HARARE (AFP) — Axed Anglican bishop Nolbert Kunonga, an ally of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, has formed a splinter church after his ousting in a dispute over homosexuality, a state weekly reported Sunday.

"History has been made," The Sunday Mail quoted Kunonga as telling his supporters in the capital.

"We have formed our own province. It has been painful and sorrowful but out of that came the joy of our province."

He said the new entity would be known as the Anglican Church of Zimbabwe, with five dioceses in and around Harare.

Kunonga, a vocal backer of Mugabe's controversial land reforms, attempted to pull his Harare diocese out of the Anglican Church's Province of Central Africa over its stance on homosexuality.

He fell out with the province, comprising Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe, for failing to condemn the ordination of gay bishops.

"There is no bishop in the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe whom I can clearly say has sympathised, indulged or compromised in homosexuality and we follow the scriptures. We refuse to embrace homosexuality," the Sunday Mail quoted him as saying.

THE Anglican Church Province of Central Africa has broken up, and the issue of homosexuality has been cited. The Herald caught up with the man who delivered the deathblow by withdrawing the Diocese he leads, Dr Nolbert Kunonga of Harare, to discuss this and other issues.

QUESTION: Bishop Kunonga, the big news is you have pulled out of the Church of the Province of Central Africa. Can you briefly tell our readers what motivated that decision?

ANSWER: First and foremost, the Church and the nation need to know that we belong to the Catholic Church ourselves, we belong to the Catholic faith. We believe in the primacy and supremacy of the scriptures and we will not tolerate any views that go contrary to the supreme canons, legitimate and authentic canons that have made us move away. The big decision is that we want to abide by our conscience and our faith. We do not intend to deviate in any way from the scriptures. To do so is to go against the rule of God if not His will, and I would urge Zimbabweans and Anglicans throughout the country that we cannot accept homosexuality. It has never been accepted and it will not be accepted in the Diocese of Harare and, as the Bishop of Harare, I don’t accept that.

Q: But Bishop, I understand the Province of Central Africa took a stand against homosexuality, and at the just ended Synod a resolution was drafted to that effect. Why then did you leave?

A: There are several reasons why we pulled out as a Diocese. First of all, when we look at the Province, it is very weak. The mechanisms are there, instruments are there, but there are no powerful or strong users of the mechanisms of the constitutions and the canons of the prophets of the Church. That is number one.

Number two, our province is the poorest and there are many poor dioceses. People who belong to homosexual movements from England, America and other European countries have poured in a great deal of money and diluted the stand of the Province. So the resolution that was made is just a resolution. It has no consequence, no bearing. And having been working with the province myself, I know there is nothing they can do and a lot of money, as I have said, was being poured into it and that alone makes it difficult to handle this question or this resolution to make it effective.

Q: In the statements you made in Malawi, you accused the Bishop of Botswana and a few other bishops of embracing homosexuality. Would you elaborate on what exactly the Bishop of Botswana did which divided the Province?

By Ruth Gledhill

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, issued an unprecedented condemnation of a former Anglican bishop today after police in Zimbabwe used force to intervene and stop official Anglican church services from going ahead.

Nolbert Kunonga gets help from state security to impose himself.

Dr Williams said he was "appalled" by reports of Zimbabwe police forcibly stopping Anglican church services where clergy had publicly refused to acknowledge the authority of the deposed Nolbert Kunonga.

At least three priests and several parishioners opposed to Kunonga were dragged out of church and arrested after truncheon-wielding police in roit gear disrupted Anglican services in Harare on Sunday. Their "crime" was to hold services without the authorisation of Zimbabwe's police or government.

Kunonga, a close ally of Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe and a supporter of the ruling Zanu-PF party, has had his Anglican priestly licence removed and was replaced as Bishop of Harare last December after he illegally separated from the Province of Central Africa. He has subsequently announced the setting up of a new, independent Anglican Church of Zimbabwe of which he has declared himself the Archbishop.

