US priest turns to Uganda to fight homosexuals
Uganda’s Anglican Church consecrated an American priest as bishop yesterday, in order for him to lead his own congregation in Virginia against homosexuality.
It is the latest move in the struggle for gay recognition in the Anglican community, following the consecration of two American bishops to the Church of the Province of Kenya .
Reverend John Guernsey will now look after the 33 parishes in the US which have agreed to come under the rule of the Province of the Church of Uganda.
His church voted last December “to leave the Episcopal Church over disagreements on biblical authority and the 2003 consecration of New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, a practicing homosexual.”
That consecration of an openly gay bishop has now begun to tear the Anglican Communion apart.
Conservative bishops in Africa and the States have threatened to break away from the church, and Ugandan bishops may not even attend next year’s Lambeth Conference on the question of ordaining gay priests as bishops.
“God created man for woman,” said the Rt. Rev. William Magambo, who attended the consecration.
“Homosexuality is against the scriptures but some Americans started saying it’s correct; they started blessing the union of people of the same sex.
“Some Christians are not sympathetic to this type of marriage.”
President Museveni sent a written message to the ceremony which seemed to associate homosexuality with moral decadence.
“Our children are growing up in the time of moral decadence; crime, drugs and prostitution,” he said.
“The church has the task of rescuing our children from this decadence.”
Reverend Martin Reynolds of the Gay and lesbian Christian Movement said the attraction of Africa to homophobic US priests is growing even stronger.
“One of the main African newspapers has a headline saying ‘Africa welcomes US gay bashers’ and I think that’s pretty accurate,” he told pinknews.co.uk.
“The sad thing is being a gay basher in most of Africa is deemed to be morally good.
“Every disappointed American priest who wants to be a bishop can now line up to Africa,” he added.
