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KENYA: "We have been Disappointed and felt Betrayed"

ACC - Statement by the Province of Kenya

June 24, 2005

1. Preamble and Context

1.1. We are traditionally proud of our belonging to the Anglican Communion. It gives us the sense of being local and global, vulnerable and formidable. As one piece of my episcopal robes I wear the Canterbury cap to make the point.

1.2 We have been disappointed and felt betrayed. After the passing of the Lambeth 1998 resolution 1.10 the Anglican Church of Kenya breathed a sigh of relief that the unity in the Anglican Communion was strong enough to carry out even the homework directed by the spirit of the resolution

a) The homework of holding to our official teaching that homosexual practice was incompatible with scripture and we cannot advise the legitimising or blessing of same sex unions nor ordaining those involved in same gender unions.

and

b) Listening to the experiences of homosexual persons and ministering pastorally and sensitively to all irrespective of sexual orientation.

Before we settled to our homework the tables were shaken by the hurricane of official statements and actions of ECUSA and the Anglican Church of Canada which went in the opposite direction to the spirit of the said resolution.

The mass media made sure the news reached the grass roots level of people in Kenya, making a mockery of our witness on the ground.

I remember an occasion during my pastoral visit to the Coast General Hospital in Mombasa. As I walked about in my Anglican Clerical shirt and collar, people turned around whispering mockery "See the Anglican Church while pointing to the Newspapers".

1.3 We have been listening but we have not been listened to. We have listened and continue to listen.

The Anglican Church of Kenya has been trying to listen. In fact there was a sense in which we felt that we had no choice but to listen to ECUSA and the Anglican Church of Canada brothers and sisters(...)

Did we hear them right? We hope we did. However we feel we have not received any substantial share of their listening to us. This is made clear by the following

We subscribed together to the Lambeth 1998 resolution 1.10 with the overwhelming majority . Very soon after that the mass media was full of leadership utterances and official decisions with no evidence or sense of belonging to a wider body to which we should feel at least some sense of accountability in the spirit of being sensitive to global family relationships.

We have repeatedly requested for biblical explanations of their actions so that it can help us see how we can relate it to our tradition. Instead of helping us in this we are crowded with political, sociological and historical reasons. This way was repeated again by their powerful presentation in the present ACC 13 which continued to underline the same political, sociological, and historical basis. This is a great help for our pastoral care. However the biblical foundations were scarcely given room. One of their own from Canada admitted that "even St Paul would not conceive the church blessing a homosexual union".

We have repeatedly conveyed the message that official actions which contradict the cherished authority of the Holy Scripture which is now translated and read widely by our grassroot believers and non believers will hurt our witness, our evangelism and our mission at its core.

We have tried to say that the debate at hand touches on our Christian witness, morals, our understanding of the institution of marriage, God's creation of man and woman, the fall of man and the message of transformation.

Our plea has been that this is a more serious mattter. At least halt for all of us to have time to do some homework. This has not been given due attention. On the contrary official actions have gone ahead and been rationalised by some of them as prophetic actions.

So we feel not listened to rightly or wrongly perhaps.

In the light of all the aforesaid the Anglican Church of Kenya in its journey in this matter is at the following position:

2. The position of the Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) on Human Sexuality

1. The Anglican Church of Kenya continues to stand by the Lambeth 1998 resolution 1.10, as the present teaching of the Anglican Communion.

2. The Anglican Church of Kenya endorses and affirms the decisions and actions taken by the primates at their recent meeting in Dromantine concerning ECUSA and the Anglican Church of Canada.

3. It is also the strong feeling of the Anglican Church of Kenya that the Anglican Communion provinces that have taken or will take official actions contrary to the Lambeth 1998 Resolution 1.10, have or will have in fact by their actions chosen a different path from that of the Anglican Communion and hence should be considered by the rest of the Anglican Communion as having broken their fellowship with the rest of the Anglican Communion until such a time that they will reconsider their official stand in the spirit of repentance, reconciliation and willingness to reaffirm their commitment to the Common Mission and Practice of the Anglican Communion.

Signed by the Anglican Church of Kenya representatives in Nottingham

Rt Rev Dr Samson M Mwaluda Episcopal Representative Amos Kiriro Lay representative June 2005

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