Africans: Pro-Gay U.S. Church Follows New Religion
Fri Oct 29,11:22 AM ET
Top Stories - Reuters
By Dino Mahtani
LAGOS (Reuters) - African bishops representing a majority of the world's Anglicans
said on Friday North American sections that embrace homosexuality should be seen as
following a different religion.
The statement by top Anglican clerics at a landmark conference in Nigeria to determine
their future marked a growing separation between conservatives and liberals in the
70-million strong church.
The bishops told their North American counterparts to repent and ask for forgiveness
for approving same-sex marriages and consecrating Gene Robinson, a divorced homosexual
and father of two, as a bishop.
"Failure to do so would indicate that they have chosen to 'walk alone' and follow
another religion," said the statement issued by the senior clerics from across the
continent.
A report earlier this month by senior Anglican clergy urged North American
congregations to ban same-sex marriages and the ordination of gay clergy, but stepped
back from an outright condemnation of gays in a bid to reconcile the divisions.
But African church leaders said it did not go far enough and accused the North
American communions of subverting the faith and imposing a false doctrine.
African bishops want their continent to become the new heartland of Anglicanism and
Nigerian Primate Peter Akinola, Africa's top cleric, has said the Church of Nigeria
aims to set up branches in the United States.
Church leaders in Africa fear if Anglicanism fails to take a firm stance on
homosexuality, its parishioners -- many of whom are traditionalists who cannot stomach
the idea of gay bishops -- will desert it for evangelical churches or Islam.
Earlier this week Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo -- a born-again Christian --
backed African bishops in rejecting homosexuality and called gay tendencies
"unbiblical, unnatural and definitely un-African."
The bishops gathered in Nigeria have said they would not be swayed in their rejection
of ordaining gays by the lure of church funds from the liberal West, despite Africa
receiving 70 percent of its funds mainly from America.
But church leaders say the split between African bishops and their American
counterparts is not so much a geographical division as a split between the liberal and
conservative wings of the church.
Already, conservatives in the same U.S. Episcopal Church that ordained Robinson have
called his appointment "schismatic." Many of the more liberal bishops in Africa,
particularly from South Africa, have taken a softer approach to gays and have snubbed
the conference in Nigeria.
Tangkisan Letug <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
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Oleh Tangkisan Letug
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Teriak apa telah dibawa bagi mereka?
Solidaritas itu
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Mesti digerakkan mengatasi semangat sempit.
Apa artinya hari ini
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Hanya minta satu ini
Menjadi kawan sejati tanpa sekat di bumi.
30 Oktober 2004
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