Kenyan Anglican Bishop Explains Why His Church Will Reject Donations From Any Diocese In The Us That Recognizes Gay Clergy
By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries
LONG
BEACH, CA - June 4, 2004 - (ANS)
-- An Anglican bishop from Kenya has explained why his church will not be
accepting any money from US diocese that recognizes gay clergy. (Pictured:
Rt. Rev. Joseph Otieno Wasonga).The Rt. Rev. Joseph Otieno Wasonga of Diocese of Maseno West told ANS on Thursday, June 3, “All the Bishops of Kenya, including our archbishop, made a decision that we will not be receiving money from dioceses that voted for the consecration of a Gay Bishop and those who do not accept the authority of Scripture. So together with the 29 dioceses in Kenya, we have said ‘no’ to that money and that means that there are some projects with our diocese with our diocese and our province which will not be receiving the funds that we been receiving hitherto.
“WE DON’T WANT TO ASSOCIATE WITH PEOPLE WHO DON’T UPLIFT THE GOSPEL”
“We made this decision because we realized that receiving money would put us in a compromised position where on one hand we are saying, we don’t agree with this and yet on the other hand we would be receiving from the same people. I think our position was going to have been weakened by associating with people who do not want to uplift the Gospel.
“Our message to American Anglicans is that those that are holding onto the faith handed down to us by the apostles should continue to hold that faith and they should then be involved in mission in solidarity with us and we believe that, as we pray for them, they to pray for us and support our work with whatever resources that God gives will give them either in terms of personnel or funds or programming to tackle some of the issues we tackle in Kenya.”
The Kenyan Bishops were among Anglican archbishops from all over Africa said in April during a meeting in Nairobi that they would reject donations from any diocese that recognizes gay clergy and also recommended giving the Episcopal Church in the United States three months to repent for ordaining an openly gay bishop.
The archbishops also said they will refuse cooperation with any missionary who supports ordaining gay priests. They said the Episcopalians — the American branch of Anglicanism — should be disciplined for the election last year of V. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire. Robinson has lived openly with his male partner for years.
HIV/AIDS
IN HIS DIOCESEBishop Wasonga then spoke about how HIV/AIDS is devastating his diocese. (Pictured: The Rt. Rev. Joseph Otieno Wasonga speaking at Plano-West in Long Beach).
“This is one of the major challenges that we are facing in the whole country of Kenya and particularly in the area my diocese services which is on the western part of Kenya bordering Uganda, on the main highway to Mombassa coast. The situation of infection in my area is actually going down because churches are beginning to spread the messages of abstention but the issue of orphans in quite a challenge. In my diocese alone, some we have 16 percent of our members are total orphans and this is a big burden to the church because our government cannot cope with helping the orphans.
“Again, those who are sick, the hospitals around cannot cope and so the churches in my dioceses has had to come into home-based care for those with living with AIDS and also my wife Jennifer who runs Agape Counseling and Training Services training counselors within the communities to try to cope with the issue of HIV/AIDS. It’s quite a big burden both on our time, our finances and other resources.”
The bishop was a speaker at Plano-West, a Conservative, West Coast Episcopalian gathering held at the Long Beach Convention Center in California, June 3-4, 2004.
