homosexuality continues to split anglican communion

By Lesego Masike (BTM Reporter)

AFRICA  ABROAD – June 20, 2008: Anglican conservatives have finally declared dissolution of the Anglican Communion in a 94-page document titled The Way, the Truth and the Life.

The conservatives concede that they will not associate themselves with liberals who tolerate homosexuality and ordination of women in the communion.

After outlining recent conflicts within the Anglican Communion, the document defines what true Anglicanism is and what is at stake and the future of mainstream Anglicans if there’s no measurement to curb homosexuality into the church’s ideologies and values.

With the document aimed at the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, the purists claim in the document that he cannot hold the church together any longer.

Archbishop Peter Akinola, Primate of Nigeria, is also quoted in the document as saying “the church is gripped by its most serious crisis, and can only be saved by the repentance of Americans who triggered the row by ordaining an openly gay bishop, Reverend Gene Robinson, five years ago.”

The document is supported by African churches including Nigeria, Uganda and Rwanda which represent almost half of the Anglican worshipers.

In one section of the document, Archbishop Akinola states: “Now we confront a moment of decision. If we fail to act, we risk leading millions of people away from the faith revealed in the Holy Scriptures.”

“We earnestly desire the healing of our beloved Communion, but not at the cost of re-writing the Bible to accommodate the latest cultural trend”, he exclaimed.

He also emphasised in his interview with the Tribute that, if next month’s Lambeth Conference takes place in the absence of Archbishops who threatened to boycott it, it will cease to be an effective instrument of unity.

Supporting what is written in the document, Archbishop Akinola affirms that, “the communion has already been broken by the actions of the American and Canadian churches.”

He further advised that “repentance and reversal by these North American provinces may yet save our communion.”

In the document, Archbishop Akinola narrates the incidents that lead to these crossroads citing the decision made by the Diocese of New Westminster to approve same-sex in June 2002 in Canada.

This incident including others such as the consecration of Bishop Robinson in 2003, are used to support the Anglican conservatives’ view that Anglican principles are being changed by liberal Anglicans to accommodated the latest cultural trends such as homosexuality.

The booklet, written over the past six months, was compiled by a group called the Theological Resource Team.

Next week, about 1000 senior conservatives including Archbishop Akinola will meet in Jerusalem to discuss the way forward.

This meeting will happen parallel to Jerusalem’s annual gay pride.

Yet Rabbi Yehuda Levin, of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, is on a mission to Jerusalem to stop the parade.

Levin told LifeSiteNews that he must stop the desecration of the Holy City by homosexual activists, who insist on having a public parade to celebrate depravity through the city streets.

Levin also believes that the key to success in this situation is for the Vatican to speak out in opposition to the parade and “for all the religious leaders to unite in defense against the attacks from the homosexual network.”

Now Levin has called upon the Vatican to take control of the situation in Jerusalem and eventually in the world, and to finally bring homosexuality to an end.