Gay clergy don't belong in Anglican church, archbishop says
Archbishop Stanley Ntagali at the press conference held at his residence on Namirembe Hill on Tuesday, where he said gay clergymen don't belong in the Anglican Church. Photo by Racheal Mabala.
Archbishop Stanley Ntagali, the Church of Uganda supremo, has finally broken his silence on gay clergymen: they don’t belong in the Anglican faith.
Speaking at a press conference at his residence on Namirembe Hill on Tuesday, Archbishop Ntagali said the idea of having gay bishops is an ‘unbiblical decision’ and a ‘spiritual cancer’ in the Anglican faith.
The remarks come ten years after the first gay bishop, Gene Robinson, was consecrated in the Diocese of New Hampshire, in the United States. Bishop Robinson’s consecrated caused a rift in the global Anglican faith, which Archbishop Ntagali calls tearing the fabric of the Anglican Communion at its deepest level.
Ntagali, the former Masindi Kitara Diocesan bishop, was installed as archbishop in December last year.
The archbishop said the Anglican Church is built on the doctrines of Biblical teaching which only recognize hetero-sexual relationships.
The Ugandan Anglican community takes exception of the decision by the England House of Bishops to allow gay bishops as part of the Anglican clergy, he said, and thus will have a Global Anglican Future Conference in Nairobi, Kenya this October to resolve the issues.
The Global Anglican Future Conference (Gafcon) will be the second of its kind that brings together Archbishops around the world who oppose gay bishops. In 2008, the anti-gay Anglican Church leaders gathered in Jerusalem, Israel to reflect on the future of the church.
Archbishop Ntagali, with these remarks, is picking off from where his predecessor left off: Henry Luke Orombi was one of the main organizers of Gafcon 2008, and also made several pastoral trips to several countries to preach against gay clergy and gay marriage.
