowan Williams, the spiritual leader of the world’s 77 million
Anglicans.
Under fire for
his recent comments on Sharia law in the UK, the cleric is also
struggling to heal divisions between liberals and traditionalists in the
church over the issue of homosexuality and same-sex marriages.
At stake for
much of the church in Africa is the consecration of openly gay US Bishop
Gene Robinson in 2003. This has split the 400-year-old church and set a
liberal minority against a conservative majority, mostly from Africa,
Asia and Latin America. Western countries including Australia, Canada
and the UK, have also opposed Bishop Robinson’s ordination.
Under the
carpet
One of
Australia’s most powerful Anglican leaders, Dr Peter Jensen, has said
bishops from Sydney will also miss the Lambeth Conference, which is a
meeting of senior figures which is held every 10 years to discuss church
governance and policy.
Dr Jensen,
however, says that any boycott of the 2008 Lambeth Conference would not
necessarily mark the end of the Anglican Communion.
Archbishop
Akinola has expressed disquiet with the proposed agenda, of which the
issue of homosexuality has been omitted.
“What is the use
of the Lambeth conference for a three weeks’ jamboree which will sweep”
the issues dividing the Communion “under the carpet?” he asked.
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