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Kenya
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Steve at the lap top
Nairobi, Kenya
July, 2007
Top Picture
The NTV tower. Nairobi,
Kenya
Bottom Picture
Steve at the lap top
Nairobi, Kenya
July, 2007
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NEWS
African Anglicans try to transform US church
Conservatives eye schism over gays
By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff | September 5, 2007
NAIROBI, Kenya - The subject of Sunday's sermon at St. Stephen's
Anglican Church was repentance, and the preacher found an
obvious example of the sinfulness of contemporary culture within the
branch of his own denomination an ocean away in the United States.
Criticizing the Episcopal Church's embrace of gays and lesbians, the
Rev. Samuel Muchiri told the 1,000 worshipers "we in Kenya feel this
is not what God wants." An usher advised a visiting reporter to
"remember that Sodom and Gomorrah was demolished because
there were homosexuals." Another warned that the reporter could be
assaulted if he asked worshipers about the issue, and said that
America's permissiveness toward homosexuality had led Osama bin
Laden to attack.
Those sentiments have been building for years, and now a group of
Anglican archbishops is attempting to plant the seeds for a new,
conservative Anglicanism in North America that will either transform
or replace the Episcopal Church.
"All these people brought Christianity to us, but now the church is
growing here [in Africa] like wildfire, it's spreading everywhere, while
the church in England is withering, the church in the States is going
completely, and there has been a cry, 'Why don't you come? You
should have come here a long time ago to evangelize,' " said
Archbishop Bernard A. Malango, the Anglican primate of Central
Africa. "We need to send missionaries, even to Britain; we need to
send missionaries to the United States, and we need to send
missionaries to Canada, because those who brought the church
here have lost what their intention was, and the same Bible they
brought to us is being misinterpreted. We find it very odd."
Malango was one of seven Anglican primates, as the archbishops of
regional provinces of the Anglican Communion are called, who
gathered in Nairobi last Thursday to consecrate as bishops of the
Anglican Church of Kenya two former Episcopal priests, including
William L. Murdoch of Massachusetts. Then, many of those same
primates, from the developing nations of the Southern Hemisphere,
went to Kampala on Sunday to consecrate a third American as a
bishop of Uganda.
The significance of the consecrations is hotly debated. Episcopal
Church officials and their defenders say that most Episcopalians are
comfortable with their church's theological direction, and that only a
small fraction of Episcopal congregations - 45 of 7,500 - have
departed over the controversy. Some liberals go further, saying that
the Global South primates are being manipulated and used by
American right-wingers who are bent on creating a schism and are
exploiting unease over homosexuality to drive a wedge between
liberals and conservative Episcopalians. And some liberals argue
that the momentum for schism has diminished since 2003, when the
uproar ensued over the Episcopal Church's approval of V. Gene
Robinson, a gay priest living with a man in a long-term relationship,
as the bishop of New Hampshire.
"Only the most ardent homophobes are getting ready to bolt . . . and
the separatist agenda is losing ground everywhere," said Jim
Naughton, a spokesman for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington,
D.C. and the editor of a blog called Episcopal Cafe. "The idea that
the average African is looking to cause a split over homosexuality is
ridiculous. This is about a small coterie of leaders that over the
years have received a great deal of money from American
conservatives who are eager to push this agenda."
But in Africa, the primates say they are just getting started. They say
that they are motivated by a concern for the state of Anglicanism in
the West, and that they are speaking for a majority of the world's
Anglicans, and a substantial minority of American Episcopalians, in
expressing their position that the Episcopal Church has violated
Biblical teachings by approving Robinson's consecration. They say
that 250 American congregations - most of which were not former
parishes but are made up of onetime Episcopalians - are now
supervised by Global South Anglican provinces.
"We want the orthodox believers to understand they are not alone,"
said Archbishop Henry L. Orombi, the primate of Uganda. "And we
want to state that where the Episcopal Church has failed, we don't
let down our brethren."
The primates are acting without the blessing of the Anglican
Communion, and over the objection of the Episcopal Church. All
told, the provinces of Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Uganda now
claim to oversee 11 Anglican bishops in the United States.
"God cannot be mocked," said Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi of
Kenya. "Here, in the context of Kenya, if we take somebody who is
polygamous and we make him a lay reader or a priest, we would be
doing the wrong thing. . . . If I know somebody is a homosexual, and I
make him a lay reader, or I make him a priest, or I make him a
bishop, I am sanctioning what he is doing as right. I am saying 'no' to
this, and the church is saying 'no' to this."
But the primates insist that homosexuality is not the only problem;
they say it is just the most obvious manifestation of what they
perceive to be a broader problem with the Episcopal Church: that it
has ceased to follow the Bible, and is declining as a result.
