COMMENTARY

Mostly non-whites Anglicans poised to split from their Church over gay agenda

by Anthony Livingston Hall, a Turks & Caicos Islands descendant, Washington lawyer and consultant to the former President of the United States, Bill Clinton, who publishes his own Internet Weblog at http://ipinions.blogspot.com offering a Caribbean perspective on international events

Tuesday,  November 15, 2005

Last week, Anglican bishops from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, India and Latin America - representing 50 million church members in the newly formed Anglican Communion Network (ACN) - met in America to challenge U.S. and Canadian bishops to declare whether they’re going to remain loyal to an Anglican Church that consecrates gay bishops and sanctions gay marriages, or join the ACN that shall strictly prohibit such consecrations and marriages…in the name of the Almighty God.

Perhaps it was prophetic that, just days before in England, the Archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion - Dr. Rowan Williams, had reached his wits' end trying to prevent his Church from blowing itself asunder.

Because after meeting with Gene Robinson, the gay bishop who incited this defiant challenge by the ACN bishops, neither the Archbishop nor Robinson could offer disaffected church members any assurance that homosexuality does not represent the devil entering the church - as founding ACN member Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi of Kenya warned with righteous indignation.

Which, of course, begs the following question: How did this North / South divide develop within the Anglican Church over a human trait that’s as indispensable to who we are as the colour of our skin?

(I feel divinely inspired to suggest here, respectfully, that it is messianic for anyone to proclaim that homosexuals are NOT created by God; but that they are instead nurtured by the ungodly predilections of men.

Moreover, those of us whose ancestors were enslaved centuries ago should be especially sensitised against such fatuous rationalisations. Because back then, “men of God” cited the same bible that today purportedly condemns homosexuals, to condemn blacks as sub-human and suited only for slave labour.)

At any rate, for over 2 years, the Archbishop has been locked in a Jacobin fight with ACN bishops for the hearts and souls of the Anglican faithful. This is a fight, however, that must make the Prophet Lot cringe with déjà vu. Because, the very “debauchery” that provoked God to destroy his Sodom and Gomorrah is now provoking God’s wrath upon the Anglican Church.

Yet, despite this ominous biblical precedent, recent conclaves of the Archbishop and his primates (leaders of the 38 provinces of the Church – including ACN bishops) have been characterized more by internecine rows than by reasoning together to determine “what saith the Lord” about the rights and privileges of homosexuals in their church.

As indicated above, this row erupted in November 2003 when the Anglican Church of the United States consecrated Cannon Gene Robinson of New Hampshire as bishop. And it was only exacerbated when the Anglican Church of Canada vowed to continue performing gay marriages.

These developments in turn compelled leaders of conservative provinces worldwide to call on the Archbishop to expel the U.S. and Canadian provinces or face defections - en masse - from the Church.

In response, the Archbishop did what any good politician would do: he commissioned a report. (By contrast, his most famous predecessor, Archbishop Thomas Becket, would surely have been guided by the unqualified conviction of his faith to act summarily - probably by ex-communicating Robinson and the bishops who consecrated him as well as those who performed gay marriages.)

Nevertheless, the (Windsor) Report was commissioned “to consider ways in which the worldwide Anglican Communion can stay together in light of stresses created by issues such as the blessing of same-sex unions in one Canadian diocese and the election of a gay bishop in the U.S. Episcopal Church”.

Unfortunately, the findings of the report did little to quell the spirit of insurrection that was simmering amongst conservative members of Church. Moreover, these church members - who believe that homosexual practices are an abomination against God - feel that the Archbishop betrayed his pastoral duties by allowing the “reprobate” U.S. and Canadian provinces to remain in the Anglican Communion.

They are clearly not satisfied that, instead of excommunicating those proselytizing the gay agenda within the Church, the Archbishop settled for the report’s ambivalent recommendations; which state in part that:

"the standard of Christian teaching on matters of human sexuality had been seriously undermined by the recent developments in North America [and that] liberal provinces must cease and desist from their practice of ordaining gay clergy and performing same-sex marriages…and conservative provinces should hold in abeyance any thoughts of defecting from the church.”

