The archbishops also said they will refuse cooperation with any
missionary who supports ordaining gay priests. They said the
Episcopalians — the American branch of Anglicanism — should be
disciplined for the election last year of V. Gene Robinson as bishop
of New Hampshire. Robinson has lived openly with his male partner for
years.

"If we suffer for a while to gain our independence and our freedom and
to build ourselves up, I think it will be a good thing for the church
in Africa," Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria told journalists. "And
we will not, on the altar of money, mortgage our conscience, mortgage
our faith, mortgage our salvation."

He spoke at a meeting of African Anglican archbishops and their
counterparts from Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America. The other
regions planned to issue a statement Friday.

Akinola is also chairman of the Council of Anglican Provinces of
Africa, which represents 12 national and regional churches plus the
diocese of Egypt.

Robinson's election has created deep divisions within the worldwide
Anglican Communion, a confederation of provinces that each govern
themselves. All Anglican provinces in Africa — except for Southern
Africa — have opposed ordaining homosexuals, and several have severed
ties with the U.S. Diocese of New Hampshire.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the spiritual leader of the
world's 77 million Anglicans, has appointed a commission to explore
ways of holding the communion together, or perhaps managing a split.

The financial impact of the African bishops' stance is unclear.

American church officials have said that overseas Anglican leaders who
had publicly denounced the U.S. denomination over Robinson's election
last year have continued taking aid money from them.

Also, a significant amount of those grants come from Episcopal
foundations that are independent of American dioceses and national
church headquarters.

"It's hard to parse this statement and to figure out are there any
loopholes here or what," said Jim Naughton, a spokesman for the
Archdiocese of Washington.

But Canon Bill Atwood, director of Ekklesia Society, an international
aid agency created by U.S. Episcopal conservatives, said the African
bishops have shown that they will break ties with the U.S. church no
matter the cost.

"Western leaders, especially in the Episcopal Church, have
miscalculated," said Atwood, who was in Nairobi.

A spokesman for the national U.S. church did not immediately return a
call seeking comment.

Africans comprise about half of the members of the global Anglican
communion. The African churches are the fastest-growing in the world.

END