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News Flash!

Akinola Attacks Ndungane Over Gay Remarks

NAIROBI (AANA) September 23 - The Archbishop of The Church of Nigeria, Most 
Rev Peter J. Akinola, has written a strong-worded letter to his southern 
Africa counterpart, Archbishop Winston Njongonkulu Ndungane of Cape Town, 
South Africa, expressing deep criticism over the stand taken by Ndungane on 
the controversial issue of gay ordination within the Anglican Church.

Responding to Ndungane's recent sentiments published in a leading British 
newspaper, Akinola has launched a scathing attack on his fellow churchman, 
telling him, "you got it all wrong".

Ndungane had indicated in an interview that African clergymen, including 
Akinola, who were expressing opposition to gay ordination were arrogant, 
intolerant  and hypocritical.

Below is the full text of Archbishop Akinola's letter to Ndungane, released 
yesterday:

A MESSAGE TO ARCHBISHOP NDUNGANE

"My attention has just been drawn to a publication by a religious affairs 
correspondent in a British daily criticising the stand of a majority of 
Global South Primates and several other bishops around the world over the 
current departures arising from the ongoing controversies surrounding 
unscriptural revisionist innovations on human sexuality.

Your criticism is based on some unfortunate presuppositions. And coming at 
this time, it appears like an attempt  to cause a possible diversion of 
focus amongst African and Global South Church leaders. But thank God these 
leaders have come of age, they are no longer to be pulled by the nose nor 
taken for granted. We are poised, using every gift of God available to us 
to defend orthodoxy, the integirity of the Church, and banish 
the  erroneous teachings you plan to impose on us.

The criticism

1.	How correct are you dear brother archbishop Ndungane in judging the 
cloud of witnesses to biblical truth through the ages whose stand on 
biblical ethics is only being upheld by those of us who are now  branded as 
arrogant and intolerant? Is there anything in our pronouncements that 
constitutes a departure from the standard of morality held out in the Bible?

Isn't it a paradox that the Archbishop of Southern Africa sees no arrogance 
in those whose flagrant disregard of the stand of the entire  Anglican 
Communion has plunged us into this sad and avoidable controversy. They have 
refused to ensure strict compliance with resolutions duly passed at the 
Bishops' Lambeth Conference and the Primates' Meetings. To you that is 
alright. Should there not be a protest against such disrespect? When has 
the poor (as we in the Global South are often called) begun to be proud 
over and against the rich (the affluent West)?

2.	 How can you forget so soon the alert we sounded at the Anglican 
Consultative Council (ACC) in Hong Kong barely a year ago? It is worth 
repeating here:

"While I appreciate that the New Westminster diocese and the Church of 
Canada may not be, in numerical terms, especially large ecclesia bodies, we 
value them as dearly as we value all our partner Provinces. We have a 
growing fear for the sense of loss which sustained departure by them from 
our common path and mind must risk. We urge and pray that reflection will 
lead to reconsideration. It is hard indeed to see any action, which 
threatens our Communion to be justified as a 'local mission priority'"

3.	Brother Ndungane, you got it all wrong. What you cited as top
priorities 
are in this context clearly misplaced. I ask, are the issues of peace, 
hunger, sharia, and HIV/AIDS, serious and prevalent, as they are, more 
important to the Church than faithfulness to the plain truth of Scripture? 
We remind you dear brother of our Lord's response to a similar situation 
two thousand years ago as recorded in Luke 13:1-5.(Please take time to read 
it over and over again). His response was that, tragic as those situations 
were, the more important priority was repentance. He actually said, "Unless 
you repent, you too will all perish" It didn't mean that Christ was not 
compassionate. If anything He demonstrated compassion daily in His miracles 
and teachings. We are following His footsteps by doing all we can for those 
caught in these painful conditions as part of our holistic approach to 
ministry.

We place a high priority on caring.  For sure, the Archbishop has not 
forgotten that 'man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that 
proceeds from God' (Dt. 8:3; Matt. 4:4; Lk. 4:4). Peace, hunger, sharia and 
HIV/AIDS are indeed major life and death issues, albeit, they are at the 
physical level. Unfaithfulness to Scripture is a more major life and death 
issue because it is spiritual. What shall it profit a man to feed well and 
live long here on earth only to lose his soul in hell? What then is the 
Church here for ?

4.	On the question of integrity of ECUSA's decision, again we ask, can
one 
eat his cake and still have it in his hands? And can two walk together 
unless they be agreed? (Amos 3:3). If the integrity of a part is so 
important, what will be said of the whole? And it must be said that this is 
not a matter of 'unity in diversity' for according to the rule: in the 
essentials, unity; in the non-essentials, freedom; in all things charity, 
the issue at stake falls within the orbit of the essentials and thus any 
deviation means alienation.

One suspects in your unguarded and scathing criticism a resurgence of a 
hitherto latent feeling of hurt since the Lambeth Conference Committee on 
human sexuality you chaired was overwhelmingly overruled by the so-called 
hard-liners who are not willing to compromise the precious heritage of 
scriptural truth.

5.	The accusation of hypocrisy does not recognise the inherent
difference 
between what the Church openly and officially sanctions and what it does 
not but exists. In the former, the Church stands responsible while in the 
latter, the burden of blame and guilt remains the private responsibility of 
those concerned with the accompanying room for repentance and forgiveness. 
This accusation carries with it an uncomfortable insinuation of double 
standards on the part of those opposed to homosexuality in the Church. 
However, it still does not square up as two wrongs do not add up to a right.

6.	The unwarranted accusation that Africans do not know much about their

sexuality portends a talking-down of Africans-a gnostic tendency that is 
capable of weakening the resolve of the African church leaders to be God's 
prophets in times like this. The biblical prophets resisted it and so must 
their contemporary counterparts.

  I ask you dear brother to face issues and not fall into the temptation of 
"casting stones". Apparently you do not know everything I have said and 
done on every issue concerning Nigeria. That  you have not heard any fuss 
from me in the foreign media about certain issues does not mean the Church 
which by the grace of God I lead is doing nothing. For instance, I 
deliberately included Zamfara State in the itinerary of the immediate past 
Archbishop of Canterbury to Nigeria and called the world's attention to the 
infringement on fundamental human rights that the imposition of the Islamic 
penal code portended for freedom-loving peoples. The Church in Nigeria has 
borne the most brunt of this unwarranted imposition. If you care to know, I 
urge you to refer to the volumes of published findings by Christian 
Solidarity Worldwide following their repeated visits to Nigeria, including 
my Office.

Conclusion

May I say as I conclude that your comments reveal a palpable failure to 
grasp the nature of the issues at stake. Your criticism is so burdened with 
such sad and most unfortunate presuppositions that see our stand from the 
point of arrogance and intolerance rather than a strong will to defend the 
'faith that was once delivered to the saints.' When you accuse us of 
arrogance and intolerance, be courageous enough to direct the searchlight 
at yourself and those for whom you spoke.

What is at stake has to do not just with the identity of the Church 
universal and our historic faith but also how we treat God and his 
incarnate and written Word. Yes, we are a worldwide communion, but our 
church is only a part of the holy, catholic and apostolic Church. Where the 
autonomy of any part of our communion becomes a scandal in the entire 
Christian world, then we must be humble enough to accept rebuke and 
correction. There is still room for repentance. Amen."

The Most Rev Peter J Akinola
Archbishop, Metropolitan and Primate
The Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion.