Posted on 08/28/2007 4:45:06 PM PDT by wagglebee
ABUJA, Nigeria, August 27, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Archbishop Peter Akinola, the Primate of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, released a statement indicating that traditional conservative Anglicans may have to part ways with the liberal American Church over the issue of homosexuality.
Referring to the U.S. Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church in Canada's move to accept same-sex "marriage," he stated, as reported in the Christian Post, "Their intention is clear; they have chosen to walk away from the biblically-based path we once all walked together."
Clearly indicating that faithful conservative Anglicans cannot accept a position that directly contradicts the teaching of the Bible, Akinola stated, "The moment of decision is almost upon us."
"We earnestly desire the healing of our beloved communion but not at the cost of rewriting the Bible to accommodate the latest cultural trend," he said. "We cannot turn away from the source of life and love for a temporary truce."
He stated that North American Anglican leaders "seem to have concluded that the Bible is no longer authoritative in many areas of human experience in salvation and sexuality."
"They claim to have 'progressed' beyond the clear teaching of the Scriptures and that they have not hidden their intention to lead others to these same conclusions." He continued, "They have even boasted that they are years ahead of others in fully understanding he truth of the Holy Scriptures and the nature of God's love."
"The first road, the one that follows the path of compromise by The Episcopal Church, USA, and the Anglican Church of Canada, is one that we simply cannot take because the cost is too high," he said, as reported in Tide News. "The other road is the only one that we can embrace. It is not an easy road because it demands obedience and faithfulness."
"It requires a renewed commitment to historic Biblical faith," he added.
"For those who have walked away from the second commitment, especially The Episcopal Church, U.S.A. and the Anglican Church of Canada, it requires repentance and a reversal of current unscriptural policies," Akinola said.
In 2003 The U.S. Episcopalian Church deepened a growing split within the Anglican Church by consecrating the first actively gay bishop, Gene Robinson, Bishop of New Hampshire. At a meeting next month, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, will meet with the U.S. Episcopalian Bishops in New Orleans, the Associated Press reports.
The US Episcopalian Bishops must formally agree by September 30 not to consecrate another openly gay bishop, or they could lose their full membership thereby causing an official schism in the Anglican Church.
Read previous LifeSiteNews coverage:
Anglican Hierarchy ~ US Anglicans Have Seven Months to Shape up or Ship Out
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/feb/07022007.html
Nigerian Prelate Calls for Suspension of Church of England from Worldwide Anglican Communion
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/aug/05081501.html
Anglican Church Splits over Consecration of Active Homosexual as Bishop
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2003/nov/03110404.html
US Episcopal Church: We'll Leave Anglican Communion Before Homosexuality
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/mar/07032303.html
Archbishop of Canterbury Fears Coming Anglican Schism over Homosexuality
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/jan/07010904.html
Yes it does.
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WOW ! Amen to that ! Very important for the CHristian churchs to be very clear about this.
I was in Nigeria earlier this year. No gays there.
Men are men. In fact I believe Gay sex and Gay clubs etc etc are against the law. Northern Nigeria is under sharia
law (i.e., the law of dogs) so gay sex= execution.
Also, men do not wear earrings, tattoos, hair-dos etc.
Saying no gays here or there is simply silly. It reminds me of the South African leader who made similar claim only to see AIDS become epidemic in his country. The gays may not be out like in the Western countries, but they are there. Let’s not bury our head in the sand.
Can we borrow this guy for the Roman Catholic Church?
In his case I will make an exception to my stance against human cloning.
My church gives a nod to this, but, well, you know . . .
Congratulations on having a prelate who is clear, grounded, and means what he says and follows through.
I think it is very possible that within the next twenty years, many traditional Anglicans will enter into full communion with the Catholic Church.
In the meantime, I will pray that my brothers and sisters in Christ will find the faith and fortitude to resist the abomination that the secularists are trying to force on them.
The Tiber is nice and warm this time of year. The journey East is also welcoming.
Which to choose? It is hard; but the rewards will be overwhelming.
Paudio,
I am not sure that the widespread existence of AIDs in Africa supports your conclusion that there is also widespread homosexuality there. (That may not be what you are saying, but it seems a reasonable inference from what you wrote.)
