Primates of Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, Sudan and Southern Cone write to Archbishop Welby
March 21st, 2013 Posted in News :
Thursday 21st March 2013
Archbishop Justin Welby
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and The Lord Jesus Christ.
We greet you on this day of celebration and assure you and your family of our prayers for your future ministry.
We are grateful for this opportunity to worship in Canterbury Cathedral and be reminded of our historic faith that is grounded in the revealed Word of God.
We encourage you to stay true to the ‘faith once delivered to the saints’ and as you do we will stand with you for the sake of Christ.
We do look forward to a future opportunity to meet and discuss how we can work together.
To Him be all the glory..
The Most Revd Dr. Eliud Wabukala Anglican Church of Kenya
The Most Revd Nicholas Okoh Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
The Most Revd Stanley Ntagali Church of the Province of Uganda
The Most Revd Onesphore Rwaje Province de l’Eglise Anglicane au Rwanda
The Most Revd Daniel Deng Bul The Episcopal Church of the Sudan
The Most Revd Hector Zavala Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America
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The identity of these Prelates of the world-wide Anglican Communion – all identifying with the Kenya-led conservative think-tank known as GAFCON – dictates the deeper agenda of Archbishop Eliud Wabukala’s intention to front the movement for a ‘sola-scriptura’ cultic bridgehead in the Communion – based on the following statement:
“We encourage you to stay true to the ‘faith once delivered to the saints’ and as you do we will stand with you for the sake of Christ”
Is this an implied threat, that if the Church of England continues to comply with its intention – voiced in the House of Bishops – to allow for the ordination of celibate Gay Bishops in the C.of E., then GAFCON will encourage its cohorts to quit the Communion?
One hopes that the new Archbishop of Canterbury will not allow himself, and the rest of the Anglican Communion, to be bullied by these prelates – into turning back from the new trajectory of removing discrimination from Women and Gays in the Church. GAFCON’s insistence that homosexuality is a disordered condition in humanity – requiring extinction – is a profoundly mistaken understanding of the intrinsic value of the human beings affected by it, who must be accepted as children of God, on the same basis as heterosexual people.
In the homelands of some of these prelates, homosexuals are subject to imprisonment and, in some cases, even death – simply because of their innate, God-given, sexual orientation. This cannot possibly be in accord with the Gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Sadly, though the hierarchy of the local Anglican Church is often a part of the discrimination.
Father Ron Smith, Christchurch, New Zealand
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