Colin Stewart is a 45-year journalism veteran living in Southern…
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby (Photo courtesy of Info.Catho.be)
Will the worldwide Anglican Communion stop supporting the homophobic Anglican Churches of Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda, since those churches endorse their countries’ anti-gay laws?
That’s what would happen if the world’s various Anglican churches — all of them originally descended from the Church of England — take Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, their spiritual leader, at his word.
Welby reported April 18 to an Anglican gathering in Zambia that on April 17 he crossed the border into Zimbabwe to meet President Robert Mugabe. As the Episcopal News Service reports it:
Robert Mugabe in 2009 (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
“The notorious African leader … asked him about the communion’s stance on same-sex marriage. The archbishop said he told Mugabe that while Anglicans have ‘widely differing views … the majority opinion is that marriage is a lifelong union between a man and woman.
“And that the unanimous opinion of the primates’ meeting was that the criminalization of LGBTIQ people is entirely wrong.”
“I don’t think it would be fair to say that he entirely agreed with me,” Welby added.
Welby said the Anglican Consultative Counsel, meeting in Zambia, is “deeply committed” to opposing religiously based violence.
“When I talk to people I am going to be honest. Let’s never pretend that things are other than they are. We are not entirely united on the issues around human sexuality. We have profound and important divisions among us. It’s clear what has been the majority opinion among us. It’s also very clear that, when it comes to criminalization [of LGBTIQ people], that we are deeply committed to combatting that in every place where we find it and not supporting those who support it.”
It is time that the Anglican Church, like the rest of the British Empire, becomes a Commonwealth:
A relationship based on shared history and tradition but made up of sovereign entities , each managing its own particular situation while offering mutual respect and recognition for one another’s.
It is time that the Anglican Church, like the rest of the British Empire, becomes a Commonwealth:
A relationship based on shared history and tradition but made up of sovereign entities , each managing its own particular situation while offering mutual respect and recognition for one another’s.