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Africa: Wrangle On Gays Divides Church
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The Nation (Nairobi)
1 March 2008
Posted to the web 29 February 2008
Paul Redfern
London
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.
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.
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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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