Academic literature on the topic 'Homosexuality – Religious aspects – Anglican Communion'

AbstractThe idea of comprehensiveness, which I call 'facing-both-ways' in matters of faith, is unknown, at least for now, in the Global South Anglicanism where the Anglican Church is used to preaching the Gospel plainly and unmistakably. The story of homosexuality in the Anglican Communion came to the spotlight at the 1998 Lambeth Conference, at which the Anglican bishops of the Global South of the Anglican Communion emerged as the most prominent opponents of any form of approval of homosexual practice by the Anglican Church. By asking the hard question as Bishop Frank Weston of Zanzibar did in 1913: Anglican Communion: For What Should She Stand? Anglican bishops of the Global South of the Anglican Communion drew the Communion's attention to the place and role of Global South Anglicanism in the Communion and World Christianity.

AbstractThe Bishops of the Anglican Communion met on the campus of the University of Kent at Canterbury, England, for the Lambeth Conference in July 2008. The Conference took place at a time when the Anglican Communion was going through turbulence over the issue of human sexuality. Accordingly, there was much expectation that the Conference would inter alia discuss and come up with the way forward on the issue of homosexuality. Prudently, the Conference’s focus rested on the real Mission of the Church, epitomized by the Walk of Witness on July 24, 2009 from Whitehall and Westminster to Lambeth Palace. There, Archbishop Rowan Williams spoke of the Communion’s commitment to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It is within this context that this article seeks to discuss the issue of the MDGs in the context of the Lambeth Conference, from the perspective of Botswana. It is my intention to show that the Anglican Communion should be focused on the life and death issues of eradicating abject poverty, HIV and AIDS, malaria, bad governance, unjust trade policies and environment, rather than wasting valuable spiritual energy on the ‘luxury’ of human sexuality which is a non-issue for the poor.

The current controversies in relation to homosexuality - which emanated from the western quarters but quickly engulfed the entire Anglican Communion - highlight two significant issues. In our view, the first issue, regarding the ‘religious citizenship’ of lesbian and gay Christians, is generally a western concern. The second issue pertaining to the prospect of the disintegration of the Anglican Communion, however, needs to be examined within a global context. On the first issue, we argue that, since the contemporary western religious landscape (and society in general) prioritizes the authority of the self rather than that of religious institution/tradition, the traditional religious discourse that marginalizes lesbian and gay Christians is undermined by an increasingly sophisticated reverse discourse. This reverse discourse, equipped with lesbian and gay affirming theology and documentation of lived experiences, also converges with contemporary cultural (secular) discourse of human rights and personal liberty, which values social diversity, including sexual difference. We believe that the social and political currency of the reverse discourse will proliferate, thus eclipsing the traditional discourse that appears increasingly out of step with contemporary western socio-cultural reality. On the second issue, we welcome the heightened significance and relevance of (local) culture and Christianity in the debate. We argue that the decentralization (i.e. de-westernization) of the Anglican Communion should be welcomed, for there are various versions of Christianity, the conception and practice of which are closely informed by local cultures. Thus, to force the production of a unified Anglican response to moral or social issues that are differently defined across cultures may prove counter-productive.

AbstractEach Archbishop of Canterbury has a distinctive style of leadership. To some extent, this will always be shaped and framed by prevalent contemporary cultures of leadership that are to be found within wider society. The paper examines and questions some aspects in the development of the current Archbishop of Canterbury's role. It argues that the combination of a certain kind of charismatic leadership, coupled to enhanced managerial organization, may be preventing the prospect of theological acuity and spiritual wisdom playing a more significant role in the continual formation of ecclesial polity in the Church of England, and across the wider Anglican Communion.

This article provides a first look at the 2015 Book of Common Prayer produced by the Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil (in English, Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil). This is the newest Book of Common Prayer published by an Anglican province, featuring some aspects that go beyond what has been done in terms of liturgical revision around the Anglican Communion, and suggesting some further steps that other provinces and churches might take, as they assimilate better the principles of the Liturgical Movement. It is a fully gender-neutral worship book, with expansive language to address the Divine, and a considerable amount of liturgies that deal with local customs. It also features prayers that address themes such as gender equality, environmental preservation and social justice for minorities.

