Anglican Church meets to discuss divisive homosexual unions issue

By Moses Njagih

Nairobi, Kenya: The global convention of conservative Anglicans from 40 countries at the Global Anglican Future Conference (Gafcon), currently meeting in Nairobi have maintained their opposition to homosexuality.

This is even as Archbishop Dr Eliud Wabukala, who is the chairman of the convention, mantained that controversy over homosexuality in the Church, which threatened to tear apart the Communion of over 80 million, is behind them.

 “We have moved on. As a Christian family what we are thinking about now is how we move on as a fellowship of people who believe in Jesus Christ and his teachings,” said Archbishop Wabukala.

Wabukala revealed that the Nairobi convention, which is being attended by 1352 leaders, including clergy and lay people, will be charting the way forward on the controversial topic of same sex marriage in the Church.

“This is part of why we are here. There is a wider agenda that we as Christians are supposed to look at…The crisis is long behind us though the factors that may have brought these issues are still with us,” said the head of the Kenyan province.

The Church leaders were, however categorical that same sexual relationships should not be allowed in the Church, with the Archbishop of Uganda Stanley Ntagali describing it as “a spiritual cancer”.

Doctrine of creation

‘Liberals’ have argued that the Church needs to soften its stance on the gay relationships as it has done with the remarriage of divorcees, a position that participants at the Nairobi convention rubbished yesterday.

“The doctrine of creation is very clear. Any faith that wants to be true and in harmony with God’s word in creation should hold these teachings. Nothing should change that,” said Wabukala.

Archbishop of Nigeria, Nicholas Okoh, who leads the largest communion of Anglicans with 18 million members, said the issue of homosexuality should not be compared with any challenge that has faced the Church in the past.

Gafcon began after the Episcopal Church in America elected Gene Robinson, an openly gay man and divorced father of two, as bishop for the diocese of New Hampshire.

Since then, the Anglican churches of Canada, United Kingdom, andSouth Africa have accepted same sex unions, a move that has split the giant communion.

At one point, conservative Anglicans vehemently opposed the move and even threatened to pull out of the giant union.

The Nairobi’s convention is the second after the first meeting was held in June 2008 in Jerusalem.

“We have exceeded the first Gafcon both in numbers and reach. We have also surpassed all expectations here in Nairobi,” said the General Secretary of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans Dr Peter Jensen, former Archbishop of Sydney, Australia.

Dr Wabukala said the decision by the movement to have its second convention in Nairobi was a statement that the world had confidence in Kenya.

Okoh took the opportunity to delve into how Boko Haram, the Islamist group in Nigeria, has targeted Christians in their attacks.

“We have engaged the leadership of Islam and we are really helping each other, because they are also as concerned. But unfortunately, this group has refused to listen to anyone, including to a committee established to look into their grievances,” said Reverend Okoh.

“All they want is Sharia law established in Nigeria and they want Western education in the country abolished,” he added.