Tabu Butagira
18 May 2008
Kampala — The fallout over the ordination of gay priests as bishops in the worldwide Anglican Communion reaches a critical point next month when the Global Anglican Future Conference (Gafcon) kicks off in Israel.
Gafcon brings together the more conservative bishops, several of whom have said they are boycotting the Lambeth Conference that takes place a month later in July.
Archbishop Luke Orombi of the Church of Uganda is one of the primates who will not be attending Lambeth but will be in Jerusalem at Gafcon, which some have christened the "alternative Lambeth".
If the boycott goes through on the anticipated scale, it could damage the unity of the Anglican Church.
By Wednesday last week, at least 108 Ugandans had signed up to attend the June 22-29 symposium in Jerusalem that is expected to attract 1,000 people from 17 provinces of the Anglican Communion in the global south, representing about 35 million active followers.
The Communion has 38 provinces plus related churches representing some 80 million people across the world. Each province is led by a primate.
Forty two Ugandan bishops plus their spouses will be among those who will also visit sacred sites in Jerusalem such as the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane and the Ophel Gardens and Temple steps where it is believed the first Pentecostal, Apostle Peter, preached.
The Rev. Canon Aaron Mwesigye said the upcoming conference will reinforce the faith and remove growing anxiety over the homosexuality and same-sex marriage debate that has pitted the liberal wing of the church against the conservative one.
"The Anglicans in Uganda want to remain steadfast in faith [but] when they begin to hear about things like homosexuality penetrating the Anglican Communion, they get worried that the future of Anglicans is uncertain," said Canon Mwesigye, the spokesman/provincial secretary of the Church of Uganda.
Observers see Gafcon as a parallel gathering of conservative clerics unhappy at the failure or refusal of their spiritual leader Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to denounce gay practices that are said to be gaining some ground in certain jurisdictions.
Organisers of the Jerusalem convention say the tolerance of practices that are reportedly at odds with the scriptures contravene Resolution 1:10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference, which agreed (under Section 5) that from that time on, the Anglican Communion "cannot advise the legitimising or blessing of same sex unions".
When in 2003 the 2.4 million-strong Episcopal (Anglican) Church in the United States elected the practicing homosexual Gene Robinson as bishop, African clerics under their umbrella Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa warned that ordaining gays would "tear the fabric of the Anglican Communion at its deepest level".
Since then, a number of American dioceses and parishes have severed ties with The US Episcopal Church and sought ecclesiastical refuge in conservative provinces in Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda that are boycotting the coming Lambeth Conference in Canterbury, England, in July.
The Gafcon website says the Jerusalem conference will provide opportunity for fellowship, proclamation of the transforming love of Jesus Christ, develop renewed identity as Anglicans and prepare a future Anglican Church in which the gospel is uncompromised and Christ-centred mission a top priority.
"We are going to plan to ensure that the future of the Anglican Communion is very bright and progressive because Anglicans have come to stay," said Canon Mwesigye.
Even when Gafcon is supposed to remove fear among followers about the future of the Anglican Communion, it is still unclear how resolutions of this 'breakaway' conference will affect those expected to be reached at Lambeth.
If neither side blinks, the Anglican Communion could as well fall apart. The Rev. Grace Kaiso, the secretary general of the Uganda Joint Christian Council, said that disagreement over homosexuality is not the first challenge to confront the Church and hopes either side will reflect on the matter with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
"The whole essence of the Gospel," said the Rev. Kaiso, "is engaging each other to dialogue with love between one party, which feels this way and another feeling the other way. We should not close doors to this engagement even when we set ourselves in search of new ways."
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I cannot understand how "The Church"which it is not, can go against the scriptues,so as to be politically correct. It's easy, love the person hate the sin,now all the sinner has to do is repent.
This is not a matter of "political correctness." Nonetheless, it is an issue as difficult to explore and consider faithfully as were issues of the Copernican Revolution and insights from Galileo, who also were Christians. Furthermore, like abortion, family planning, assisted death for the terminally ill, etc., there will always be at least two interpretations provided by faithful, "Bible-believing" Christians around the world. The very approach to, and applications of, biblical studies by faithful Christians is not uniform and never have been - as evident in the Book of Acts. I suspect that even among biblical literalists there are many differences on matters related to Scripture. The Word of God within Scripture is Christ himself; that is different from the claim that all biblical sentences are the "words of God." A major challenge for us is how we faithful Christians can agree to differ, even when we are "Bible believing."
We realize that most of the continent of Africa is clearly against all expressions of homosexuality. However, we do wonder whether the "Global South" as a whole as an accurate understanding of same-sex orientation. Please allow me to suggest that you visit www.nolan-pingpank.com (intended as a very decent and family-friendly website) as one example of a same-sex, male home. Also, in the non-commercial, educational website www.philosophy-religion.org there are a number of scholarly articles in the ALL HANDOUTS section that might be illuminating. We realize that the cultural settings of Uganda and elsewhere are such that same-sex relationships are abhorrent and repulsive. Perhaps these two online resources might present an alternative viewpoint.