By Philip Elliott 

CONCORD, N.H. - The Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for president on Thursday, even though they don't share the same views on issues critical to gays and lesbians.

"Frankly, I don't think there's any major candidate that is where we in the gay community would hope they would be on our issues," V. Gene Robinson said in a conference call with reporters. "That being said, I would say the senator has been enormously supportive of our issues. We appreciate his support for civil unions."

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Senator Barack Obama says Christians who oppose gay rights are elevating one passage in the Bible's book of Romans over the Sermon on the Mount.

Obama and most of the other Democratic presidential candidates appeared last night at a forum sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group.

by Rebecca Harrison and Wangui Kanina

JOHANNESBURG/NAIROBI – As an Anglican row over gay clergy deepens, growing numbers of conservative American priests are abandoning the liberal U.S. church and pledging allegiance to traditionalist African bishops instead.

Africans, who take a tough line on homosexuality, are keen to recruit the dissident priests as bishops under their own authority and to provide a new spiritual home for their clusters of wealthy U.S. congregations.

But liberals say African bishops are violating church rules by setting up fiefdoms in the United States and deepening a crisis that threatens to split the Anglican communion, a world-wide federation of 38 member churches.

In today's Church Times (from England) we read news of an African view of church matters that differs from the one we get in mainstream media and church gossip. Here's a snippet:

Loud voices from Africa, aided by the "almighty dollar" and internet lobbyists, are distorting the true picture of what Africa's 37 million Anglicans really think about sexuality and the future of the Anglican Communion, says the Bishop of Botswana, the Rt Revd Musonda Mwamba.

One of Africa's indigenous Jewish peoples

Most members of the Abayudaya community are devout in their observance of Jewish customs and rituals. The Abayudaya’s Judaism begins from birth, when males are circumcised on the eighth day (unlike local Bagisu youth whose traditional religion dictates circumcision in the fifteenth or sixteenth year.) Abayudaya children grow up with a distinct awareness that they are Jews. They sing Jewish songs, some in the local language of Luganda, others in Hebrew with African melodies written by community members. They tag along at their mother’s heels as she fulfills the traditional role of keeper of the household, especially while cleaning and cooking for Shabbat. From birth the children also accompany their parents to services, both on holidays (the Abayudaya observe the same holidays as Western Jews), and weekly for Shabbat.

By Steve Kramer

On our recent American visit, we had the pleasure of attending the wedding of the daughter of our dear friends, the Braunsteins. Lauren, an educator who received her Master's degree a few years ago, had met her husband Walter on JDate [online dating service catering to Jews]. Walter Isaac, is a Jewish man completing his doctorate at the Center for Afro-Jewish Studies of Temple University. What's a bit unusual is that Walter is a black Jew himself. Coming from Israel, we're quite familiar with black Jews, now that Israel's population includes more than 100,000 Jewish Ethiopians. But "black Jews in America" is another story. I decided to look into the subject, starting with Walter himself.

Kota Kinabalu: The Roman Catholic Church in Sabah does not subscribe to the idea of setting up a Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) branch in Malaysia for the gay and lesbian communities in the country.

Head of the Catholic Diocese of Kota Kinabalu, Bishop Datuk John Lee, said Tuesday, like other churches in the country, the Roman Catholic Church would strongly oppose plans to set up the proposed branch.

"It's not acceptable. However, we cannot stop them from going ahead with what they want to do. All I can say is that we have absolutely nothing to do with them.

By Lillian Kwon

Hope for the Anglican Communion is not any brighter now than it was when leaders tried to resolve divisions earlier this year or even 10 years ago, said the Anglican Archbishop of Nigeria.

In his latest statement over the highly publicized rifts in the 77 million-member Anglican Communion, the Most Rev. Peter Akinola blasted The Episcopal Church – the U.S. branch of Anglicanism – and the Anglican Church of Canada, saying they betrayed the rest of the Communion.

"Their intention is clear; they have chosen to walk away from the biblically-based path we once all walked together," said Akinola.

Akinola is considered the most powerful Anglican leader in the 77 million-member Communion and the fiercest critic of The Episcopal Church, particularly over homosexuality.

Liberal Episcopal Bloggers blast Akinola calling him a "totalitarian dictator"

By David W. Virtue

The Archbishop of Nigeria, The Most Rev. Peter Akinola, blasted the American Episcopal Church, accusing it of producing carefully nuanced, deliberately ambiguous statements, but said their actions have betrayed them. "Their intention is clear; they have chosen to walk away from the Biblically based path we once all walked together. The unrelenting persecution of the remaining faithful among them shows how they have used these past few years to isolate and destroy any and all opposition."

By Kate Kelland

LONDON (Reuters) - Gay American bishop Gene Robinson on Tuesday compared the stance of some senior African members of the Anglican Church, who have accused homosexuals of bestiality, with that of American racists and slavers in years gone by.

Robinson, whose consecration in 2003 drove a deep schism through the world's 77-mllion strong Anglican Communion, said in an interview on Britain's BBC radio he was hurt by fierce criticism of him from African church leaders.

By MATTHEW WEINER

There is a growing phenomenon within the Muslim community in America that will change the history of Islam. Young Muslims, mostly the children of immigrants, are publicly reflecting on their identity. Many are becoming, or have become, Islamic scholars and activists on behalf of a civic Islam.

Often, these young men and women were raised in fairly secular households, and so as they become self-consciously Muslim they must reimagine what being Muslim, as Americans, means. Certainly, this growing and internally diverse group will change how Americans understand Islam and how Muslims across the globe understand Islam.

