The Church of Nigeria affirms its total rejection of homosexuality and will surely stand to defend the Truth of the Gospel based on the injunctions and ethical principles of the Holy Bible.

The Archbishop of Nigeria has issued a statement saying ACNA is following the path of The Episcopal Church in welcoming LGBTQ persons. Adding to the significance of the dispute, the Archbishop of ACNA, Foley Beach, is also the chairman of Gafcon.

ACNA, the Anglican Church in North American, is the affiliation of churches that broke away from the Anglican Church of Canada and The Episcopal Church and are therefore not members of the Anglican Communion.

Gafcon, the Global Anglican Fellowship Conference, is comprised of groups like ACNA and several conservative provinces of the Anglican Communion alienated from provinces like The Episcopal Church that accept the full and equal rights of LGBTQ persons.

The Church of Nigeria takes issue with the recent pastoral statement from ACNA regarding “the toleration of same-sex persons within their fold.” (See, the Episcopal Café: ACNA: Adjective gay modifying Christian is “problematic”, January 21, 2021.)

The Church of Nigeria further takes aim at a letter which for a time appeared on ACNA’s website that “recruited” LGBTQ persons.

Some quotes from the statement by Archbishop Henry C. Ndukuba:

“These decisions by ACNA bishops tantamount to a subtle capitulation to recognize and promote same -sex relations among its members, exactly the same route of argument adopted by The Episcopal Church (TEC). Its appeal to subsidiarity is another trick not to submit to the clear authority of Scripture on homosexuality.”

“A Gay is a Gay, they cannot be rightly described otherwise. In the same vein, we cannot describe people as ‘Christian Murderer’, ‘Christian Adulterer’ and ‘Christian terrorist’; neither should we even have ‘Gay Christian’ or ‘Gay Anglican’.”

“The deadly ‘virus’ of homosexuality has infiltrated ACNA. This is likened to a Yeast that should be urgently and radically expunged and excised lest it affects the whole dough (Luke 13:20-21; Gal. 5:9).”

“It is more serious that the Archbishop of ACNA, Archbishop Foley Beach is also the current Chairman of GAFCON. Therefore, his actions or inactions and that of his Province have serious implications for GAFCON leadership.”

“We therefore call upon the Archbishop and the College of Bishops of ACNA to make definite, unambiguous statement condemning the actions taken by the Gay activists in their midst, denounce their action, dissociate ACNA from the group, discipline the erring bishops, priests and laity who signed the offensive Pro-Gay letter and reaffirm ACNA’s commitment to all the fundamentals of orthodox Christian faith….”

The complete letter follows (or see PDF of letter attached)

Friday February 26, 2021
CHURCH OF NIGERIA’S POSITION ON THE RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN ACNA

The College of Bishops of the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA), at their recent meeting, issued a Pastoral Statement of toleration of same-sex persons within their fold. The Bishops noted “that the struggle with human identity is real and painful for Christians who experience same-sex attraction” and reject the use of language that identify such people for who they are- Gays; preferring that they be addressed as “Christians who experience same-sex attraction”. The College of Bishops also upheld a commitment to subsidiarity which defers to diocesan bishops, discernment on how to handle homosexuals in their church communities. It called on priests of their churches to teach about human sexuality based on the Bishops’ desire that parishes in ACNA province become “places where those who experience same-sex attraction, especially youths know where they can go to share about this reality”.

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