South African Archbishop Criticizes Anti-Gay Colleagues

According to this story last week in The Guardian, the Archbishop of Cape Town, Winston Njongonkulu Ndungane, one of the most senior Anglican churchmen in Africa, harshly criticized the recent hue and cry by traditionalist Anglicans on the subject of gay clergy.

The Guardian, which interviewed the archbishop, said that Ndungane's remarks "appeared directly aimed at Peter Akinola, Archbishop of Nigeria, head of the largest single church in the Anglican world, who has claimed that homosexuals are lower than beasts and who has called for the American and Canadian Episcopal churches to be thrown out of the [Anglican] communion."

Some interesting quotes attributed to Archbishop Ndungane in the article:

• "There is an attempt to divert us from the major life and death issues in the world. There is a woman waiting to be stoned to death for adultery in Nigeria and yet we are not hearing any fuss from the leadership of the church there about that."

  [Editorial comment: If you ask me, this quote deserves worldwide attention. It's stupendously shortsighted for the would-be communion splitters to get themselves so exercised about gay clergy and gay marriage, while they ignore the much more serious challenges posed by Muslim fundamentalists].

• "The [U.S.] Episcopal church is an autonomous province with its own procedures and processes which determine its own decisions. It is full of good people and they have followed one of the most transparent and democratic processes of decision-making in the whole Anglican communion. It is very arrogant to assume that the people in America do not know what they are doing. We have got to respect their decision."

• "Our church must learn how to live together as a diverse community. That's what should be on the agenda, not seeking to cast stones or talking about schisms."