AFRICAN ANGLICANS EXPRESS ANGER OVER CANADIAN ACTION

News24.com

NAIROBI – African Anglican churches condemned this month's acceptance by their Canadian counterpart of same-sex relationships.

"This latest move by the Church of Canada can neither be justified nor supported," the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa (CAPA) stated in a statement issued in Nairobi.

The churches, whose leaders have been meeting in Kenya, expressed "total and absolute disgust and deepest regret at the unfortunate decision" of Canada's Anglican Church, which last week affirmed the "integrity and sanctity" of same-sex relationships.

The church deferred a decision on whether such relationships could be blessed until 2007. The question of same-sex marriage is not on the agenda.

The world's 70 million Anglicans are deeply divided following last year's decision by the U.S. Episcopal Church to name Gene Robinson, an openly homosexual man, as bishop of New Hampshire.

African church leaders have warned that unless U.S. bishops rescind their decision to recognize Robinson's ministry, they will remove themselves from the communion.

Homosexuality is taboo across the African continent and remains illegal in many of its 53 states.