RWANDA: Anglican Archbishop says approval of second gay US bishop is divisive

[david at virtueonline.org]

RWANDA: Anglican Archbishop says approval of second gay US bishop is divisive

By Fredrick Nzwili
Ecumenical News Service
March 30, 2010

 Kigali - Anglican Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda has warned that the approval of a second openly homosexual bishop in the U.S. Episcopal Church will further tear apart the 77-million- member worldwide Anglican Communion.

In an interview with Ecumenical News International in Kigali, Kolini said the ratification will make it harder for the grouping to heal the rift created by the debate on homosexuality over the years.

"It is clear that those on both sides of the issue are not of the same mind and are not going to work together," he told ENI in an interview on 24 March during which he accused Western churches of imposing homosexuality onto the South.

The Rev. Mary Glasspool, who has lived with a female partner for 22 years, on 17 March, received the required number of votes from bishops and standing committees to be elected as the bishop of Los Angeles, making her the Episcopal Church's second openly homosexual bishop.

In 2003, Bishop V. Gene Robinson was elected the bishop of New Hampshire. After Robinson's election, a number of Anglican bishops, mainly in the South, broke ties with Episcopalians. Four U.S. dioceses and dozens of parishes have also left the Episcopal Church since then.

Kolini in the past has used the terms "moral genocide" in referring to homosexuality among Christians in his country, which suffered genocide in 1994. He said in the interview he believes that the churches in the South have a responsibility to show the way to their people over the matter.

The Rwandan church leader said differences over homosexuality in the Anglican Communion are cultural, although some provinces, or church regions, want them to be seen as biblical. Kolini believes that homosexuality is being forced on the developing world. He described this as a new form of "cultural imperialism".

"They ask us to read the Bible with them , but the difference is culture; it is not the understanding of the Bible," said Kolini. "If they interpret it in their own cultural contexts, let them keep it that way with themselves. It is not supposed to be imposed upon us."

African Anglican dioceses have been consecrating bishops to serve in a splinter U.S. church formed as a result of the split over homosexuality and Rwanda has 10 bishops serving under the Anglican Mission in the Americas, a group launched in 2000

END