Archbishop to Mugabe: Anti-gay laws are wrong
Colin Stewart is a 45-year journalism veteran living in Southern…
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:
“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.
In the future, Welby said:
“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.”
Related articles:
- Anglican Consultative Council declines to go along with ‘consequences’ (April 18, 2016, Episcopal Digital Network)
- Dissent weakens anti-gay coalition in Anglican Communion (April 8, 2016, 76crimes.com)
- Don’t cry over Anglicans who lost the power to oppress (April 8, 2016, 76crimes.com)
- Episcopal Church is in — not out — at Anglican gathering (March 2016, 76crimes.com)
- Plea to Ugandan archbishop: Love your LGBT neighbor (Feb. 29, 2016, 76crimes.com)
- Archbishop of Canterbury to LGBTI community: Sorry! (Jan. 15, 2016, 76crimes.com)
- African Anglicans: English protest vs. Ugandan rallies (Jan. 19, 2016, 76crimes.com)
- Justin Welby says sorry to LGBTI community for hurt and pain caused by Anglican church (Jan. 15, 2016, The Guardian)
- Canterbury rally to Anglican leaders: Listen to LGBTI people (Jan. 14, 2016, 76crimes.com)
- Anglicans discipline Episcopalians over same-sex marriage (Jan. 14, 2016, 76crimes.com)
- Stonewall CEO: A split in the Anglican Church could be dangerous for LGBT people – religious or not (Jan. 12, 2016, The Telegraph)
- Barbaric’ Anglican schism would not threaten LGBTI progress (Jan. 10, 2016, 76crimes.com)
- Anglicans’ LGBTI schism: Archbishop’s realism or bad idea? (September 2015, 76crimes.com)
- Church of England to blame for anti-gay Nigeria, Uganda? (September 2015, 76crimes.com)
- Petition to archbishops: End anti-gay purge in Kenya (September 2015, 76crimes.com)
- U.S. church plans support for LGBT-friendly Africans (June 2015, 76crimes.com)
- Anti-gay Anglicans blast archbishop for friendly chats in U.S. (January 2015, 76crimes.com)
- Eject anti-gay Anglicans or keep a poisoner at dinner? (March 2014, 76crimes.com)
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.