Anglican Bishops Condemn Homosexuality
Greenbelt Interfaith News

Following an acrimonious debate over homosexuality between the Archbishop of Canterbury and an American bishop, Rwanda's Anglican bishops have added their thoughts on the matter. On January 31, the diocesan bishops of the Anglican Province of Rwanda issued a strong condemnation of homosexuality, referring to it as "Western practices."

The bishops say that they have "read with great care" the recent correspondence between Archbishop George Carey, spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, and the Right Rev. John S. Spong, Episcopal bishop of Newark, New Jersey. The two men sparred in November 1997 over whether Anglican churches should change their traditional condemnation of homosexuality, with Bishop Spong advocating change. The Rwandan bishops also read two recent conservative statements addressing homosexuality, the Kuala Lumpar Statement and the Dallas Statement, and say that they agree with those documents. "We will strive to use all our gifts, as a caring church, to carry out our pastoral role to all our people," say the eight diocesan bishops. "For all who have deviated from God's laws, there is free and full forgiveness and freedom from their old captivity because of the Resurrection power and indwelling of the Holy Spirit."