The Anglican Church of Kenya has condemned the move by their counterparts in England to preside over same sex marriages, saying it is sinful and a show of secularisation of the church.
This follows a decision of the England church to allow same sex couples to attend church after being bound in a civil marriage or partnership, to “give thanks, dedicate their relationship to God and receive God’s blessings.”
The decision also involves repenting and asking God for forgiveness for its failure to welcome members of the LGBTQ community, for the harm they have undergone and continue to go through in churches.
While announcing the move, the Archbishop to the clergy and people of the Diocese of York said that the prayers of love and faith does not change what the church believes about holy matrimony as dictated in the Bible, and that the clergy are free to accept or reject the prayers.
“I am determined that in the Diocese of York no one will ever be disadvantaged by the decisions they make whether to use or not use these prayers. On this you have my assurance, though I realise there is work to be done to provide a framework within which we can minister together with our conscientiously held disagreements. We need to work closely with the whole Church of England on this,” said Synod’s Archbishop.
“By Synod voting in favour of this motion, work will now continue on refining the draft Prayers of Love and Faith, and pastoral guidance will be produced which will replace Issues in Human Sexuality. There is a strong commitment to working collaboratively on this, ensuring that all voices are represented and heard in both the Prayers and the pastoral guidance. Until the Prayers have been reviewed, commended and issued by the House of Bishops, which won’t be until the pastoral guidance has been issued, they are not yet available for use,” he added.
“To those who are troubled by this development, can I ask for your patience and forbearance as the work is done to ensure that freedom of conscience is properly respected. Some people have said that the Church of England may split because of this. I pray and give myself to something much harder and much more beautiful: we learn to live with profound difference, respecting the conscientiously held but incompatible views we hold, ensuring that everyone has a place, and showing the world the more excellent way of love,” said Synod’s Archbishop.
In a statement, Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit blamed the move on rise of liberalism in the church, which has led to the loss of theological and doctrinal legitimacy, and eventually normalisation of sin in the church.
“On Thursday, following two days of acrimonious debate on whether to change the church’s teaching of marriage, the Church of England’s General Synod resolved to offer blessings to same sex couples. It also made a provision that clergy who opt not to use the proposed prayers of blessings for use are allowed to do so. It also adopted a seemingly contradictory position that prayers of blessings may be used in the church will not approve same sex marriage,” said ArchBishop Sapit.
“It is ridiculous that the Church of England affirms to remain faithful to the traditional teachings of marriage, yet have sanctioned the so-called prayers of love to be used in their churches to bless unions between persons of the same sex. This is hypocritical and a blatant lie for there is only one truth and not many versions or opinions of it,” added Archbishop Sapit.
Archbishop Sapit also called on the western churches to repent and follow the faith as taught in the canonical scriptures of the church.
“Rhetoric of political and secular correctness will only serve to undermine the one and only pure gospel, and unless these churches preach the gospel as we inherited it, they will soon be irrelevant, lose their identity as a church, and they will only be as good as that salt which has lost its saltiness-to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by the world,” said Sapit.
“We make a humble call to these churches: Wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead. Your actions do not meet the requirements of God.
Rwanda ACK Archbishop, Dr Laurent Mbanda also expressed disappointment at the decision, saying the stand has exacerbated an already “impaired relationship” between them.