After Bishop Sebastian Bakare has been appointed acting Bishop of Harare, police sent round leaflets advising congregations that only clergy loyal to Kunonga were authorised to hold services.

The conflict, essentially a political one, has become muddied by Kunonga’s attempt to represent the dispute as a further escalation in the row over homosexuality that is splitting the Anglican Communion. He has attempted to claim he is on the side of Biblical orthodoxy. In fact, the Province of Central Africa is among the most conservative of all 38 Anglican provinces.

Dr Williams, who did not invite Kunonga to this year’s Lambeth Conference, said he stood “in solidarity” with the province, which covers Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia and Botswana.

By Greer Fay Cashman

"We not only have a common history, but a common future," President Shimon Peres told a diverse delegation at an inauguration ceremony for the Fellowship of Israel and Black America (FIBA) Martin Luther King, Jr. Israel Awards.

The Tuesday ceremony at Beit Hanassi, held on what would have been King's 79th birthday, was attended by African Americans, representatives of AIPAC, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Detroit, rabbis and pastors from Israel and the United States, and representatives of Israel government agencies and local Christian communities.

Future award ceremonies will be held annually on King's birthday.

Pastor Glenn R. Plummer and Rabbi Jason Miller

FIBA is the brainchild of Pastor Glenn R. Plummer of Detroit, a former chairman of the National Religious Broadcasters of America and an outspoken advocate for Israel. He founded FIBA in 2004 for the purpose of uniting Israel and African Americans as friends and allies and forging a new coalition of Blacks and Jews.

In tribute to the Jews' commitment to the Civil Rights Movement, Plummer pledged to stand with Israel in its time of need.

"There are millions of African Americans who will not be silent," he said, because African Americans remember that "Jews walked with us, marched with us, were put in jail with us, and some died with us." Recalling the March on Washington in August 1963, in which Rabbi Joachim Prinz, then president of the American Jewish Congress, represented the Jewish community as one of the event's organizers, Plummer quoted a paragraph from Prinz's address that King had adopted.

Rev. Jay Bakker, son of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, to join "American Family Outing" to create dialogue between evangelical Christians and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender families.

Austin, TX (PRWEB) January 11, 2008 -- This winter, as the Rev. Joel Osteen graces the pages of People Magazine, the familiar image of the old-school, anti-gay televangelist is rapidly being replaced by a new iconography: a younger generation of mega-church leaders with upbeat and inviting messages. Unfortunately, while this generation's tone may seem less harsh, many of their mega-churches still enforce policies of exclusion and teach theologies that label Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people as sick, sinful, and in need of change.

An "American Family Outing" is taking shape in the spring of 2008 so LGBT families can talk with mega-church leaders and congregation members to share the message that justice for LGBT people is compatible with Christian teaching. Pot lucks, picnics and soulful talk are the order of the day as Soulforce, the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC), the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), and COLAGE invite churches to talk-the-talk so everyone is free to walk-the-walk.

On behalf of the four partner organizations, Soulforce Executive Director Jeff Lutes has written letters to:

• Rev. Joel Osteen and Lakewood Church in Houston, TX
• Bishop T.D. Jakes and The Potter's House in Dallas, TX
• Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr. and Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, MD
• Bishop Eddie Long and New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, GA
• Rev. Bill Hybels and Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, IL
• Dr. Rick Warren and Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA

"These pastors are part of a new generation of evangelical leaders in America," says Lutes. "We are calling on them and their congregations to demonstrate a new kind of leadership, one that models compassion and justice for all families, including families with two moms and two dads."

Desmond Tutu has accused the church of being "obsessed" with homosexuality.

In a BBC radio programme to be broadcast on Tuesday, the Anglican archbishop emeritus said he felt ashamed of his own church for its attitude towards gay people.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner also criticised Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the leader of the world's Anglicans, for not demonstrating the attributes of a welcoming God.