The spread of African AIDs is primarily by heterosexual means. The health conditions, including especially certain genital sores, would appall the average Westerner. Sexual mores are also very different.
I am certainly not denying that their are gays in Africa, indeed there are. But they are likely not as numerous as some may believe given Africa’s AIDs problem.
There is also a further wrinkle. Many times AIDs is the default diagnosis there, so the numbers may well be inflated. Poor facilities and lack of time and talent and many other factors cause AIDs statistics to be unreliable. There is not doubting it is a severe, in situations devastating problem, but it is part of the problem. There are lots of other diseases in Africa worthy of Rock Star attention, but that lack the panache of caring about AIDs.
I’m Catholic, but I have noticed that some of my Protestant friends are much less resistant than they were just a few years ago.
You’re Catholic?
Well, blow me down!!! (Well, not as literally as an Idaho Senator). I have followed much of your work and salute you sir.
I’m just a Knight in the cavalry of the Church.
And some of my more faithful Protestant friends have also not quite admitted, but have come close, that their church has left them, and that they are close to a point where they have to make a decision as to their theology and to where their souls ought to journey.
As much as I would like to see them in the Church, I am even more saddened by what is being done to them by the secular humanist/moral relativists.
Archbishop Akinola is a great Christian leader. If you don’t get “First Things” magazine, you should go to their website and look at some of the articles he’s written for them.
The Anglican Communion has a substantial population of fighting Christians. Everyone who believes in God should support them, and offer a prayer of gratitude for the Englishmen who gave their lives to convert Africans.
You are right that AIDS in Africa was spread through heterosexual. Yet, it also true that the prevalence of HIV+ among gays is higher than others. By denying that gays existed, the minster closed the door for dealing with them.
My point was not about AIDS. I was having trouble with your claim that there is no gay in Nigeria.
I did not make the claim that there were no gays in Nigeria. (Please refer to my post, you seem to be confusing what I said.)
I stated clearly in my post that there are certainly homosexuals in Africa, just not in the numbers some would infer given the fact that it is more widespread there. The point, of course, being that AIDs is probably a mostly heterosexual phenomenon in Africa — a very distinct difference between the West and African nations.
My best Protestant “friend” is my husband of 22 years, during which time he has attended Mass with me every single Sunday, on some Holy Days, and even Stations of the Cross, and raised all our children Catholic without any objections. He will not even consider going to RCIA, no matter how much I bring it up or pray endlessly. He never attends any Protestant services or acts like he even wants to or misses it. He prays fervently in our Church. I just don’t get it. Would you two add him to your prayer list? Thanx
Thank You. He is my presiding Bishop.
So you two are posting on a thread about a wonderful Anglican and you manage to go off topic to describe
how soon good Protestants will become Roman Catholics.
Yeah, and I am kinda saddened by home young boys were sodomized by priests and how many bishops willfully
ignored this monstrous evil.
Yes, to the extent that this occurred (which I believe has been grossly overstated by the media), I am disgusted and hope that every last living pederast priest (including those guilty of obstructing justice) is jailed for his crimes and those who are deceased will surely have to answer for their sins. Just as I believe that Henry VIII had to answer for ordering the murder of Catholic clergy and nuns when the Church of England broke with Rome.
That being said, at no time on this thread have I suggested that anyone must become a Catholic. I merely noted that many have chosen that course. Archbishop Peter Akinola is a great man and ANY church would be blessed to have him. Were he a Catholic, it is quite likely that he would one day be pope or at the very least a high-ranking cardinal. As it stands, he is serving God by helping to undo decades of theological decline within the Anglican Communion and ALL Christians should thank God for this.
I think it is imporant for all of us to realize that the left, under satan's guidance, is working to destroy Christianity as a whole. Perhaps not within our lifetimes, but almost certainly within this century, Evangelical Christians of all denominations, Catholics, Orthodox and Orthodox Jews will be sharing prison cells for our shared belief that God's laws are not open to revision just because some want them to be. C.S. Lewis predicted nearly a half a century ago that the greatest threat to Christianity was from the secular humanists and this is what we need to remember. Yes Catholics and Protestants disagree on some issues, but we agree on many more important ones and in the end we must be united in the war against evil.
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