“Our humanity is God’s glory”
(The many faces of our Communion)
1. Introduction
I truly am deeply honoured to have been invited by the L.G.C.M. to address this
conference “Halfway to Lambeth” and focus in particular on what has been
happening in our Anglican Communion since Lambeth 1998 with regard to the issue
of homosexuality. The honour lies in being what the church in South
Africa sought to be during the apartheid years and what was epitomized by
Archbishop Desmond Tutu in particular, that is to be the voice of the
voiceless. Many Anglicans in Africa look to this Conference to try to
address the concern raised in 1998 by Archbishop Ndungane and that is to listen
to the voices of Gay and Lesbians members of our church. Thank you for
enabling me then to speak out of our context in Southern Africa, representing
one of the many faces of our Communion.
2. 1998
This conference is entitled “Halfway to Lambeth and is
therefore looking from 1998 forward to 2008 when the next Lambeth
Conference is to meet and already we know that plans are afoot to explore the
feasibility of it taking place in South Africa and that the conference is to be
preceded by an international gathering of lay and clerical representatives at a
Congress. But Halfway to Lambeth needs also to look back at the 1988
Conference which referred to the issue of homosexual and the focus of our
meeting here. In some ways it seems that our fathers – in God, no women
bishops were present 1988, were more enlightened then for the Resolution 64
entitled “Human rights for those of homosexual orientation” said inter-alia
“urges such study and reflection to take account of biological, genetic and
psychological research being undertaken by other agencies, and the
socio-cultural factors that lead to different attitudes in the provinces of our
Communion” (p.226) (Resolutions of the twelve Lambeth Conferences).
The 1988 Conference was
less prescriptive and drew attention for the need to look at biological,
genetic and psychological research and acknowledged that we live in a fast
changing world having to look at other agencies which means that we do not rely
solely on our own ecclesiastical context. There is also the recognition
of other socio-political factors that influence our cultural attitudes.
It is a great pity, therefore, that Resolution 1.10 of 1998 made no reference
to the resolution of 1988 and added instead references to another conference in
Kuala Lumpur which was attended by only a portion of the bishops. It
should be noted also that the report from Section 1 (called to Full Humanity)
had after its two-week discussion recommended that no resolution on human
sexuality be presented to the full plenary session because there was no clear
consensus on some of the issues. Resolution 1.10 of 1998 was cobbled
together in such a way as to undermine the hard work done by the working
session, but that is all history since it was one resolution which produced a
counter response which sought to give expression to a more pastoral approach as
envisioned in 1988.
3 C.P.S.A
The CPSA in 1992 at its Provincial Synod in Swaziland
voted in favour of women being ordained to the priesthood. This was done
against the background of changes in the Republic of South Africa since 1990
and the release of Nelson Mandela after twenty-seven years of imprisonment
under the apartheid regime. That Synod respected the integrity of
individual bishops and diocese so that no bishop would be compelled to ordain
any woman if they had voted against the resolution. I was present at that
Synod as Provincial Executive Officer and heard arguments against the
resolution based on culture, e.g. women cannot be chief, scripture e.g. St.
Paul on headship and the threat of further disunity with the Roman Catholic and
Orthodox Churches. But in the end it came down to a question of justice
and what was right for the Anglican Church in Southern Africa since sexual
identity is a given and we could no longer discriminate on the basis of gender
as previously on colour. On the question of unity, it was pointed out
that the church of Rome already denies the validity of our Orders and unity had
to be balanced over against justice. One of the comments made after the
vote to ordain women had been passed was “the next major debate will be on
homosexuality”. In March 1997, three years after our first
democratic elections, the Synod of Bishops endorsed the report “Anglicans and
Sexual Orientation” produced by the Southern Africa Anglican Theological
Commission. The statement from the Synod of Bishops in March 1997
acknowledge that there was no consensus among the bishops but went on to say
“where we do agree however is that:
as a Church we have been responsible over the
centuries, for rejecting many people on the basis of their sexual orientation”.
and further “ As bishops we are unhappy at the tendency
in some quarters to attack homosexuals on the basis of simplistic
interpretations of certain scriptural texts”.
There is no doubt in my mind that the discussions in the Republic of South
Africa, and I need to say that since our Province includes Lesotho, Swaziland,
Namibia, Mozambique, St Helena Is. and just recently, Angola, that diversity is
accepted within our Province reflects the experience of the majority of our
population under forty years of legalized apartheid and has influenced our
response in other matters too. The constitution of South Africa includes
a section which prohibits discrimination on the basis of various categories
including sexual orientation and recent challenges to existing laws on our
statute book has seen the Constitutional Court upholding the right of Gay
and Lesbian partners to adopt and receive medical and other aid benefits.
The recent report of the Law Commission on the Marriage Act has put forward
proposals which would recognize same gender unions. The CPSA at its
Provincial Synod in 2002 recommended that the Metropolitan appoint a Commission
to investigate the blessing of same gender unions. The Commission under
Prof. Joan Church made an interim- report to the Synod of Bishops and recently
our Provincial Standing Committee, the Executive body between Provincial
Synods, passed Resolution 9: Same- sex unions which said,
inter alia :
“We are called to discuss same-sex unions, particularly
where this issue affects our communities. We are talking about people in
our families, in our churches, and in the body of Christ. We ask
Christians and parish communities to recognize this debate as a pastoral
reality”.