"Our world is facing problems - poverty, HIV and Aids - a devastating pandemic, and conflict. God must be weeping looking at some of the atrocities that we commit against one another," he said.

"In the face of all of that, our church, especially the Anglican Church, at this time is almost obsessed with questions of human sexuality."

He said the church had appeared "extraordinarily homophobic" during the row over whether openly gay priest Gene Robinson should be allowed to become the bishop of New Hampshire.

Tutu said he was saddened and ashamed of the church over the row.

Asked if he still felt ashamed, he replied: "If we are going to not welcome or invite people because of sexual orientation, yes. If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn't worship that God."

Tutu hit out at those who believe homosexuality is a choice.

"It is a perversion if you say to me that a person chooses to be homosexual," he said. "You must be crazy to choose a way of life that exposes you to a kind of hatred. It's like saying you choose to be black in a race-infected society."

Criticising Williams, he said: "Why doesn't he demonstrate a particular attribute of God's, which is that God is a welcoming God?" - Sapa-AFP

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By Fred Contrada

HADLEY - North Hadley Congregational Church has formally joined the ranks of "open and affirming" churches that welcome people of all sexual orientations.

The recent vote was the climax of a carefully thought-out process, according to interim pastor Rev. Beverly Prestwood-Taylor.

"It was the congregation's initiative," she said. "I just guided them through a process so they could talk about it in a little more depth."

Although the vote cleared the way for the church to contact the national United Church of Christ, of which it is a member, so that the organization can put it on its register of open and affirming churches, the North Hadley congregation has had openly gay members for some time.

"The discussion at the North Hadley Congregational Church really equals that of society," Prestwood-Taylor said. "You might have had friends who are gay but you didn't talk about it."

The United Church of Christ has embraced openly gay congregants since the mid-1980s on a national level, but individual congregations are free to determine their own policies. Prestwood-Taylor said a study group comprising about half the church's members reviewed scriptures before painstakingly coming up with a statement.

By Tony Grew

A senior Church of England clergyman best-known for his opposition to equality for gay people has been heavily criticised for making inflammatory comments about Britain's Muslim community.

The Right Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, claimed in a newspaper article that parts of the country have become "no-go areas" because of extremist Muslims and suggested that mosques stop using speakers to broadcast the call to prayer.

The bishop has previously spoken out against the Sexual Orientation Regulations and civil partnerships.

He hit the headlines when he called childless straight couples "self-indulgent" for not procreating and his latest statements have brought him even more press attention.

A spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain said his remarks "would have been expected from the far-right BNP, not a responsible figure in the Church of England."

Politicians have also criticised the bishop.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said: "to suggest that non-Muslims are not able to enter into a particular area seems to me to be a gross caricature of reality."

By Riazat Butt

Archbishop Akinola with rainbow colors at the installation of Martyn Minns as missionary bishop for CANA.

Conservative Anglican leaders have revealed plans for a breakaway summit for the hundreds of bishops expected to defy the Archbishop of Canterbury by boycotting the Lambeth conference. Organisers of the Global Anglican Future Conference, to be held in Jerusalem, say it will not be a rival to Lambeth, held every 10 years in Canterbury, but "will provide opportunities for fellowship and care for those who have decided not to attend Lambeth".

It comes six weeks before the archbishop's flagship conference that up to a third of the Anglican church's 900 bishops may boycott in protest at his perceived fudging over the US Episcopal church's approach to gay clergy.

A website promoting the rebel summit says the 80-million strong Anglican communion is "divided into liberal and conservative factions" and is on the verge of breaking up over the consecration in 2003 of a gay priest, Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire. Writing for an Australian Anglican website, the Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen, said: "Those who wish to retain biblical standards, especially in the area of sexual ethics, have spent much time and effort in negotiations on these issues in the last five years."

In 1998, the Lambeth conference made it clear that the leaders of the overwhelming majority of Anglicans worldwide maintained the view that sexual relationships were reserved for marriage between a man and a woman, he added.

"Five years later, however, actions were taken in Anglican churches both in Canada and the United States of America that officially transgressed these boundaries in defiance of the Bible's authority."

By Ben Harris

Rabbi Capers Funnye, spiritual leader of Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation in Chicago, wants you to know that he likes gefilte fish - a lot.

"I love it," he told JTA in a recent interview. "I love lox. I love borscht. Some of my congregants don't even know what borscht is."

Funnye's congregants are predominantly African Americans from the South Side of Chicago, so perhaps that's no surprise. But while gefilte fish won't be debuting anytime soon at the kiddush at Beth Shalom, the rabbi is bringing his congregants closer to the broader Chicago Jewish community in ways most of his African American rabbinical colleagues have not yet dared.

"I have made it my point, on a personal level, to involve myself in the Jewish community," Funnye said. "I've worked for Jewish organizations. I've graduated from Jewish institutions. My children went to Jewish day school."

Just a few weeks ago, he attended the White House Chanukah party.

By George Conger

The battle over homosexuality that has threatened to split the Anglican Communion could be decided at a June meeting in Jerusalem. On December 26, a conservative coalition led by the Archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola, announced a June 15-22 conference in the Holy Land to chart the church's future course.

Divided into liberal and conservative factions, the 80-million member Anglican Communion is on the verge of breaking up over the consecration in 2003 of a gay priest as bishop of New Hampshire.

However, Anglicans are as divided over Israel as they over homosexuality. While the meeting will focus on the current crisis facing the church, some Anglican and Jewish supporters of the gathering hope the presence in Jerusalem this June of conservative Anglican bishops from every continent will present an opportunity to broaden Israel's support in the developing world.

Many important events occurred in 2007 involving religion and gay people of color. One can not fail to note the great schism created in the Anglican Church over Gay Rights, a fate which other denominations may face. Below are a few articles which represent the year. Please view the Religion Category for more articles.

	Nigerian Archbishop Akinola establishes North American Church - the latest blow in a worldwide split by Anglicans over Gay Rights
	Outcast gay ministers and gay friendly churches find a home in the United Church of Christ
	The Metropolitan Community Church & Bishop Yvette A. Flunder's The Fellowship unite for "Radical Inclusivity"
	Moderate Baptists lead by Presidents Carter and Clinton meet They are later joined by Republican Mike Huckabee
	Ouspoken Jerry Falwell passes

By Stephen Bates

The Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the worldwide Anglican communion, yesterday condemned attempts by conservative church leaders to undermine the US Episcopal Church for its support for gay rights and effectively refused calls to disinvite American bishops from next year's Lambeth conference of all the church's bishops. In a long-anticipated Advent message to the 38 primates of the communion, the Very Rev Rowan Williams criticised African and other church leaders who have consecrated their own American bishops and offered to look after the small number of dioceses whose conservative American bishops have said they wish to separate from the US church and seek oversight from foreign provinces.

In a rebuke to conservatives who claim theirs is the true and only voice of authentic Anglican identity, Williams said: "Not everyone carrying the name of Anglican can claim to speak authentically for the identity we share as a global fellowship ... a great deal of the language that is around in the communion at present seems to presuppose that any change from our current deadlock is impossible, that division is unavoidable and that such division represents so radical a difference in fundamental faith that no recognition and future co-operation can be imagined. I cannot accept these assumptions and I do not believe as Christians we should see them as beyond challenge."

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has apologised to gay people all around the world for the way they have been treated by the Church.

He recently criticised Anglicans for being 'obsessed' with homosexuality.

In a world exclusive interview with production company Made in Manchester, Tutu spoke to creative director Ashley Byrne.

The Gay Hour (Citizen Manchester LGBT) is the only gay programme on the BBC and is produced by Made in Manchester.

Speaking from Capetown in an interview to be broadcast this Monday evening Desmond Tutu said:

"I want to apologise to you and to all those who we in the church have persecuted.

