Anglican rift over gays widens
2005-09-20 16:59
Lagos - Nigeria's Anglican Church has altered its constitution to formalise the rift between itself and English and North American congregations which tolerate homosexuality, its bishops said in a statement.
The statement called on Anglicans "to stand up in defence of New Testament Christianity, as opposed to the revisionist theology of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, the Church of Canada and the Church of England."
With around 17 million followers, the Nigerian province is the biggest in the Anglican communion. The conservative views of its followers reflect those among churchgoers in Africa, Asian and Latin America or what the church calls the "global south".
'Only Nigerians allowed'
In the southern city of Onitsha last week, the Nigerian bishops' general synod heard a guest speaker, Archbishop Yong Ping Chung of South East Asia, declare: "I am not going to let my pulpit get defiled by people who don't accept the gospel."
"If you want to preach in my province I will allow you as long as you are from Nigeria. But if it is from America I have to check. Even from England now, I may have to check," Chung said, according to a statement on the Nigerian church's website.
Traditionalist Anglicans were angered last year when US Episcopalians ordained Gene Robinson as the world's first openly gay bishop.
Trying to broker a truce
The spiritual head of the 77 million-strong world church, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, has attempted to broker a truce between the sides and prevent the church from falling apart, but many Africans also reject the Church of England's own relatively liberal stance.
Next month Asian, African and South American Anglicans will meet in the Egyptian city of Alexandria for a summit of the Global South, and their position is hardening.
"With a careful rewording of her constitution, the Church of Nigeria redefined her relationship with all other Anglican churches," said the statement released after the Onitsha synod.
The bishops deleted references to "communion with the See of Canterbury" from their constitution and instead vowed solidarity with "churches, dioceses and provinces that hold and maintain the historic faith, doctrine, sacrament and discipline of the one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church".
- AFP