Southern Africa to consecrate its second female bishop; Cathedral’s same-sex marriage decision renews old debate, but doesn’t end it; Nigerian bishops’ threat to Church of England on sexuality; Sudan cracks down on South Sudanese Christians
Southern Africa to consecrate its second female bishop
Bishop-elect Margaret Brenda Vertue, Senior Priest and Vicar General of the Anglican Diocese of False Bay will be consecrated and enthroned as the second Bishop of the Diocese of False Bay and the second woman, after the Right Revd Ellinah Wamukoya, Bishop of Swaziland; on Saturday, 19 January at 10:30 at the University of Stellenboschs’ DF Malan Centre.
Cathedral’s same-sex marriage decision renews old debate, but doesn’t end it
Washington Times – The decision by leaders of the Washington National Cathedral to perform same-sex weddings is getting a mixed reception, with supporters calling it consistent with the church’s path for more than a decade and critics warning of further division on an issue that has roiled religious denominations across the country.
Officials at the cathedral, the most visible Episcopal church in the U.S., threw the weight of their national status, their century-old church, and thousand-member congregation behind the issue, announcing Wednesday that they would celebrate same-sex weddings effective immediately.
Leaders said the decision stemmed from a desire to move forward the “national conversation”on same-sex marriage after 30 years of study by the church, as well as the decisions of voters in three states, including Maryland, who approved referendums on same-sex marriage in November.
David Bains, a religion professor at Samford University in Alabama who has researched and written extensively about the cathedral, said the church’s leaders have worked for years to balance serving their congregation in the nation’s capital, where gay marriage has been legal since 2009, and being a beacon for Episcopalians across the country.
He noted that the church in Northwest D.C. — the site of such historic moments as presidential funerals, national celebrations and Martin Luther King Jr.’s last sermon — is no stranger to political activism.
Mr. Bains called it “a church and a ministry which would proclaim the truth of the Christian Gospel even when it challenged large parts of American culture.”
In almost three decades as dean of the cathedral, he said, the Rev. Francis B. Sayre Jr. sermonized until his retirement in 1978 on subjects such as racial injustice and the Vietnam War. More recently, the Rev. Gary Hall, current dean of the cathedral, declared that “enough is enough” after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in December, and said it was time for the church to take up the issue of gun control.
“This current action, however, is probably the most potentially divisive act the cathedral’s leadership has taken in its history,” Mr. Bains said.
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jan/13/national-cathedrals-same-sex-marriage-decision-ren/?#ixzz2HyrngNch
Nigerian bishops’ threat to Church of England on sexuality
Nigerian Anglican bishops have condemned the Church of England decision to allow celibate clergy in civil partnerships to be bishops, threatening further action. The statement highlighted ambiguous attitudes to the Bible among Church of Nigeria leaders.
It followed criticisms by Kenyan and Ugandan archbishops. According to the Nigerian statement, the Church of England’s stance on civil partnerships when they came in was a “first step towards the recognition and institutionalisation of behaviour contrary to the plain teaching of scripture and reaffirmed for all Anglicans by the 1998 Lambeth Conference in its Resolution 1.10”.
The Nigerian bishops urged the Church of England’s House of Bishops to reconsider allowing partnered bishops, in view of “the call on all clergy, especially bishops, to live holy lives and not encourage what are, at best, morally ambiguous partnerships that make it impossible for a bishop to be a wholesome example to the flock. Especially since the supposed assurances of celibacy, while perhaps well intentioned, are both unworkable and unenforceable.”
The statement warned that “if the Church of England continues in this contrary direction we must further separate ourselves from it and we are prepared to take the same actions as those prompted by the decisions of The Episcopal Church (USA) and the Anglican Church of Canada ten years ago.” This refers to bids by Nigerian bishops to take over parishes in these provinces.
Despite claims to be defending biblical teaching and the advice of the Lambeth Conference, which brings together Anglican bishops from across the world, the stance of Church of Nigeria leaders on sexuality contradicts both. “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7), says Jesus in the Gospels.
He also advises that loving God with all one’s heart, soul and mind is the greatest and first commandment, “And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22). But Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, Nigeria’s top Anglican cleric, is fiercely hostile to those who are homosexual in orientation.
In an interview in 2011, he claimed, “that type of sexual orientation is unbiblical, ungodly, unnatural, unacceptable.” In his view, “society rules through procreation and when we allow a sizeable member of the society to be homosexuals or Lesbians we cannot expect procreation to take place so naturally it is against nature.” He would appear to condemn even celibate lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) people, and perhaps celibacy more generally. Those who teach by word and deed that it is acceptable to be “eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19.12), like Jesus and St Paul, might have received a frosty welcome in Nigeria.
According to Lambeth 1.10, “We commit ourselves to listen to the experience of homosexual persons and we wish to assure them that they are loved by God and that all baptised, believing and faithful persons, regardless of sexual orientation, are full members of the Body of Christ”. Okoh is no more likely to heed this than earlier Lambeth resolutions calling for dialogue with homosexuals and “Human Rights for Those of Homosexual Orientation” – indeed he urged that Nigeria should leave the United Nations if it sought human rights for homosexuals.
Sudan cracks down on South Sudanese Christians
Sudanese authorities rang in the new year by bulldozing a church building outside Khartoum because it belonged to Christians of South Sudanese origin and lacked a permit a source said