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SUDAN: Bishops Will Evaluate Partnerships with Anglican Dioceses that Deny Traditional Marriage
Bishops cite Diocese of Salisbury Bishop Nicholas Holtam, a leading supporter of "gay marriage"
By David W. Virtue DD
www.virtueonline.org
December 2, 2014
In a stinging rebuke to Western pan Anglican acceptance of homosexual marriage, the bishops of the Episcopal church of South Sudan and Sudan (ECSSS) met Nov. 24 in the Diocese of Kajo-Keji and announced the ECSSS would re-evaluate its relationship with the Diocese of Salisbury (UK). In a communique they said they would issue a "proposed memorandum of understanding".
Bishop Nicholas Holtam (Salisbury) became the first Church of England bishop to publicly support same-sex marriage in 2012, and is a supporter of Inclusive Church. Ruth Gledhill reported Holtam in The Times as saying, "I've changed my mind, and I now support gay marriage. I think same-sex couples that I know who have formed a partnership have in many respects a relationship which is similar to a marriage and which I now think of as marriage. And of course now you can't really say that a marriage is defined by the possibility of having children."
In attendance at this annual meeting of the Sudan HOB, which included 29 bishops, five bishops elect, three suffragan bishops elect and 20 bishops' wives, were the Rt. Rev. Dr. Graham Kings, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Michael Nazir-Ali and John Foster from the UK, as well as the Rt. Rev. Joseph K. Mutungi of Kenya.
Bishop Nazir-Ali has been an outspoken defender of traditional marriage. In his book, Triple Jeopardy for the West: Aggressive Secularism, Radical Islamism and Multiculturalism he writes, "Our ultimate view of marriage, as the one-flesh union of a man and a woman...is derived from the Genesis accounts in the Bible, but marriage should also be promoted in terms of legislation and public policy because of the benefits it can have ...on wider society."
The Sudanese bishops reaffirmed their "commitment to Biblical teaching of one wife and one husband and [we] will determine and evaluate our partnerships in the Anglican Communion on that basis."
The bishops also said there is a need for inter-religious dialogue between Christian and Muslim leaders to promote peaceful co-existence in areas of common concern and nation building.
The bishops also desire [self] sustainability of the Church and that their members should be trained in self-reliance to sustain Church workers in payments to bishops, pastors and other workers.
The Bishops communique was signed by Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul; Bishop Francis Loyo, dean of the Province and Bishop of Rokon Diocese and Bishop Andudu Adama, Episcopal Council Secretary and Bishop of the Diocese of Kadugi.
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