"Sadly, the sexuality issue isn't the issue - it's about Scripture," said
Archbishop Gregory J. Venables, the primate of South America.
"What's happened in the States is that they've moved away from the
view that God has revealed himself in Scripture, and they're
rewriting that with post-modernity relativism."
The primates say that they see the presence of American bishops
who report to Africa as a temporary phenomenon to help the
American conservatives form a new Anglican province.
"We want to see them fully organized so that they can stand on their
own," said Orombi, the primate of Uganda. He called the African
presence in the United States "a temporary measure, a transition for
them while they move on."
Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan, who came to Nairobi for the
consecrations, said he expects to see a new Anglican province in
North America that will replace the Episcopal Church.
"We are realigning," said Duncan, who added he would attempt to
pull his entire diocese out of the Episcopal Church, a move that
would raise an unprecedented set of legal and financial questions
about the ownership of parish buildings and diocesan property.
Partisans dispute whether it is the American conservatives or the
Global South primates who are pushing the notion of schism, but
scholars say the two sides both have reasons for their positions.
"The Northerners have a more-or-less legitimate way to stay
'officially' Anglican while breaking from the Episcopal Church, and
they also gain the moral/symbolic power of being able to assert that
they're in accord with the majority of Anglicans in the world," said
Miranda K. Hassett, an anthropologist and the author of the new
book "Anglican Communion in Crisis: How Episcopal Dissidents and
Their African Allies Are Reshaping Anglicanism."
"For the Southern Anglican leaders involved, they get the world's
attention," she said. "Claiming jurisdiction over conservatives in the
US, claiming the right to remissionize this country, is a powerful way
to assert and dramatize their concern about American culture and its
global influence."
Since Robinson's consecration, there have been many threats of
schism and efforts at reconciliation. Later this month, Archbishop of
Canterbury Rowan Williams is scheduled to meet in New Orleans
with the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops. Then, next summer,
he will host bishops from throughout the world at the Lambeth
Conference; already partisans from both sides are threatening to
boycott.
"My best bet would be that individual Episcopal dioceses will carry
on electing gay bishops, and that the Episcopal Church will be
kicked out effectively or de facto," said Philip Jenkins, a professor of
history and religious studies at Pennsylvania State University. "In
terms of the average life of Episcopalians in the US, the difference
will be nil. But it will be important symbolically, and a big example for
Methodists, Lutherans, and Presbyterians, who are watching this
closely."
Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.
© Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
African Anglicans try to transform US church
Conservatives eye schism over gays
By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff | September 5, 2007
NAIROBI, Kenya - The subject of Sunday's sermon at St. Stephen's
Anglican Church was repentance, and the preacher found an
obvious example of the sinfulness of contemporary culture within the
branch of his own denomination an ocean away in the United States.
Criticizing the Episcopal Church's embrace of gays and lesbians, the
Rev. Samuel Muchiri told the 1,000 worshipers "we in Kenya feel this
is not what God wants." An usher advised a visiting reporter to
"remember that Sodom and Gomorrah was demolished because
there were homosexuals." Another warned that the reporter could be
assaulted if he asked worshipers about the issue, and said that
America's permissiveness toward homosexuality had led Osama bin
Laden to attack.
Those sentiments have been building for years, and now a group of
Anglican archbishops is attempting to plant the seeds for a new,
conservative Anglicanism in North America that will either transform
or replace the Episcopal Church.
"All these people brought Christianity to us, but now the church is
growing here [in Africa] like wildfire, it's spreading everywhere, while
the church in England is withering, the church in the States is going
completely, and there has been a cry, 'Why don't you come? You
should have come here a long time ago to evangelize,' " said
Archbishop Bernard A. Malango, the Anglican primate of Central
Africa. "We need to send missionaries, even to Britain; we need to
send missionaries to the United States, and we need to send
missionaries to Canada, because those who brought the church
here have lost what their intention was, and the same Bible they
brought to us is being misinterpreted. We find it very odd."
Malango was one of seven Anglican primates, as the archbishops of
regional provinces of the Anglican Communion are called, who
gathered in Nairobi last Thursday to consecrate as bishops of the
Anglican Church of Kenya two former Episcopal priests, including
William L. Murdoch of Massachusetts. Then, many of those same
primates, from the developing nations of the Southern Hemisphere,
went to Kampala on Sunday to consecrate a third American as a
bishop of Uganda.
