However, your office is held in the highest esteem, especially by our African brothers and sisters who owe an eternal thank you for the missionaries, both evangelical and Anglo-Catholic who brought the gospel to their lands, mainly from England. Millions of souls have been saved as a result of those fearless men and women, many of whom died of malaria within months of their arrival on African soil. But they planted a seed and it fell on good ground and today millions of our Anglican African brothers and sisters proclaim the name of Jesus, and they cry out to our Lord each Sunday in the midst of poverty, violence and suffering, calling on Him to heal them, cover them, and save them.

They are on the front lines of faith, suffering for Jesus in a way that you and I will never know. As a knockabout journalist, loved and hated (and yes a lot of the hatred comes from my side of the fence), I think I can say I know a bit about how they feel. I have been to Nigeria and seen what it is like to fear that at any moment Boko Haram might just emerge from the bush and start killing Christians. As you know, kidnappings are not uncommon in Nigeria with two Anglican bishops in recent months having experienced that first hand. They were released, but had they died, everyone knows that's the price you pay for following Jesus and not Mohammed. Africans pick themselves up, raise holy hands to heaven, and go on worshipping. They don't whine or complain because they know that one day justice will be done. They will look upon their loved ones again as well as look upon the One who was pierced, nailed to a cross, and crucified for them. It will make sense, but not in their lifetime. They are people of deep faith and people of the book even if they are not as well educated as you and I. The bottom line is they love Jesus and deep down they think you do too.

So I understand your call to keep the Communion together. It is a compelling call and resonates with all of us who call ourselves Anglican. We desperately want to see a united church, not a fragmented one. We all want to sing, "The Church's One Foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord" and really mean it. We all want to see John Ch. 17 be a reality. We desperately want that to be true in our life time. We don't want a divided communion. We have seen what Protestant splits have done over the years since the Reformation. While we believe that Ecclesia semper reformanda est "the church is always to be reformed", we don't believe as Anglicans that splits and breakaways are the way to go. It brings many of us to tears as we see what is unfolding today. It is heartbreaking.

As a result of the theological and moral innovations in North America, many of our brothers and sisters have fled to Rome or formed new Anglican jurisdictions to meet their needs as hundreds of thousands, in conscience, have fled The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada.

Please understand, Archbishop, we are not talking about millennials or GEN X's; we are talking about men and women in their 60's, 70's, and some in their 80's, who have steadfastly watched as their church has been taken over by alien voices on sexuality and doctrine. It has overwhelmed and bewildered them. They are not homophobic, nor do they hate anyone; they are just bewildered, lost, and angry. They have watched as they have heard voices from their pulpits say things they don't understand or believe and watched as their beloved Prayer Book is mocked and Holy Scripture is derided and ridiculed and its saints, like the Apostle Paul, declared homophobic and out of touch with the times in which we live. They are lost and bewildered; they turn in vain to their bishops for leadership and get none. They hear words like "inclusivity," "diversity," and "generous orthodoxy" and wonder what it means and if it applies to them. They hear endless talk about anti-racism and wonder if they are being targeted.

Try to put yourself in their boots, Archbishop. Feel their pain, listen to their cries, and think about all this as you meet with the primates in Canterbury in January. And please listen carefully to ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach. He is a man of God and he loves Jesus, just like you do. He knows that you know and he wants you to take a stand that he can applaud and endorse.

Of course, we know the hot button issue for the communion is homosexuality. You know all the details, as much as I do. I understand your reticence not to get embroiled, yet again, because I know you have friends who are gay and you don't want to upset them by telling them that their behavior could keep them out of the Kingdom. It just sounds so harsh and unyielding, so unloving. For the record, my brother-in-law died of AIDS and my best friend, a Baptist minister, died of AIDS in the 80s, so it is up close and personal for me. I remember taking Robert to a New York City hospital and watching as they put him in a room and plastered "keep out" signs all over the door. They treated him like an Ebola patient. He was contaminated, they said, and he could spread the disease. Even with my lack of knowledge, I knew that was not true. He was later moved to a Connecticut hospital to a ward for men like himself. He loved Jesus. Before he died, I asked him if he would marry Mary and me, but that was not to be. I lost a dear friend that year.

I am sure you regret as much as I do that the subject dividing the Communion is homosexuality, and not say the two natures of Christ or Christ's divinity. I am sure you must privately bewail that homosexuality has become the litmus test instead of something else, like a major doctrine of the church. Many believe that sex itself is a "second tier" issue; at least one president at a prominent Episcopal seminary recently told me that. We should be more worried about climate change than worrying about where people put their body parts, he said.

At the deepest level, the issue is about the authority of Scripture. If we cannot trust the Bible when it speaks definitively about sexuality, what can we trust the Bible about? You might cringe when Jesus said "the poor you will have with you always but me you will not have", as a form of narcissism (at least by today's psychological standards), but we are talking about the Son of God who died for humanity's sins. If He felt that knowing him was more important than poverty, then who am I to disagree?

Some of your colleagues, at least the Bishop of Manchester who I recently debated on LBC radio, seems to think that climate change and poverty issues should dominate and unite the Communion rather than sexual preferences, but clearly he doesn't know his NT that well.

All seven verses in the Bible (OT and NT) clearly condemn such behavior; three make it a salvation issue. Perhaps you wish it were not so, or perhaps you agree that we live in a different time and age, that St. Paul is homophobic or simply wouldn't know anything about "committed same sex" relationships. But as theologian Dr. Robert Gagnon makes clear in his book The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics, the Ancient World was full of homosexuals and their lifestyles were well known to the apostle "...and such were some of you" he writes. (For the record, his book has never been publicly refuted by a single liberal and it stands as the textus receptus for Christians and I invite you to read it if you have not already done so.)

The Global South will not cave into you, Archbishop, you must know that. You may be as disillusioned as Rowan Williams, your predecessor, who left the job eight years before he had to because he tried to square the circle and could not. His Hegelian hermeneutic failed to do the trick and he was gone.

At least you are giving it your best shot and you hope that the "two integrities" can somehow live together. But that is not going to happen, Archbishop. Too much is at stake. Those faithful to the gospel believe this is a gospel issue and those who live in these relationships should stop and repent. There are many faithful celibate homosexuals that you have never met, that I know, who believe it is their cross to bear and they bear it with grace and humility. What do you say to them? What of the men and women who have undergone reparative or conversion therapy and today are happily married? Are you going to say of them that they are self-loathing homosexuals who are denying their true selves? Are you always going to listen to the other side because they have the money, the PR, the ear of a president and the press's attention?

I hope you are a better man than that. Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold (Romans 12:2) said St. Paul. I hope you will uphold biblical orthodoxy against its cultured despisers like Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and Archbishop Fred Hiltz (Canada). If you don't, they will squeeze you into their mold and all will be lost.

You have a choice. Side with the orthodox and let the heterodox go their way. Their provinces are dying including, I might add, your own beloved Church of England that Archbishop Carey says is on "the brink of extinction."

This is your Kairos moment, Archbishop. Choose truth and live or watch it all fall apart. We await your decision. We who are faithful to the gospel hope with all our hearts that you will choose the right path even if the gate is small and the way is narrow.

Respectfully,

David