| SUDANESE ANGLICANS are being insulted by Muslims because of the Anglican Communion’s perceived stance on homosexuality, the Archbishop of Sudan, the Most Revd Daniel Deng, said on Tuesday.
The actions of the American and Canadian Churches had “seriously harmed the Church’s witness in Africa and elsewhere, opening the Church to ridicule and damaging its credibility in a multi-faith environment”, a statement said.
Nothing short of a commitment from the American and Canadian Churches not to ordain practising homosexuals or approve rites for same-sex blessings would do. If Gene Robinson was the Christian that he said he was, he should resign for the sake of the Church, the Archbishop said later.
The 60 US bishops who consecrated him should confess to the Conference, he said. The only way the Archbishop would talk to Gene Robinson was if he first confessed. The place of listening was on the periphery of the Conference, not at its centre.
The statement that provoked all the later avowals was issued beside an appeal to the Communion for solidarity with the Sudanese Church and people, political advocacy, and practical support over Darfur. War-related deaths since 2003 now number 300,000, a loss of life that the Archbishop described in a statement on Tuesday as “an affront to all people who value human life and to religious faith in the God of mercy”.
International pressure could bring about change in Darfur. “Lives could be saved. Many people are dying in Africa. Every part of the Sudan is paining. Hunger is there, a need for clean water, diseases — all this we are being confronted with, all these problems of how to save the life of a human being in our own context. To come here and find people talking of a different thing altogether which has nothing to do with the life of a human!
“Why should we spend time talking about homosexuality when people are dying? That’s our worry. We are not here to talk of them, but of how we save the people who are part of us from dying from disease, from the war. We thought the Anglican world should be talking about it.”
Sudan was the first to take the velvet gloves off at the Conference and throw into the ring a position statement on sexuality. The two issues are inextricably linked for the country. Speaking separately to the Church Times, the Archbishop said: “Our Muslim neighbours view us as completely infidel. We are [considered] not people who love God, because they think what we are doing in the Church is completely evil. We are being insulted by Islam. We want our brothers to see the pain of what we have done.
“As the Episcopal Church of Sudan, we are asking the brothers who are the same sex [to understand] that this is unacceptable to our situation in Sudan, where we are mixed up with a multitude of different religions. This is going to affect our Church in the whole country. If our brothers are not going to give up what they are saying, this will not help us, and this will not help the Anglican Communion, because we want the Anglican Communion to remain.”
The Americans and Canadians must “drop the question”, re-think their agenda, and “give way” for the sake of Christians elsewhere, he said. “We are asking them to refrain from ordaining priests; we are asking them to refrain from blessing same-sex [relationships]; we are asking them to cease so that people can live in harmony.
“The Anglican Church is the same one family within the Sudan or in the United States. So what happens in the US affects me; what happens in the UK affects me. If they don’t want to listen, then they are pushing us away. They are saying, ‘You go.’”
The Archbishop said that his job was more and more difficult. “When I go to the Muslims or to the non-religious, when I talk to them, they say, ‘Which Church? The one that ordains homosexuals? I don’t want it. I don’t want the Church of God any more.’ So I become embarrassed.”
His credibility as a peacemaker was reduced, he said. “I’m not respected any more, and whatever I say, it will not be acceptable. I will not be accepted by a community who is not a Christian community, because they will think my ideas are not going with them. That is why we are asking [the Americans and Canadians] to think twice.” The statements had been issued because they appeared not to be listening.
The sexuality statement was intended to bring back those who had gone to GAFCON, said the Archbishop, whose statement had pointedly said: “We have come to attend the Lambeth Conference despite the decision of others to stay away, to appeal to the whole Anglican Communion to uphold our unity.” Unity of heart was important: “If our hearts are not united, then the Church is not united.”
The GAFCON people had gone: “Who knows who will follow them next tomorrow? Division starts with one, two, three, and four; and then that is the end,” he said. “So we have not to go further. We need to bring [GAFCON] back by making a very strong statement to bring them back to the house. We have to be mindful of that. We wait and hope.”
Asked at a press conference whether the US Episcopal Church had not been punished enough, he said: “We are not punishing them. We are not condemning anyone; but we have to face the crisis of the Anglican world.” Gene Robinson’s exclusion from the councils of the Anglican Communion was “a good step”; but now: “We are asking the institution of the Church of America to go further, to allow the whole community to be united.”
The Archbishop insisted that the problem was more than a cultural American problem. “As far as it is in the family, it is our concern.”
Culture was not there to change the Bible: the Bible was there to change the culture. “We have cultures in Africa that have already been changed by the Bible. Therefore, if there are cultures which are not approved by the Bible, they are left out. For us, when you look at that one: God is not making a mistake. . . He would have created Adam and Adam if he had wanted.”
On whether he could sit down with Gene Robinson, the Archbishop reiterated: “I’m personally not going to talk to him, because he first of all has to confess, and then we will talk to him.”
As for the listening process: “Their listening should not be on the table, but on the periphery. You cannot bring the listening to the table on which you would make a decision.”
On the authority of the Bible, he said: “You cannot pull out anything or add anything, because that alone would be a curse. Nobody can change [the Bible]. If you try to change it, there is crisis.”
On whether there were gay people in Sudan: “They are not there. We don’t [have them].”
Seventeen provinces had supported his statement, he said. |
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