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LAMBETH: Sudanese "Worried" About Anglican Breakdown

LAMBETH: Sudanese "Worried" about Anglican Breakdown

By Hans Zeiger in Canterbury
www.virtueonline.org
July 27, 2008

CANTERBURY -An assistant bishop in the Episcopal Church of the Sudan spoke with VirtueOnline Sunday about Anglican unity and Gene Robinson, the openly gay Bishop of New Hampshire. The Rt. Rev. Ezekiel Diing Malaangdit, assistant Bishop of Bor, said that the Sudanese delegation at the Lambeth Conference is "worried about the breakdown of the Anglican Communion" over homosexual ordination.

Assistant Bishop Malaangdit reiterated the position of Sudanese Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul earlier in the week 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."

The Sudanese will not force the The Episcopal Church to abide by Lambeth Resolution 110 of 1998 which said that homosexuality and Scripture are incompatible, but they are hoping that Robinson will spare the Anglican Communion further turmoil.

"The whole communion will break down because of you," Malaangdit said, as if addressing Robinson. "It is better that you resign."

"For the sake of the unity of the Anglican Communion, simply tell [yourself] if my problem is going to hurt the church, I must resign."

"The whole world now is waiting on the outcome of this conference. We are not against America . We are against the position taken by homosexuals. The church in the Sudan will never bless that one and we don't want to bless it."

Malaangdit also said that homosexual ordination "may give room to our enemies like the Muslims to see that maybe Anglicans are not good people."

"We need unity of the Anglican Communion to be together. What they are deciding on is putting the whole Anglican world into question. We have the whole global South not for the decision which Gene Robinson has taken. Now the remaining body here wants to listen. If the conference will bless Robinson's position, I don't know what will be the next reaction. We, the Sudanese, have come out clearly for the sake of church unity of the Anglican Communion. We are proposing to Robinson that he better resign."

END

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