4. Many Faces
It is important to bear in mind that our experience in
South Africa does not mean that everyone accepts that there needs to be a
change within our church as regards Gay and Lesbian members and that God calls
us as we are through Baptism to bear witness to Christ.
There are those who argue that sexual orientation is a matter of choice, but
only it seems for those with a homosexual orientation. We are back to the
New Testament and the Acts of the Apostles where those in Jerusalem argued that
in order to become a Christian, Gentiles had first to become Jews. Now
some argue that we cannot be accepted in the Church, be ordained or have our
unions blessed unless we convert and become heterosexual. Africa, because
of her history of exploitation should be in on forefront of those who celebrate
our diversity and see that our humanity is God’s glory. Slaves were taken
from West Africa and exported to the United States where their dignity was
further desecrated and their God given humanity denied. In South Africa
the slave owners prevented the slaves from being baptized since that would make
them all equal and the growth of Islam in the Western Cape was in no small
measure due to this act of discrimination. Our experiences in Africa are
not all the same but we all claim Africa to be our mother and her children has
many different faces. It ill behoves our fathers –in –God in West Africa
to now deny us, as a church in Southern Africa, to hold a different position on
the question of homosexuality and to resort to name – calling. The
Archbishop of Cape Town spent three years as a political prisoner on Robben
Island for being a member of the Pan African Congress and it was on the Island
that Archbishop Ndungane discovered his vocation to the priesthood. He
understands discrimination based on a freely given attribute such as colour and
therefore has spoken out against discrimination based on sexual orientation. In
his sermon, at the closing service of the 1998 Lambeth Conference (7 August)
Archbishop Khotso Makhulu of the Central African Province said:
“From my background, I want to say here and now, I have
resisted tyranny all my life and nor will I ever tolerate it from those who
claim the love of the Bible over everyone else. Let not the intolerance
of a variety of contexts inexorably lead us to intolerance, which, if I am
checked, will find us with a band of vigilantes and fundamentalists”.
Looking at what has happened in our Communion over past
month with regard to Canon Jeffrey John and Gene Robinson, one can see that
Archbishop Makhulu was prophetic. The enormous problems facing our
Continent and the challenges God has placed before us, do not leave room for
hatred and scapegoating. The genocide in Rwanda was a result of such
name-calling, you were killed simply for being a Hutu or Tutsi. Even here
the Church did not emerge with clear hands and allegations of complicity in the
slaughter have been made against some of our own bishops. We as Lesbian
and Gay Anglicans and especially those in leadership have much to contribute
towards the healing of our continent. We are driven by a desire to love,
to love those of our own gender and “Ubi Caritas et amor, Deus Tibi Est” where
charity and love is, there God abides. A recent BBC Publication, October
2003 has as its focus Gay Africa and one of the articles is written by Dr.
Sylvia Tamale, a senior lecturer of law at Makerere University in Kampala,
Uganda.
She writes: “Anthropological research
shows that same-sex erotics existed in a variety of forms in at least 55
African cultures. Moreover, such practices are ancient and entirely
indigenous to this continent. It is time for Africans to bury the tired
myth that homosexuality has no roots in Africa”.
She further suggests that the colonial influences of
Islam and Christianity were responsible for these present homophobic
ulterances.
5. Going Forward
Halfway to Lambeth reminds us that we are all on a
journey, a journey towards wholeness and holiness. My personal experience
as a Black South African has seen me having to confront my own prejudices as
well as coming to terms with my own brokenness. Some of it as a result of
my social context and some of it because of my failure, for various reasons, to
realize that my humanity is indeed God’s glory. Despite my baptism and
living family, we are nine children all together, I believed for a great part
of my life that what defined me was the colour of my skin and that because of
my colour, I was a lesser being. But it was my involvement in student
politics in 1960/62, just before I came to study at King’s College, London,
which made me aware of my own worth as a person. Then when in my second
year at College I became aware of my sexual orientation, I wondered what God
was up too, Black and Gay – who knows? But my journey in the church when
I went back to South Africa to be ordained and subsequent involvement lead to
see that it is grace alone that enables each one of us to claim our God – given
heritage that we are all, God’s children by adoption and grace and yes I want
to sing to all the world that old children’s chorus:
“Jesus loves me, yes I know
For the Bible tells me so…”
As Archbishop Tutu used to say at rallies during the
apartheid era, the Nationalist government should have banned the Bible because
it affirmed that “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us
and gave his son to be a propitriation for our sins!! (1 John).
Look into all our faces and see the love of God since
we are all made as icons of God. As Archbishop Rowan Williams said in his
Enthronement sermon (27 Feb 2003)
“No one can be written off, no group, no nation, no
minority can just be a scapegoat to resolve our fears and uncertainties.
We cannot assume that any human face we see has no divine secret to disclose….”
Thank you for journeying with me towards that place
where we shall see God face to face and as our great African Saint, Augustine
says:
“We shall rest and we shall see
We shall see and we shall know
We shall know and we shall love
We shall love and we shall praise
Behold our end which is no end”.
Rowan W Smith
Dean of Cape Town