The war of words over sexuality and authority within world Anglicanism stepped up a notch today, with controversial Nigerian Primate Peter Akinola - who many believe wishes to take over from the Archbishop of Canterbury as the focal figure in the 77-million strong church - standing accused of having a major document written for him by Western conservatives.

The charge will hit hard, because Archbishop Akinola and his allies frequently accuse those who believe in a church inclusive of lesbian and gay people of "compromising the Gospel to corrupt Western culture".

by ALFRED TUMUSHABE
MBARARA

UGANDA’S Anglican Church yesterday consecrated an American priest as bishop to lead some congregations in his country that are opposed to homosexuality.

"God created man for woman,” said the Rt. Rev. William Magambo at the consecration of the Rev. John Guernsey who will now lead a new branch of the Church of Uganda in the United States.

“Homosexuality is against the scriptures but some Americans started saying it's correct; they started blessing the union of people of the same sex. Some Christians are not sympathetic to this type of marriage."

by Caroline Wafula
Nairobi

Protracted differences in the global Anglican Church over gay relationships have finally seen the Kenyan province ordain its own bishops to serve in America.

The Rev Canon Dr Will (Bill) Atwood and the Rev William Murdoch's ordination last Thursday was a response to the action taken by the Protestant Episcopal Church to openly ordain gays as priests, a move vehemently opposed by a group of the Anglican Communion concentrated in Africa and Asia - also referred to as the Global South.

Metropolitan Community Churches, the world's oldest and largest Christian church group with a primary, affirming ministry to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people of faith has released a public policy statement calling for repeal of the U.S. military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy toward.



Los Angeles, CA (OPENPRESS) September 5, 2007 -- The policy statement, issued under the name of Rev. Nancy L. Wilson, Moderator of the MCC denomination, declares, "It is time to end the U.S. military policy known as 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.' This policy has caused great harm to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender military personnel, resulted in the unjust dismissal of thousands of service members, and failed to achieve its intended goals.

By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN

Congress may soon call on religious institutions ranging from summer camps to charities to declare up-front whether they are unwilling to hire gay employees.

A bill that, if passed, would become the first federal law to prohibit employment discrimination against gays contains a broad exemption for religious organizations. But to qualify for that exemption, religious groups would have to declare "which of its religious tenets are significant" and must be adhered to by employees. Lawyers say this requirement could put pressure on religious organizations to state a doctrinal prohibition against homosexuality in order to continue to legally exclude gay job applicants.

by Elaine Reyes; Michael King

Evangelist Juanita Bynum made her first public appearance on Tuesday night since her husband's arrest on charges of assaulting her -- first to reporters in Buckhead, then to a national television audience, where Bynum promised to be the "new face of domestic violence."

Bynum said she had a lot of time to think about what had happened while she was in seclusion -- and she said it is too early to say if she'll stay with her husband. For now, she said she's concentrating on herself.

"Today, domestic violence has a face and it is Juanita Bynum," Bynum said.

ATLANTA (AP) — The husband of evangelist and gospel singer Juanita Bynum has issued an apology over the case, in which he is accused of beating his wife.

In a statement issued through his lawyers Wednesday, Thomas W. Weeks III, 40, apologized to all Christians, his church family and others "having to endure this ordeal."

Weeks, known to his followers as Bishop Weeks, is accused of beating, stomping, choking and threatening to kill Bynum during an Aug. 21 argument outside a hotel. He has been indicted on felony and misdemeanor charges stemming from the alleged attack that could send him to prison for up to 27 years.

by Sven Rabatzky
 
(UK) - The report by the News Agency of Nigeria quotes Bishop Orama of Uyo as saying that persons involved in same sex behaviour "are insane, satanic and are not fit to live." It is known that "Life unworthy of life" is the phrase used by the Nazis to describe various "deviants", among them homosexuals. If the quotation is not an accurate record of what the bishop said, then Changing Attitude Nigeria and England call upon the Venerable AkinTunde Popoola, the Director of Communications for the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) to issue a statement immediately clarifying what the bishop said or correcting the report.

Colin Coward told the GRD, that if the quotation is an accurate report of what Bishop Orama said, then Changing Attitude Nigeria and England ask Bishop Martyn Minns and Archbishop Peter Akinola to issue a statement immediately repudiating Bishop Orama's comments and condemning them as utterly abhorrent.

Photo of Nigerian Anglican Gay activist Davis Mac-Iyalla in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, during the Anglican Primates' Meeting February 17, 2007. He was there to confront Peter Akinola, the Anglican Primate of All Nigeria, who has pressed for the world's most sweeping anti-Gay law. (The Rev. Scott Gunn)

Originally Published in May 2007

by Richard Carlson

The simple answer to the question is he has made his first visit to the United States from Togo, where he is in exile, to tell his story. It is the story of a young man born in the south of Nigeria (an important geographic distinction following civil war there some 40 years ago) who happened to get asked to run a church school and accepted. He did so with some fear because at age 14, he realized his sexual desires were for other males. In Nigeria you could go to jail if you acted on such impulses. His work at the school was so successful that it came to the attention of the Anglican bishop of the area at the time, who invited him into his administration. In 2003 Bishop Ugede died suddenly of tuberculosis. The new administration, appointed by Archbishop Peter Akinola, fired Davis and removed any priests who supported him. Within 2 years, Davis had become the center of a growing movement of gays and lesbians in Nigeria demanding rights for their way of life. Archbishop Akinola responded with support for legislation, currently pending, that will make it a crime for any citizen to associate in any way with someone identified as homosexual. The term of imprisonment will be 5 years.