The 1920 Lambeth Conference viewed the Anglican Communion’s confederated structure among autonomous churches as a model for the future organic reunion that its famous Appeal proposed. This article examines the Conference’s discussion of this model, as well as an influential early critique of the model, written by Yves Congar in 1937. More recent conflicts within the Anglican Communion, as well as analyses of these conflicts, have confirmed some of the practical aspects of Congar’s critique, even while Roman Catholic self-reflection has moved beyond his own early alternatives. In conjunction with Roman Catholic rethinking of the nature of oversight, the Appeal’s challenge, after 100 years, now appears to lie in the direction of a more radical restructuring of Anglican ecclesial life than its authors originally anticipated.

‘The controversy in the Anglican Church around homosexuality within the priesthood is considered in terms of the kind of world-view held by an important faction of those in opposition. An example of research into the world-view of Charismatic Christians running an Anglican outreach project in the UK is taken to gain insight into the world-wide Evangelical Charismatic resurgence. Parallels are drawn with the position taken by the Southern hemisphere Anglicans and it is argued that this opposition is unlikely to be yielding to the secularising influences of pluralistic industrialised societies. Robertson (1985) proposes that religious forms in differentiated societies, such as Charismatic Evangelicalism, draw strength from global integration. It is argued that this thesis is relevant to understanding the nature of divisions within Anglicanism as these world-wide factions cut across and divide a broad church. That the world contains varying conditions of secularisation and counter-secularisation (Berger, 1999) places additional and intolerable strain on a world-wide communion that tries to embrace a plurality.’

This study is a reflection on polygamous marriage and its challenge to the Anglican Church of Tanzania- Diocese of Mara (ACT-DM). The study calls for the contextualization of the Gospel of Christ if the church is serious with the propagation of the Gospel to the Mara people. The term contextualization refers to a total process designed to translate into concrete reality the indigenisation as well as the adoption of the church to African indigenous thought and culture. The research was set on the problem statement, "Is there any theological justification for the Anglican Church's condemnation of polygamous marriage?" The study was set on the premise that even though there is a need for the Church to show love to every one- including the polygamists, there is need to unveil the controversy that the ACT-DM has grappled with concerning the place of the polygamist in the Church. Should they continue to be discriminated against in terms of being denied the sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist? Should they be allowed to lead the Anglican Church of Mara Diocese? What is the way forward? In arriving at the research findings, the study employed two methods. One was to collect oral accounts on the practice of polygamy in the Mara societies and the Church. The second one was collecting the written information as found in church minutes, reports, letters, books, articles and periodicals. The research revealed that even though polygamy is a dying institution, in Mara, people are just abandoning it slowly without proper teachings. That shows that there is a danger of its resurrection if the Church doesn't engage in a teaching ministry on this issue so as to contain it. The other findings of the research are that, even if it is an African cultural practice, it is already overtaken by time and cannot be an effective substitute to barrenness or childlessness as was the case in the traditional African societies because there are other better remedies such as child adoption. The research findings also showed that the Church, despite having a theological justification for condemning it, has a responsibility, as a steward of God's creation to offer pastoral roles to the polygamists, their wives and their innocent children who are disciplined by the Church " because of somebody else's sins." The study consists of five chapters and conclusion. The first chapter gives an introduction by way of showing the major motivation for the study, which sets the tone of the whole work. The second chapter deals with the background information of the study of Christianity in Mara region of Tanzania. It also gives us a brief historical background of Christianity in Tanzania. The third chapter discusses the question on the Gospel and Culture thereby giving different schools of thought on the relationship of these two entities. The fourth chapter is about the practice of polygamy in the Anglican Church of Tanzania- Diocese of Mara, and its pastoral approach to the practice of polygamy which makes the chapter to be historically based on the oral as well as the written sources on the practice of polygamy. Chapter five is the critical analysis of polygamy which comprises of social and theological critiques of the various positions that are advanced for its continuation or suggestions as to why it should be abolished. The concluding chapter makes some recommendations and then draws the conclusion of the whole study.
Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2005.