bishop's bomb

SAPA-Reuters

November 1, 2005: The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa has thrown the cat among the pigeons by supporting polygamy and homosexuality - provided they promote the Gospel.

The church's bishop, Louis Sibiya, said there was not a simple "yes" or "no" to the question whether a gay person could be married and even ordained in the church, or whether a polygamist could be ordained into the ministry.

"Rather we should ask how the acceptance or non-acceptance of these promote the course of the Gospel," Sibiya said at the 30th anniversary celebrations of the church in southern Africa at Kempton Park on Sunday.

"If we think electing as bishop a man who has 14 wives will advance the cause of the Gospel better, let it be so.

"If a gay presiding bishop would - in our opinion - advance the cause of the Gospel, let it be so.

"If boxes of condoms are kept in our churches, diocesan offices and in our parsonages, and our pastors carry some along with Holy Communion when they do home visits, and it is our belief that the cause of the Gospel would be better advanced in that way, let it be so," Sibiya added.

He also questioned the custom of holding expensive funerals, saying that research shows that the average cost of a funeral is R30 000.

"We need to be looking at traditions and customs that perpetuate poverty and suffering - and such funerals are one of them."

He also called for quality education and better health services to help the poor.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa has a membership of 700 000 with 460 active pastors, 26 evangelists and 24 deaconesses.

Sibiya's statement came as traditionalist Anglican clerics warned US and Canadian churches that their liberal stance on gay rights was tearing the 450-year-old church apart.

In some of the strongest language they have used so far, leading clerics in Africa, Asia and Latin America said yesterday they saw no evidence yet that US and Canadian Anglicans were responding to calls for "repentance".

The 77 million-strong church has been divided since 2003 when the US Episcopal Church ordained a gay bishop and Canadian Anglicans began blessing same-sex marriages.

The Catholic Church remains implacably opposed to gay marriages, and to divorce and the use of condoms.

In June, Pope Benedict XVI described same-sex unions as "pseudo-matrimony".