Mugumo Munene
21 May 2006
Nairobi — An English Anglican bishop, who is the patron of a gay and lesbian lobby group, is in Kenya on a two-week mission in Mbeere, the Nation has learnt.
The Rt Rev John Gladwin is leading a delegation which arrived last Monday to enhance its links with the diocese of Mbeere which was once Mt Kenya East.
The links were established in 1979 between the then Mt Kenya East Diocese and the Chelmsford Diocese. Mt Kenya East has since been sub-divided into four.
Bishop Gladwin's arrival is likely to revive the controversy that engulfed the Anglican Church in Kenya three years ago when the US Episcopal Church - a member of the Anglican Communion - decided to ordain as bishop a man who was openly gay as the Canadian Anglicans allowed same sex marriages in church.
At the time, Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi led the Anglican Church in Kenya in rejecting the position of the largely North American and European liberal position that accommodates gays and lesbians.
He said the ACK would maintain its position even if it meant losing financial support from the Church of England, or other dioceses in North America.
"When it comes to making decisions we go by the Bible, we go by what the word of God says, with money or without money," the Archbishop said.
On another occasion, the leader of the four million-strong ACK said: "Homosexuality is not accepted. This practice is against the word of God. Any province which is going ahead to allow leadership in the church to somebody who is gay or lesbian, we feel that we should not accept them."
The Sunday Nation was unable to reach Archbishop Nzimbi for comment on the visit by the Bishop of Chelmsford as his cell phone went unanswered. The cell phone numbers of the Bishop of Mbeere, the Rt Rev Gideon Ireri, whose diocese the English clergymen are visiting, indicated that he was out of reach.
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