This programme can be heard via BBC Manchester's 'audio on demand' until 8pm on December 24 by clicking HERE. The 22-minute interview starts after approx 16 minutes..

 

By Melissa Grace

The Good Samaritan who tried to stop the Christmas-versus-Chanukah subway beating has two black eyes and a sore nose - but no regrets."I did what I thought was right," said Hassan Askari, 20. "I did the best that I could to help."Askari, a Bangladeshi Muslim studying at Berkeley College in Manhattan, was on a Q train headed to Brooklyn late Friday when he came to the aid of young women confronted by a group of 10 thugs.

Fearful for the women's safety, he pushed one of the men away - and was then pounced on by the group, he said."They grabbed me and punched and beat me up," Askari said. "They punched me first. I didn't get a chance to punch him back."

By Ali Eteraz

Eleven months have passed since America's first Muslim congressman -- Keith Ellison, from Minnesota's fifth district -- was elected to office. In that time he has exposed bigotry in the media and Congress, and served as a bridge for American relations with the Muslim world.

Throughout his meteoric rise from an anonymous state legislator, Ellison has had unanimous support among American Muslims. Ellison is now using that goodwill to bring a minority group that has been demonized, politically apathetic and often extremely socially conservative into the American political mainstream (and without being pushy, towards the progressive wing of the Democratic Party).

By Lashonda Stinson

OCALA - One November night, Bishop John W. Howe stood at the pulpit of Grace Episcopal Church as members with worried and frustrated faces stared back at him.

Howe, head of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida, was there to tell the members what they all wanted to hear.

"During this time of transition, however it comes out, neither I or the Diocese of Central Florida intend in any way to abandon you. . . . Neither your rector [pastor] or your vestry [pastor and lay members] will decide for you whether you want to be a part of The Episcopal Church or the Diocese of Central Florida or not," Howe said. "That's something that you're going to decide for you."

By Catherine Elsworth

A conservative diocese of the US Episcopal Church has become the first to secede from the liberal-leaning denomination in protest over its growing support for gay and women's rights.

The Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin, in central California, voted overwhelmingly to break with the US branch of the Anglican Communion, which has been embroiled in debate since US Episcopalians consecrated the first openly gay bishop in 2003.

"We've seen a miracle here today," John-David Schofield, the diocese's bishop, said after the vote. "We are already outside the jurisdiction of the Episcopal Church."

But Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first woman bishop to head the US Episcopal Church, said it greeted the decision "with sadness".

A new breakaway Anglican group of 11 churches that left the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia over theological differences less than a year ago met last week for its first annual convention.

Four new bishops were consecrated to serve the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), which includes 61 member congregations siphoned from the Episcopal Church. Nigerian Archbishop Peter J. Akinola will preside at the ceremony at Church of the Epiphany in Herndon.

"The old order in the Episcopal Church is falling apart," said CANA Bishop Martyn Minns, the former rector of Truro Church in Fairfax. "We're all finding a new way to live into our Anglican heritage."

Churches belonging to CANA are under the umbrella of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, and Bishop Minns was made a member of the Nigerian House of Bishops in August 2006. He was snubbed last spring by being one of a handful of prelates not invited by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to the decennial Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops.

VATICAN CITY (AP) - The traditional family _ one based on marriage between a man and a woman _ is essential to society and any restriction on its rights poses a threat to peace, Pope Benedict XVI said Tuesday. Societies must provide the necessary resources in health, education and employment to ensure that the traditional model is not weakened, Benedict said in his annual written message to world leaders for the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Peace on Jan. 1.

"Consequently, whoever, even unknowingly, circumvents the institution of the family undermines peace in the entire community, national and international, since he weakens what is in effect the primary agency of peace," Benedict said. The message followed recent criticism by the pope on what he called the tendency of debate at international organizations to ignore "natural moral law" in their efforts to make a more peaceful world.