Post by angli_fan on Dec 18, 2009 13:47:23 GMT -5
[from Ecumenical News International]
A Ugandan Anglican bishop says he fears the election of a lesbian priest to be a suffragan bishop in the U.S.-based Episcopal Church will mark the final step to schism in the 77-million worldwide Anglican Communion.
"I think this signals the finishing of the Anglican Communion. We [in the Global South] will not be able to walk with the Americans," Bishop Nelson Onono-Onweng of the Northern Uganda diocese told Ecumenical News International on Dec. 9 from Gulu.
The Rev. Mary Douglas Glasspool, an openly lesbian priest who lives with a partner, was elected Dec. 5 to be a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Los Angeles. The denomination's diocesan bishops and standing committees still have to confirm her election.
The Episcopal Church is the U.S.-based province of the 77-million-member Anglican Communion. Disagreement has roiled the Anglican Communion since the Episcopal Church elected and consecrated Gene Robinson, who lives with a long-time male partner, as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.
"We thought they would not do it again, after Robinson's consecration caused so much trouble in the communion," said Bishop Onono-Onweng.
Many Anglicans, particularly in the Global South where their numbers are growing rapidly, reject homosexuality as contrary to Scripture.
On Dec. 8, Uganda's Daily Monitor newspaper quoted the Rev. Alison Barfoot, an assistant to Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi, the head of the Ugandan Anglican church, as describing Glasspool's election as "unbiblical."
Barfoot said, "We believe the Bible condemns homosexual behavior as immoral. So, how can a homosexual be a bishop?"
The comments of the Ugandan church leaders came amidst a separate controversy about a draft law on homosexuality that is before the country's parliament.
The law, if it came into force, would prescribe life imprisonment for homosexuals and even, in some cases, the death penalty. Media reports suggest, however, that the provision on the death penalty may be dropped.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams was quoted as describing the draft law as being of "shocking severity," in an interview published by Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper on Dec. 12.
"I cannot see how it could be supported by any Anglican who is committed to what the communion has said in recent decades," said Williams, who has faced criticism for not speaking out publicly at an earlier stage against the proposed measure.
The Lambeth Conference of the world's Anglican bishops in 1998 described homosexual practice as being "incompatible with Scripture" but also condemned homophobia and "any discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation."
More at:
ecusa.anglican.org/81808_117806_ENG_HTM.htm
A Ugandan Anglican bishop says he fears the election of a lesbian priest to be a suffragan bishop in the U.S.-based Episcopal Church will mark the final step to schism in the 77-million worldwide Anglican Communion.
"I think this signals the finishing of the Anglican Communion. We [in the Global South] will not be able to walk with the Americans," Bishop Nelson Onono-Onweng of the Northern Uganda diocese told Ecumenical News International on Dec. 9 from Gulu.
The Rev. Mary Douglas Glasspool, an openly lesbian priest who lives with a partner, was elected Dec. 5 to be a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Los Angeles. The denomination's diocesan bishops and standing committees still have to confirm her election.
The Episcopal Church is the U.S.-based province of the 77-million-member Anglican Communion. Disagreement has roiled the Anglican Communion since the Episcopal Church elected and consecrated Gene Robinson, who lives with a long-time male partner, as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.
"We thought they would not do it again, after Robinson's consecration caused so much trouble in the communion," said Bishop Onono-Onweng.
Many Anglicans, particularly in the Global South where their numbers are growing rapidly, reject homosexuality as contrary to Scripture.
On Dec. 8, Uganda's Daily Monitor newspaper quoted the Rev. Alison Barfoot, an assistant to Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi, the head of the Ugandan Anglican church, as describing Glasspool's election as "unbiblical."
Barfoot said, "We believe the Bible condemns homosexual behavior as immoral. So, how can a homosexual be a bishop?"
The comments of the Ugandan church leaders came amidst a separate controversy about a draft law on homosexuality that is before the country's parliament.
The law, if it came into force, would prescribe life imprisonment for homosexuals and even, in some cases, the death penalty. Media reports suggest, however, that the provision on the death penalty may be dropped.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams was quoted as describing the draft law as being of "shocking severity," in an interview published by Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper on Dec. 12.
"I cannot see how it could be supported by any Anglican who is committed to what the communion has said in recent decades," said Williams, who has faced criticism for not speaking out publicly at an earlier stage against the proposed measure.
The Lambeth Conference of the world's Anglican bishops in 1998 described homosexual practice as being "incompatible with Scripture" but also condemned homophobia and "any discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation."
More at:
ecusa.anglican.org/81808_117806_ENG_HTM.htm