The significance of the consecrations is hotly debated. Episcopal
Church officials and their defenders say that most Episcopalians are
comfortable with their church's theological direction, and that only a
small fraction of Episcopal congregations - 45 of 7,500 - have
departed over the controversy. Some liberals go further, saying that
the Global South primates are being manipulated and used by
American right-wingers who are bent on creating a schism and are
exploiting unease over homosexuality to drive a wedge between
liberals and conservative Episcopalians. And some liberals argue
that the momentum for schism has diminished since 2003, when the
uproar ensued over the Episcopal Church's approval of V. Gene
Robinson, a gay priest living with a man in a long-term relationship,
as the bishop of New Hampshire.
"Only the most ardent homophobes are getting ready to bolt . . . and
the separatist agenda is losing ground everywhere," said Jim
Naughton, a spokesman for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington,
D.C. and the editor of a blog called Episcopal Cafe. "The idea that
the average African is looking to cause a split over homosexuality is
ridiculous. This is about a small coterie of leaders that over the
years have received a great deal of money from American
conservatives who are eager to push this agenda."
But in Africa, the primates say they are just getting started. They say
that they are motivated by a concern for the state of Anglicanism in
the West, and that they are speaking for a majority of the world's
Anglicans, and a substantial minority of American Episcopalians, in
expressing their position that the Episcopal Church has violated
Biblical teachings by approving Robinson's consecration. They say
that 250 American congregations - most of which were not former
parishes but are made up of onetime Episcopalians - are now
supervised by Global South Anglican provinces.
"We want the orthodox believers to understand they are not alone,"
said Archbishop Henry L. Orombi, the primate of Uganda. "And we
want to state that where the Episcopal Church has failed, we don't
let down our brethren."
The primates are acting without the blessing of the Anglican
Communion, and over the objection of the Episcopal Church. All
told, the provinces of Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Uganda now
claim to oversee 11 Anglican bishops in the United States.
"God cannot be mocked," said Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi of
Kenya. "Here, in the context of Kenya, if we take somebody who is
polygamous and we make him a lay reader or a priest, we would be
doing the wrong thing. . . . If I know somebody is a homosexual, and I
make him a lay reader, or I make him a priest, or I make him a
bishop, I am sanctioning what he is doing as right. I am saying 'no' to
this, and the church is saying 'no' to this."
But the primates insist that homosexuality is not the only problem;
they say it is just the most obvious manifestation of what they
perceive to be a broader problem with the Episcopal Church: that it
has ceased to follow the Bible, and is declining as a result.
"Sadly, the sexuality issue isn't the issue - it's about Scripture," said
Archbishop Gregory J. Venables, the primate of South America.
"What's happened in the States is that they've moved away from the
view that God has revealed himself in Scripture, and they're
rewriting that with post-modernity relativism."
The primates say that they see the presence of American bishops
who report to Africa as a temporary phenomenon to help the
American conservatives form a new Anglican province.
"We want to see them fully organized so that they can stand on their
own," said Orombi, the primate of Uganda. He called the African
presence in the United States "a temporary measure, a transition for
them while they move on."
Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan, who came to Nairobi for the
consecrations, said he expects to see a new Anglican province in
North America that will replace the Episcopal Church.
"We are realigning," said Duncan, who added he would attempt to
pull his entire diocese out of the Episcopal Church, a move that
would raise an unprecedented set of legal and financial questions
about the ownership of parish buildings and diocesan property.
Partisans dispute whether it is the American conservatives or the
Global South primates who are pushing the notion of schism, but
scholars say the two sides both have reasons for their positions.
"The Northerners have a more-or-less legitimate way to stay
'officially' Anglican while breaking from the Episcopal Church, and
they also gain the moral/symbolic power of being able to assert that
they're in accord with the majority of Anglicans in the world," said
Miranda K. Hassett, an anthropologist and the author of the new
book "Anglican Communion in Crisis: How Episcopal Dissidents and
Their African Allies Are Reshaping Anglicanism."
"For the Southern Anglican leaders involved, they get the world's
attention," she said. "Claiming jurisdiction over conservatives in the
US, claiming the right to remissionize this country, is a powerful way
to assert and dramatize their concern about American culture and its
global influence."
Since Robinson's consecration, there have been many threats of
schism and efforts at reconciliation. Later this month, Archbishop of
Canterbury Rowan Williams is scheduled to meet in New Orleans
with the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops. Then, next summer,
he will host bishops from throughout the world at the Lambeth
Conference; already partisans from both sides are threatening to
boycott.
"My best bet would be that individual Episcopal dioceses will carry
on electing gay bishops, and that the Episcopal Church will be
kicked out effectively or de facto," said Philip Jenkins, a professor of
history and religious studies at Pennsylvania State University. "In
terms of the average life of Episcopalians in the US, the difference
will be nil. But it will be important symbolically, and a big example for
Methodists, Lutherans, and Presbyterians, who are watching this
closely."
Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.
© Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company