That the Archbishop actually suspended the U.S. and Canadian provinces from the leadership of the church for three years evidently provides little consolation. Because conservative Anglicans feel aggrieved by the challenge homosexuality presents to the longstanding tenets of their faith and the “supremacy and clarity…of God’s words”.

And, it just so happens that those who feel most aggrieved are (non-white) ACN Bishops; whereas, those most responsible for mounting this challenge are white Anglicans. Therefore, though few dare to say it, this schism is - at its core - one where race and culture are almost as determinative as subjective interpretations of the Bible.

For his part, the Archbishop has lamented that "not having a common language, a common frame of reference” was at the heart of the differences between Anglicans who support the gay agenda and those who oppose it. But he is being either naïve or disingenuous.

Because it is no secret that ACN members are motivated by deeply rooted cultural and sexual sensibilities which regard homosexuality as anathema to their paternalistic and defiantly heterosexual orientation.

But their fervent opposition to the gay agenda is governed even more by their reading of the holy scriptures which, they claim, condemn homosexuality as unnatural and a mortal sin (remember Lot’s Sodomites?). And, they hold these views notwithstanding the fact that their own Archbishop’s reading of those same scriptures defies their interpretation).

Therefore, regardless of admonitions and suspensions, there seems no hope for reconciling this row. Indeed, the leader of the Canadian province, Archbishop Andrew Hutchinson, presaged his acceptance of this fate by observing that “it may only be a matter of time before there is a permanent split in the world wide Anglican Communion.”

Meanwhile, his co-reprobate and the leader of the U.S. province, Archbishop Frank Griswold, was even more emphatic in declaring his province’s decision to ordain gay clergy to be sanctioned by God; even though it may prove “extremely problematic and difficult in many parts of the world” (especially in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean).

And he was right. Because in response to the ordination of Gene Robinson, Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, who represents 17 million Anglicans, said he would refuse to recognise Bishop Robinson, no matter what church leaders decree.

And in a statement endorsed by bishops (including Archbishop Greg Venables, the leader of the Church in South America and Archbishop Drexel Gomez, the leader of the Church in the Caribbean) who represent 50 million ACN church members, Ankiola declared that:

“We deplore the act of those bishops who have taken part in the consecration, which has now divided the church in violation of their obligation to guard the faith and unity of the church."

Moreover, just days ago, ACN leaders met with the Archbishop to entreat him – for the last time - to exact “more meaningful penalties” against the U.S. and Canadian provinces. And, after the Archbishop demurred, Stephen Noll, vice chancellor of Uganda Christian University, expressed the consensus view of those who attended as follows:

“…[A] division within the Anglican Communion was inevitable. American Episcopalians recently held a service of consecration at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., for a top leader of the Metropolitan Community Church, which was created by and for the gay religious community…The Episcopal Church (USA) intends to send a signal that they are going in a certain direction and will not turn back….It confirms our sad realization that the Episcopal Church as it is now constituted is unreformable. It is a sad day to see your own birth mother fall away."

Alas, there seems no compromise in the religious conviction of the ACN leaders which “rejects the expectation that [the lives of non-white Anglicans] in Christ should conform to the misguided theological, cultural, and sociological norms associated with [white Anglicans]."

It is helpful to bear in mind, however, that this a racial / cultural split in the Anglican Church is belated compared to similar splits that occurred in the Catholic, Methodist and Baptist churches many years ago. Indeed, separate but equal (white and non-white) church services have long been a commonplace feature of religious worship in the United States and around the world.

But, what is ironical and, frankly, disappointing about this row is that African and Caribbean blacks are using the same perverse religious and cultural rationalisations to discriminate against gays that white bigots used to rationalise their discrimination against blacks not so long ago.

NOTE: Stay tuned for the ACN’s declaration of religious independence from the worldwide Anglican Communion….

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