"Our position since the Lambeth Conference is that The Episcopal Church has gone against Resolution 1:10 and the American Church has failed to respect our institutions and communion," said Mbogo. As a consequence the Kenyan church rejected the UTO of some 5 million shillings ($70,000) earmarked for mission projects to support indigenous mission work involving evangelism and paying clergy for new missionary outreach. "We are sorry to have lost a long time relationship with The Episcopal Church, but we will not compromise the gospel of Jesus Christ," she said.

Mbogo said that both the American bishops and a recent visit by a Church of England bishop (John Gladwin) recently, failed to understand that the emphasis on social transformation, saving humanity and addressing issues of poverty and AIDS education goes hand in hand with a more holistic view that includes spiritual transformation that these bishops did not understand.

"We were emphatic on this point. One cannot separate our faith (commitment to Jesus Christ) specifically from mission. What is mission? If we talk about the church saving humanity it must be holistic, ministering to bodies and hearts."

Mbogo said that the American bishops returned to the U.S. and lied about what happened here. "They said they had a good reception. That was not true. We were deeply insulted by these statements."

The evangelical leader and provincial coordinator to Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi said that homosexuality was below the behavior of beasts. "Animals don't behave like that...falling for their own kind, either domesticated or wild. You don't find male on male. This is adopting a level of behavior that is unacceptable to us."

"Church of England Bishop John Gladwin came here with an agenda and did not tell us what he really believed. When we found out what he really believed we withdrew hospitality and cancelled the programmed meetings. We talked to Bishop Gladwin and we asked him for his testimony but he could not give one. We know we have some homosexuals in the province. We don't persecute them, but we won't contravene the Word of God ordaining them. We want them to repent and believe the gospel which is about transformation," she said.

AIDS

Canon Mbogo said the AIDS crisis was "big" among Kenyans, but the Anglican Church did not have a statistics count. "The church has not been forthright. Till recently we had not spoken about it, but as a country we lost 6,300 a day in 2005, with over 2 million infected in Kenya." The issue is now stabilizing, she said.

The evangelical leader admitted there needed to be more openness to discussing it in Kenya's communities. The churches are teaching abstinence, the government reaches the use of condoms but not the churches. "Both Pentecostals and the Roman Catholic Church preach abstinence not condom use. The only time we accept the use of condoms is within marriage and for reasons of family planning." Life expectancy has dropped from 59 to 45 because of AIDS, she said. Drug prophylactics are available as are other drugs that are being dispensed at hospitals with some of them being offered for free. "We still recognize abstinence before marriage and faithfulness within marriage," she said.

FORMER TEC PARISHES

Kenya now has 16 former ECUSA parishes under its ecclesiastical authority, and the figure is growing, said Mbogo. "They came to us asking for cover from their church which they see as very liberal on moral issues. We are proud to offer it to them." Mbogo said she hoped that these churches would tithe to help the Kenyan province, even as the Anglican province was prepared to offer education in the area of evangelism and church growth for the American congregations. It is quite a struggle for us. Kenyans have sustained mission work by picking up the slack in lost overseas donations."

We are prepared to offer theological education by extension, she said. Some of the clergy could come here where they would be welcome and to heal their wounds of affliction, she said. Canon Mbogo said the Anglican Church was growing with aggressive evangelism in all communities and remains the biggest and fastest growing denomination in Kenya

END