Gay Marriages - Archbishop Moves To Pacify African Bishops

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Rowan Williams moves to pacify African bishops

- The Guardian

THE Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, may have commenced moves to pacify bishops of the Anglican Communion in Africa for them not to boycott future Lambeth Conferences, the highest meetings for Anglican bishops worldwide. A Lambeth Conference is held every 10 years.

The African bishops of the church had led a boycott of the last conference in England over the refusal of Williams to upturn his decision to make gay marriages part and parcel of the church's doctrine. The massive boycott had been preceded by a series of peace meetings, which did not yield any result.

The insistence of the Archbishop of Canterbury was allegedly premised on his philosophical conviction, while that of the African bishops was based on a biblical doctrine, which according to them forbids marriages between members of the same sex.

Shedding light on the development yesterday at a press conference in Ilorin, the Bishop of Igbomina Diocese of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Rt.Rev. Michael Akinyemi said Williams having realised his errors and shocked by the massive boycott of the last Lambeth Conference had commenced moves to reconcile the church.

The press conference was the first in weeklong events to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Igbomina Diocese. Akinyemi, who is also the Archbishop of the Ecclesiastical Province of Kwara Anglican Communion, is the pioneering bishop of the diocese.

He said: "By our understanding, Lambeth is not a Legislative Council but a forum to debate issues with a view to coming to a compromise where necessary, every 10 years. We boycotted the last conference due to the issue of homosexuality, which was a big debate at the 1999 Lambeth. We warned the then archbishop against it and because he was a charismatic bishop he listened to us.

"When he retired and Williams came on board, we knew we were in for a problem. The post of the Archbishop in Lambeth is not by election but an appointment by the Queen of England, otherwise Williams would not have emerged the winner. Williams is a philosopher and not an evangelical bishop. We have met him on several occasions and told him that Anglican Church is a Bible-based church and should therefore jettison his philosophy. We told him to be careful but he was careless."

According to Akinyemi, Williams was told that gayism was "stupidity" and a message from the pit of hell fire but to no avail, adding, "today he has learnt his lessons in a hard way. We recently formulated our policies on this issue and sent the same to the Lambeth and it is now approved by the same Lambeth. Williams is now looking desperately for way out to pacify us. The Bible is clear on an issue like this, no man can exchange the natural use of the woman for an unnatural use as created by God."

Speaking on the issue of alleged quest by the government to impose taxation on religious organisations in Nigeria, the bishop said such a development would not in any way boost the nation's economic fortunes, blaming successive political leaders in the country for allegedly assisting successful business people to evade payment of taxes, "because of the interest of most of these leaders in the businesses."

He added: "We know the duty that we owe the government in this respect and we have been doing it. We have been telling our members on the need not to evade taxation. We cannot be doing some charitable endeavours to complement the efforts of the government and you will again expect us to pay taxes as a church."

Reacting to the issue of global economic meltdown, the Anglican priest said Nigeria as a nation should not be among the nations that should be affected due to its vast human and economic resources. He, however, lamented the alleged unfaithfulness of some of the nation's political leaders in the management of these resources.

According to Akinyemi, if Nigeria were America it would have been turned into a paradise, noting: "In America, there are not just plans for the people living but for the generation yet unborn. It is only in Nigeria that senators go home with millions of Naira while the professors are paid meagre salaries. We need to do a serious rethink about the nation. Let us shun corruption and embrace righteousness. Re-branding is not the solution but righteousness. We are indeed in Nigeria but we mismanage our resources always. We have concentrated the resources in the hands of a very few ones."

A total of 20 awardees would be conferred with various honours by the church to commemorate its 10th anniversary. The bishop thanked the people of the diocese for their industry and spiritual growth, which according to him have led to accelerated growth of the diocese. He promised to continually uplift the youth wing of the church as that remains the future of the church.

Akinyemi was consecrated Bishop on July 11, 1999 in Enugu Diocese, while his inauguration took place on July 14 the same year. The retired Primate of the Anglican Communion in Nigeria, Most Rev. Abiodun Adetiloye led the service then.