Updated Tuesday evening
Aislinn Laing in the Telegraph Analysis: will Robert Mugabe keep his word to the Archbishop of Canterbury?
Zim Eye Anglican church does not allow homosexuality – Archbishop Williams
Mail Online Tea and scones with a tyrant: Archbishop meets Mugabe in controversial visit to Zimbabwe
SW Radio Africa Kunonga hides behind homosexual debate in Anglican saga
The Herald (Published by the government of Zimbabwe) Anglican Head Admits Gay Problem
Lambeth Palace press release: Archbishops meet with Zimbabwean Prime Minister
Zimbabwe Telegraph Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town Condemns “Thuggery” Against Zimbabwean Church
Mail Online Peter Mullen The Archbishop displays a distressing innocence on this foolish, pointless visit
Associated Press Report: Zimbabwe bishops threatened, abused
Nehanda Radio Archbishop Williams harassed in Zimbabwe
and
Attack by Kunonga ‘mindless and Godless’
Living Church John Martin Denying Mugabe a Grip-and-Grin
“The Anglican Church doesn’t allow homosexuality…” he said. Really. I just can’t believe that this is what the Archbishop said. The Anglican Church ‘can’t allow’ homosexuality any more than it ‘can’t allow’ red hair. It’s a ridiculous statement. It has got nothing to do with permission. As John Bell of the Iona community reminded listeners on Thought for the Day yesterday, ‘…God continues to bring [gay people] into the world in significant numbers’. The Archbishop’s visit to Zimbabwe seems to be a truly courageous and hopefully fruitful act,speakiung truth to power. I hope he is not compromising with another truth.… Read more »
Also just within the hour appearing on my Facebook feed for Al Jazeera English is a report about the Williams visit.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/10/2011101016285561917.html
Why do I keep hearing in my head the lyrics from Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns”?
Maybe its the lines, “Isn’t it rich? Aren’t we a pair? . . . Don’t we love farce? . . . Send in the clowns . . . Don’t bother, they’re here.”
Regarding the Peter Mullen column: We can wish that ABC Williams spoke more forcefully to tyrants such as Robert Mugabe, and ask that he do so. We can wish that ABC Williams would more forcefully address what has happened to the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe. We can wish (as I do) that ABC Williams would be upfront and forthright about an equal place at the table for GLBT Anglicans, but! It is a bit rich to sit in the comfort of a London office or home and tell ABC Williams to martyr himself for the cause. To use his authority… Read more »
“But then those louts might have murdered the good Dr Williams. So what?”…. are we supposed to take Peter Mullen seriously? No, the Archbishop has not displayed a distressing innocence on his foolish pointless visit, he came to speak to thousands giving them hope that their faith was worth persisting with, that their God was right there with them, that their hope was worth clinging on to. And that the world had not forgotten them. Who else has done this? Have you, oh so sarcastic and cynical Mr Mullen? I’m not always a fan of Rowan Williams and I genuinely… Read more »
John Bell and Richard Ashby are right. One hopes that the ABC did not make that remark, that “The Anglican Church does not allow homosexuality”. This is really a non-sensical statement – if only because of the fact that the God of the Church not only ‘allows homosexuality’ He even creates it. What we do with our God-given sexuality is quite another question, and a matter of personal discipline – not only for homosexual people but also for heterosexuals. But to state that Anglicans cannot be gay is really mind-blowing in its stupidity. At one time, the Church even said… Read more »
Can anyone enlighten us as to the Vatican’s track record with Mugabe and to this persecution of fellow Christians in the country?
Mugabe is a practising Roman Catholic, and no doubt the R.C. Church is a major beneficiary of their distinguished Child of God – and Zimbabwe’s diamond mines’ executive rake-off. What would you do?