Bishop Trevor Mwamba, MCU Confrence 2008

Homosexuality debate is not main agenda
Modern Churchpeople’s UnionNews Release July 9, 2008Homosexuality debate is not main agenda for African churches -Bishop of BotswanaThe debate over homosexuality is diverting attention away from the real challenges the church in Africa faces.That is the message of the Bishop of Botswana, the Rt Rev Musonda Trevor Selwyn Mwamba.He was addressing delegates at the Modern Churchpeople’s Union conference today. In his lecture, titled, Saving the Soul of Anglicanism, Blessing or Curse, the African Experience, he dismissed the perception that all African churches were concerned about homosexuality and that they saw it as an issue likely to divide the Anglican Communion.He said, “Looking at the future of the Anglican Communion from an African context, my contention is that it will continue renewed in faith and mission inspired by appropriate structures and instruments of unity."“I dismiss the doomsday predictions of those who glimpse the breakup of the Anglican Communion at a drop of a hat. The simple reality is that the majority of African Anglicans, about 37 million of them, are frankly not bothered with the debate on sexuality. A bishop from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, told me that the people in his diocese were not in the least interested in the issue. This is just the tip of the iceberg because in my own Province of Central Africa contrary to what the renegade ex-bishop of Harare, Dr. Nolbert Kunonga, and David Virtue have said the debate on sexuality is not also an issue. We can multilply these examples across Africa."The Windsor Commission was right in recognizing the existence within the Anglican Communion of a large constituency of faithful members who are bemused and bewildered by the intensity of the opposing views on issues of sexuality. This group embraces worshippers who yearn for expressions of communion which will provide stability and encouragement for their pilgrimage. Their voices have been eclipsed by the intensity of sounds on opposing sides of the debate.“Africa has over the centuries suffered much and been manipulated to serve foreign interests. As in politics so in religion with American Episcopalians dissidents caught in an internal power struggle, they seek with all they have at their means to influence some African bishops in reshaping Anglicanism. GAFCON and its new creation Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FOCA) can have its space and place in the Communion but the spirit of African Anglicans is not inclined to schism but reconciliation."Anglicans now need to speak out on issues that unite, not divide them, said Bishop Trevor, and come together to talk around the same table.“It is time we focused our energies in doing God’s mission in the world and strengthening the many things we have in common rather than on those on which we differ." “Let us then straight, gay, liberal, conservative, moderate, Anglo – Catholic , Evangelical, tradionalist, Africans and Americans, Asians, Europeans get into each other’s worlds and be enriched in the discovery of our oneness in Christ and together enlarge God’s kingdom of love where everybody has a seat at the table."“Let’s beware of excommunicating each other here on earth. For we shall find in heaven we are still bound together at the table of Christ’s love. Archbishop Akinola sitting next to Bishop Gene Robinson for such is the kingdom of God.”
Posted by MCU at 18:12
Labels: Bishop Trevor Mwamba, MCU Conference 2008

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