Leadership (Abuja)
Samuel Peter Aruwan
28 August 2008
Following the lingering debate on the possibility of same sex married priests holding Church leadership positions, erudite scholar and bishop of Kaduna Anglican Diocese, Rev.Dr Josiah Idowu-Fearon, has stated that the Anglican Church stood by its determination in rejecting same sex marriages and would not accept at any level, holding of Church leadership by men of such status.
According to Bishop Fearon who spoke after conducting a confirmation service, "The position of the Church has not changed in standing by the standard of the Church which has been on for time.Our position is not different from the one we took in 1998, which we called resolution 110. It is clearly stated there that in this church, as far as we are concerned, marriage is between a man and a woman. It is clear and we have not changed that position.
Secondly, people who have other sexual orientation, which is if you have a man who is living with another man and they claimed they are married, we cannot accept them to be leaders in this church. That is the position of the Anglican community, and that has not changed".
He also stressed that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowen Williams, at the last Lambert conference, reiterated the position of the church, adding that the church would continue to stand on Biblical position of marriage not unethical mortal creation of marriage.
He also shed more light on the way out towards attaining national development saying, "All we are preaching is that we need moral conversion, because we are having people who claimed to be religious, but not conscious of the morality to do the right thing, so all we need is moral conversion towards doing what is right and through this, we would achieve national growth and development".
He also disclosed the rationale behind the establishment of the diocese's Christian Study Centre saying, "For us in Kaduna State, we realised that to live peacefully, we need to understand the religion of each other and so, we are convinced that the best way to promote peace and encourage it, is to know the well-being of your neighbour and the well-being of your neighbour is dictated by what he or she believes in.
The well-being of the Muslim is dictated by Islam and so, we are concentrating on the Christians learning about Islam".
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Leadership. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
