Jill Rees: Welcome Press

Gazing over the great cathedral at Canterbury UK, at peace with its few tourists walking round looking in awe at the facade, it seems hard to imagine that only a short while ago this was the scene of the biggest fracas in recent Anglican history. The African Bishops who finally did attend the Lambeth Conference returned victorious, if not fully sated, as the US church had been persuaded to agree to pause its ordination of gay clergy in African regions.  

Africa, it seems to have decided, is not yet ready. Of the 77 million Anglicans in the world, one of the quarter of all bishops who refused to attend was the influential Nigerian, Peter Akinolo. A few weeks previously, however, he led a shadow conference in Israel, the Christians’ Holy Land, to discuss conservative reform of the Anglican Church. This faction believe they are defending the entire Christian notion of sin, which the more liberal European and American Anglicans are leaving behind in favour of compassion and acceptance.

The issue centres on the Church’s attitude to homosexuality. Bishop Kwashi of Jos in particular is concerned that the Church accepting homosexuality, and in particular Bishops who are openly homosexual, makes the Anglican Church prone to ridicule from Moslems. Where he is, of course, this is an important issue, as the Christians there are vying to attract people who would otherwise become Moslem.

The view towards homosexuality itself is radically different in secular society in Africa and in the developed nations. Homosexuality is completely legal and in recent years in particular has become socially acceptable. In the UK finally it is possible for a politician to ‘come out’ without any consequences for his or her status.  The law prevents any discrimination based on a person’s sexual preferences, and it is increasingly being regarded as a lifestyle choice and a private matter. It is difficult for westerners to understand the African attitude towards homosexuality, and the revulsion still common here appears bizarre and even suspect.  However the fact is that homosexuality is illegal in many African countries and is socially unacceptable.

It is difficult for Africans to even realise that by making it so difficult for homosexuals to express or admit their sexuality in public merely drives it underground. Homosexuality is now accepted as being something you are born with, and the 5% to 10% of people who are naturally gay will also be in Nigeria. They are all around us!  It isn’t that no-one is gay here, but that they are concealing it, because they have to.

Although we can discuss scripture, and most of the scripture which seems to oppose homosexuality comes from a later date in the Church history and was spoken not by Jesus but by later Bishops, the fact is that by rejecting homosexuals, the Church is excluding people who would otherwise believe. Excluding people is something Jesus never did. Indeed his attitude of acceptance to those who were normally excluded from the society of his day, such as lepers, Samaritans, women and Romans, is one of the things that got him arrested and finally crucified.  

The choice to me, as to many practicing Christians in the world, seems to be between acting in a Church-like manner, and acting in a Christ-like manner. While Akinole, the ‘Hammer of God’, believes that majority opinion in Nigeria supports his hard-line stance, the church in Nigeria is still fast-growing. In the UK, attendance is falling. The combination of European law, and falling numbers, mean that Christians in the UK are pressurised to accept everyone, and be grateful for the numbers.

This is the political side to Church leadership, although I have no doubt that many, especially in the American Church, feel their conscience is moving them.  Ultimately, it is up to the individual to decide whether they should harden their heart towards this section of humanity.

The future of the Church seems to be leading inevitably to a split over this issue, and this seems like a sorry and minor issue to lose one of the few genuine partnerships between Africa and the northern countries.  Links with the Church in Africa, and exchanges within education and community groups, have benefited Africans and British people alike, and have crushed a lot of prejudices against Africans as Britons become more aware of life here. Against the flow of contemporary institutions in other areas, the Church seems likely to become less global, and more provincial.

It is a shame that such serious consequences have to follow what is in truth a fairly minor issue, involving a minority of Church members, and a matter that could be prevented were Africans to take a more tolerant stance.

©Jill Rees 2008 782 words

Related posts

• Priests and the People. (0)

Tags: Bishop Kwasi, Bishop Peter Akinolo, Christianity in Nigeria, homosexuality and christianity, Lambeth Conference