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Religion of Tuesday, 17 July 2007

Source: The Chronicle

Anglicans against female & gay bishops

An executive member of the Orthodox Anglican Church, Ghana, Mr. Willie Halms has stated that the church does not believe in the enthronement of gays and lesbians as bishops of the Anglican Church because they do not subscribe to the gay culture and lesbianism.

He said they equally did not support the enthronement of women as bishops of the church because it had no biblical basis.

Speaking at a news conference to announce the intended visit of the head of the Orthodox Anglican Church, The Most Rev. Dr. Scott Earl McLaughlin to the country this month, Mr. Halms said the enthronement of gay bishops and women had no links to the great book, the bible. He noted that if God who created the earth wanted man to have sex with his colleague man, he would not have created Eve for Adam to marry.

He noted that the fact that this was not done by God meant that man could not stay with man as a couple.

In the case of enthronement of women as bishops as being done by the mainstream Anglican Church, Mr. Halms who is also a veteran journalist said Jesus Christ who brought about Christianity did not appoint any woman as one of his twelve disciples.

He therefore wondered why some Christian leaders should now try to enthrone women as bishops as if what Christ himself did was wrong. According to him the position that Jesus took should not be misconstrued to mean that women were nothing in society adding that there were still women who were part of His ministry but not disciples.

He said the Sekondi Diocese of the Saint Peter and Paul, the Apostles of the Orthodox Anglican Church Ghana broke away from the mainstream Anglican Church because apart from the injustices, unfairness and dishonesty they suffered, they would have also been tagged as supporters of this abominable act of enthroning gays and lesbians as bishops in the Anglican Church.

He said the faith of the Orthodox Anglican Church, which has its headquarters in the USA, is based on the ancient creeds and apostolic teachings.

Earlier the public affairs committee chairman of the church in Ghana, Mr. kofi Gyetsua Ankuma told newsmen that the Anglican communion was established in 1967 as self-governing Anglican church body, a world-wide fellowship of national Anglican churches committed to the old paths of “one holy catholic and apostolic faith”.

“The Orthodox Anglican Church communion is one of the first such communions outside the See of Canterbury.

“The church stands on biblical faith and morality thus, ordains only Godly men to Holy Orders and affirms that marriage is a sacred bond between a man and a woman and therefore we do not subscribe to gayism and lesbianism", he said.

According to Kofi Gyetsua, a presenter at one of the local radio stations, the head of the church would be arriving in the country on Monday July 23. Upon arrival he would pay a courtesy call on President Kufuor and head of Ahmmadyya mission in Ghana, Maulvi Wahab-Adam before proceeding to Sekondi to officially inaugurate the church in Ghana.