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African anglicans to snub pro-gay rights US bishop
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Jan 2007- Lusaka- Zambia - Africa's leading Anglican archbishops plan to snub
their pro-gay rights U.S. counterpart at a key summit next month as a bitter
battle over homosexuality intensifies in a world church on the brink of schism.
Several African leaders have blasted Bishop Katharine Jefferts
Schori, the first woman to head the U.S. Episcopal Church, for backing gay
clergy and same-sex unions. They have urged Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan
Williams not to invite her to a global meeting of Anglican primates in Tanzania.
Williams, who admitted this week he was losing control over the
divisive debate, insisted Jefferts Schori meet her critics "face to face" but
sought to appease traditionalists by inviting conservative U.S. church leaders
too. The archbishops from Africa, home to more than half of the world's 77
million Anglicans, say they will stop short of an all-out boycott but cannot
meet with Jefferts Schori.
Kenyan Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi said he found it "difficult to
share a meeting with somebody who is fighting what we believe Scripture is
saying. "There is dialogue, this can take place, but I think we have listened to
one another enough," he told Reuters.
A spokesman for Nigeria's Archbishop Peter Akinola, Africa's
staunchest opponent of gay rights, said many primates heads of member
churches were loathe to meet with Jefferts Schori. "How that can be done remains
mere speculation," said Canon Akintunde Popoola. In an unprecedented move,
several primates refused to take communion alongside Frank Griswold, Jefferts
Schori's predecessor, at their last meeting in February 2005.
Struggling against schism
Williams has been striving to avert schism in the loose worldwide
union of churches whose long-simmering tensions over homosexuality reached the
boiling point with the appointment of openly gay U.S. Bishop Gene Robinson in
2003. The battle has pitted the small but powerful liberal U.S. church against a
traditionalist majority in developing countries, where archbishops have wielded
more power since the Anglican Communion's center of gravity shifted south.
Traditionalists say homosexuality is immoral and ordaining gays
flouts biblical commands, but liberals say Anglicanism tolerates diverse views.
Several conservative U.S. parishes and dioceses have switched their allegiance
to African primates. Global primates narrowly avoided an outright split at their
last meeting and tensions are running even higher this time around after the
surprise election of Jefferts Schori and refusal of the U.S. church to condemn
homosexuality.
Ugandan Archbishop Henry Orombi has not changed his position
since primates from the Global South said in September they could not "sit
together" with her, an aide confirmed. Archbishop Benard Malango, leader of the
Central African Province including Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana, told
Reuters: "We cannot be in communion with those who advocate ordination of gay
bishops in our church."
The South African church, with its strong liberal tradition
nurtured during the anti-apartheid struggle and financial links to the United
States, is the continent's lone voice in support of Jefferts Schori and urged
unity to fight AIDS and poverty.
"Reports of a boycott ... is like fiddling while Rome burns,"
Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane of southern Africa said in a statement to
Reuters. "More importantly it goes against God's fundamental call for unity and
reconciliation."
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