NIGERIA: Nigeria's top Anglican Church official has warned that his 17½ million members would have to sever their historic ties with the Church of England if it follows the lead of the US Episcopal Church by accepting a gay bishop or otherwise condoning homosexuality.
Archbishop Peter Akinola, the leader of traditionalist forces in the Nigerian church, said its constitution had been rewritten this month in order to give its officials the freedom to break away if the British church adopted what he called a "revisionist agenda on homosexuality".
The changes deleted all references to the Church of England in Canterbury, the historic home of the Anglican faith.
The denomination has been divided internationally by disagreements over the treatment of gays and lesbians, and speculation of a full-fledged split has been growing.
"I don't think we've come to the point of schism," Archbishop Akinola said. "We are not breaking away from anybody."
He acknowledged that there was a "broken relationship" between the Nigerian and British churches, but then added, "there is still room for a consolation, for repentance".
Archbishop Akinola, speaking at the church headquarters in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, denounced "liberal" Western ideas and those who favour an "anything goes" interpretation of the Bible.
"They are the ones who are tearing apart the fabric of our Anglican family, not the Nigerians," he said.
The Nigerian church severed relations with the US Episcopal Church after it accepted the local selection of an openly gay man, V Eugene Robinson of New Hampshire, as a bishop in 2003.
The Nigerians also broke relations with the Canadian Anglican Church after some dioceses blessed civil unions of gay and lesbian couples.
The Church of England has neither accepted gays as bishops nor sanctioned same-sex civil unions, though the liberal Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has questioned the "insistence on a fantasy version of heterosexual marriage as the solitary ideal."
In July, the Church of England announced that gay priests could remain in same-sex partnerships so long as they were celibate.
Church leaders also said that gays and lesbians could not be denied Baptism, Confirmation or Communion on the basis of their sexual orientation.
Archbishop Akinola said on Thursday that he had received a letter from Dr Williams saying that the Church of England had no intention of further inflaming the debate.
But while saying he hoped to avoid a schism, Archbishop Akinola warned that Nigerian officials were prepared to break with the Church of England should it embrace homosexuality.
In addition to leading Nigeria's Anglican Church, Archbishop Akinola also is the nominal leader of all 40 million Anglicans in Africa, where homosexuality is both illegal in most countries and viewed as an abomination.
Worldwide, there are 77 million Anglicans.
The Nigerian church has also stopped sending its priests to the US for training, Akinola said. - (Los Angeles Times-Washington Post service)