The East African Standard (Nairobi)
NEWS
November 2, 2004
Posted to the web November 3, 2004
By Samuel Rambaya and BBC
Nairobi
African Anglican bishops are contemplating quitting the Church of England over the ordainment of gay clergy in the United States.
A communique issued at the end of the African Anglican Bishops Conference held in Lagos, Nigeria, just fell short of proclaiming a formal split from the Anglican Communion over the gay bishops.
The bishops also vowed to end theological training in the West and also passed a resolution to set up their own institutions, consistent with African culture and theology.
They have spurned funding from America and Britain and now they want theological independence.
That, according to the meeting, means an end to the practice of sending clergy for advanced training in the US and Britain.
"Now we have discovered that they have a new theology and a new religion we feel it would be dangerous for the future of our church to continue to send our own future leaders to those institutions," said Archbishop of Nigeria and chairman of African Anglican Primates, Dr Peter Akinola.
The meeting was a decisive assertion of African leadership in the worldwide church.
While they also focused on issues like poverty and justice, the rest of the Anglican world - which spans 164 countries - waited for a pronouncement on the recently published Windsor Report dealing with the battles over homosexuality.
They want repentance from the North American churches, which sparked the crisis by consecrating a gay bishop and approving same-sex blessings.
That is not going to be forthcoming because the more liberal churches do not think they have done anything wrong.
That is why African bishops see an urgent need to forge what they see as a righteous way forward.
The six-day conference, which brought together 300 senior bishops, also resolved to assert African leadership in the church.
It also totally rejected homosexuality and same sex marriages which has been a flashpoint in the Anglican Communion.
"We note with approval that the Windsor Report calls for a moratorium on the ordination, election and consecration of any candidate to the Episcopate who is living in a same gender union and blessing of same sex marriage," said the communiquÈ.
"The conference noted that the Anglican Church in Africa has indeed come of age and gone beyond the stage of mission "from the West to the rest", to that of mission "from everywhere to everywhere," said Akinola.
Meanwhile, the Kenyan delegation led by Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi jetted back home from Nigeria yesterday.
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