KIGALI (RP)- The archbishop of Anglican Church in Rwanda and Chair of the Gafcon Primates Council, Rev Laurent Mbanda has urged the Archbishop of Canterbury to stop meddling in the affairs of Anglicans on Africa continent, saying his support for same-sex marriage has torn the worldwide Anglican communion a part.
Last week, Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, urged the Anglican Church of Uganda to reject the country’s new anti-homosexuality law, saying the legislation was a “fundamental departure” from the global Anglican movement’s commitment to protect the dignity of people from “all walks of life.”
The matter about allowing gay people play a central role in the affairs of Anglican Church has deepened the rift in the Anglican Church.
Anglican churches led by conservative leaders oppose the inclusion of gay people to play active role in the church being pushed by liberals.
In a statement issued on June 14, the Archbishop Mbanda, who chairs more conservative group, also accused Welby, the church’s global head of perpetuating colonialism. World leaders have also criticized Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ law that imposes the death penalty for certain same-sex acts and a 20-year prison sentence for promoting homosexuality.
In the letter to the archbishop of Uganda Stephen Kazinda, Welby expressed “grief” and “sorrow” over the church’s support for the harshest law that violets the gays’ rights.
But archbishop Mbanda said it was contradictory and self-serving for Welby to speak about being grief and sorrow on the events in Uganda when he has rebelled against the true spiritual teaching of the bible.
He said the true teachings of the bible reject same-sex acts and homosexuality which Welby has now embraced. “It is pertinent to remind the archbishop Welby that Africa is no longer a colony of British Empire and the Church of England has no jurisdiction over Anglican provinces on the continent of Africa,” Mbanda asserted in a statement.
The rift in the Anglican Church is happening months after the decision of the Church of England to bless civil marriages of same-sex couples was made.
In April this year, hundreds of Anglican conservative leaders from 52 countries convened in Rwanda amid a rift over support for same-sex unions within the church and vowed to fight the vice.
The conference had been convened under the auspices of the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, or GAFCON, a group formed in 2008 that advocates orthodoxy in the global Anglican communion.
The divisions have widened in recent years as conservative bishops, notably from Africa and Asia, affirmed their opposition to LGBTQ+ inclusion and demanded “repentance” by the more liberal provinces with inclusive policies.
