Nairobi — Kenyans received news of the confirmation of Canon Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hamp-shire, USA with shock. But the Administrative Secretary of the Anglican Diocese of Maseno South, Rev Boniface Obondi, says the Episcopal Convention's decision could not be invalidated merely on the basis of what the Bible says on homosexuality.

He says there must be loopholes being exploited by the Church of England and, unless these are sealed, even the protests by the Kenyan Church may just be in vain. "I want to play the devil's advocate in order to stand a little aside from the noise and acrimony that has met the news," says Obondi.

He says that the Anglican Church draws its authority from the scriptures, tradition and reason. He argues that even the Anglican Church of Kenya is not foolproof. He says since the current cry is about those ordained in the ministry, its assumption seems to be that there is no problem with the ordinary Christian.

Obondi wonders whether there is anyone monitoring the lives of the clergy to be able to absolve any of them from the list of sexual aberrations outlined in the book of Leviticus. The passage further prescribes death and curse from God. Obondi says that such people are not supposed to be categorised as believers. He admits that the process of selecting candidates for ordination, even if it has been very rigorous, it does not guarantee that all will be morally upright. He says it has been possible for a candidate to be ordained within few days of being proposed.

But he cites Section 3(b), which he says calls for vigorous scrutiny. "This church therefore holds that no person should be accounted or taken to be a lawful bishop, priest or Deacon in this church or permitted to assume any of these offices, except that such persons be called, tried, examined and prepared for the sacred ministry and admitted thereunto."

He believes therefore that, for the Church to have consecrated him, it may not have found anything wrong with the conduct of the bishop in question on the basis of the provision. "If his trait is as detestable as Kenyan faithful are saying, then it can only be that the church seriously overlooked certain things," he says.

He believes the American Branch of the Church meticulously weighed church rules and it is therefore up to the Kenyan Church to mend fences.