Homosexuals are God’s children, Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane said on Thursday, ahead of a conference in Rwanda with the contentious issue of gays in the church on its agenda.
”We should try to find solutions of living with difference and otherness. Diversity is the creation by the Almighty … we need to embrace, all of us, in our differences and seek to walk together,” Ndungane told reporters.
Tensions in the church have been growing since 2003, following a row over the blessing of same-sex relationships and the consecration of an openly gay bishop by the American Episcopal Church.
Ndungane, who leads the two dozen bishops in Church of the Province of Southern Africa, said same-sex legislation currently before Parliament should be upheld.
”It [the Constitutional Court ruling in favour of same-sex marriages] in no way undermines our understanding of marriage,” he said, emphasising that the court protected the conventional understanding within a Christian context, namely between a man and a woman.
The church has gay clergy but expects them to be celibate.
Ndungane said it might be preferable to insert the word partnerships or unions instead of marriage, as was currently the case.
Ndungane, referring to the church’s submission last year to the Department of Home Affairs on this same-sex legislation, said the church did not regard same-sex unions as a marriage in the eyes of God.
He said the Constitutional Court was ”very clear” in saying that there should be two kinds of laws — one which affirms traditional marriages and the other which accommodates all kinds of unions, whether customary unions or same-sex partnerships.
On the question of adoption by gays, Ndungane said this was interesting, particularly with some agreeing it should be accepted when there were so many unloved children.
”A critical question that I’ve asked is what happens when that couple brings that baby for baptism. Do you deny that child baptism? And in my book of words you don’t because that child is a child of God.”
Ndungane said the question of baptism was one of the pastoral concerns the church was discussing.
On Nigeria — Africa’s largest Anglican church with 17,5-million members and which has condemned same-sex marriages — Ndungane said people should not play the ”numbers game” but rather get on with life and deal with ”life and death issues”.
”We are told there are no homosexuals in Nigeria … but they recently held a gathering there,” he said.
Ndungane, repeating a call made by the Southern African bishops last week, appealed for unity in the church.
He likened the current schism to apartheid and urged people to be wary of fractures that would weaken the church’s communion.
”We face many gigantic issues. Conflicts in our own continent, extreme poverty, HIV and Aids, malaria. Those are big issues where we ought to be united to address those … Issues of sexuality are not church-dividing issues. They are issues that need to be dealt with and not hidden under the table,” he said. — Sapa