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SOUTH AFRICA: Gay marriage ‘unchristian’
By Rachel Harden
THE CHURCH TIMES
THE PRIMATE of Southern Africa, the Most Revd Njongonkulu Ndungane, declared that same-sex marriages were “definitely” unchristian in an interview last week.
Archbishop Ndungane was speaking after a ruling by the South African Supreme Court of Appeal that the common-law definition of marriage must be extended to include same-sex partners.
“As far as we are concerned as a Church, our understanding of marriage is between a man and a woman,” said Archbishop Ndungane in an interview with the South African Press Assocation in Cape Town. “As a Church, and the Anglican Church in particular, we have said no to same-sex unions.”
The Archbishop is known to be one of the most liberal of the African bishops. After the consecration of the Rt Revd Gene Robinson, a practising homosexual, in the United States, Archbishop Ndungane accused those opposed to the ordination of homosexuals of being “arrogant, intolerant and hypocritical”.
On Friday, the South African Council of Churches (SACC) issued a statement saying that the core teachings of Christianity did not “explicitly prohibit the validation of faithful, loving same-sex relationships”.
Its general secretary, Dr Molefe Tsele, expressed support for South Africa’s Constitution, and urged religious leaders to respond cautiously to last week’s court ruling.
He said that the traditions and teachings of the Church “have not recognised same-sex marriages”; but he added that some of the biblical passages used to condemn homosexual relationships could not be applied to contemporary society.
The Archbishop of Central Africa, the Most Revd Bernard Malango, also spoke out last week on the issue of homosexuality, after attending a workshop on HIV/AIDS in Zambia.
He said that those who failed to adhere to Anglican biblical morality by condoning the ordination of gay priests and the blessings of same-sex marriage should not belong to the worldwide Anglican Communion, ENI reported.
Interviewed after the workshop, he said: “We in the Church in Central Africa are not ready to go on with people in Europe and the USA who are moving away from the Anglican norms. Those who are departing from the teaching of scriptures and our early Fathers must be separated from us.”
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