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LAMBETH: Sudanese bishop says homosexuality against "God's plan"
By Hans Zeiger in Canterbury
www.virtueonline.org
July 28, 2008
Outside the gates of the Canterbury Cathedral on Sunday, a Sudanese bishop spoke with VirtueOnline about God's plan for creation, suggesting that homosexuality is "changing His plan."
The bishop refused to give his name, and he turned down particular questions, but he stated his agreement with the letter and press comments of last week by the Most Rev. Daniel Deng Bul, Archbishop of the Sudan . Archbishop Bul said that Gene Robinson, the openly gay Bishop of New Hampshire, "should resign for the sake of the church." Bul said that homosexual ordination "is not what is found in the Bible" and that it is "not the norm of the Anglican world."
Acknowledging the Archbishop's statements, the unnamed Sudanese bishop offered the following remarks:
"The Bible is very clear about God's plan in creation. He created male and female. And also, the Bible says who can advise God on what to do? He does things according to His holy will. Now, as human beings, who are we to change God's plan? Who is our Creator?
"When we are changing His plan, we are acting against His holy will, because it was His intention to create male and female. This can also be seen in insects, birds of the air, bugs-they were created male and female, not male and male or female and female.
"And the Bible says that He blessed them and said be fruitful. The God Who is saying He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life is the God who again in Jesus has told us that God is a Spirit, and those who worship Him shall worship in truth and spirit."
VirtueOnline reported earlier about a conversation on Sunday with The Rt. Rev. Ezekiel Diing Malaangdit, Assistant Bishop of Bor in the Sudan . Malaangdit reiterated the position of Archbishop Bul that Bishop Robinson should resign for the sake of the Anglican Communion. "I think what the Archbishop says is correct," Malaanngdit said. "We are worried about the breakdown of the Anglican Communion. We miss some of the people not here in this conference."
The issue of homosexual ordination has divided the Anglican Communion and kept hundreds of orthodox bishops away from the decennial Lambeth Conference, with many African bishops having attended the conservative Global Anglican Future Conference in the Holy Land last month instead.
Malaangdit repeated several times that the Sudanese delegation at Lambeth was not opposed to The Episcopal Church or America or any individuals within the Anglican Communion, including Robinson. The Sudanese bishops came to Canterbury , he said, "to talk this through. Robinson is who we are giving our opinion to." And it is an opinion, he stressed, not a command. "It is up to him and the presiding bishop to see to it."
Two other Sudanese bishops turned down interviews with VirtueOnline.
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