---

Female Anglican Bishop at Lambeth Conference Accuses Fellow Bishops of Wife Beating

By Hilary White

CANTERBURY, July 30, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Bishops of the developing world are wife beaters, a senior female bishop of the US branch of the Anglican Communion said today. The Rt. Rev. Catherine Roskam, Suffragan Bishop of New York, told the bishops gathered at the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury that domestic violence is acceptable in "some parts of the world"  and indicated that it is likely that some of the bishops of the Global South group beat their wives.

"Culturally, many of our bishops come from places where it is culturally accepted to beat your wife. In that regard, it makes the conversation quite difficult."

"We have 700 men here. Do you think any of them beat their wives? Chances are they do," she wrote in an article in the Lambeth Witness, the newsletter produced by the Inclusive Church Network, a homosexual and far-left lobby group working to force the Communion to adopt homosexuality as equal to natural sexual relations.

"The most devout Christians beat their wives," she wrote. "Many of our bishops come from places where it is culturally accepted to beat your wife." 

She went on to recite the economic doctrines of the extreme left feminist movement: "Economic downturn increases violence toward women, but you also find violence against women in the richest of households. You can't say it's only the poor who do it."

The remarks came as a shock to the bishops present at Lambeth.

Bishop Paul Yugusuk from Sudan told the Telegraph, "In the wider community these things still exist but we don't do that as bishops or pastors. She is being unfair - she's talking from a general view without any evidence."

Catherine Roskam is known as an outspoken member of the faction in the Anglican Church that rejects traditional Christianity and champions the radical feminist and homosexual agenda in her Church. In an interview last year with the homosexual organisation Integrity, Roskam said that the divisions in the Anglican Communion are the fault of "dissidents" who have refused to go along with the pro-homosexual agenda of the ultra-liberal Episcopal Church, preferring instead to adhere to Christian sexual morality.

"Opposition to the ordination of gay and lesbian people and the blessing of same sex partnerships is only the most recent chapter in the dissatisfaction of the dissidents. It began more than 30 years ago with the ordination of women," she said.

Bishop Mouneer Anis of Eygpt, Primate of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, said that the divisions in the Anglican Communion are unbreachable "walls." He spoke of the division between the heavily secularised west and their shrinking and aging congregations, and the strongly traditional and youthful "Gobal South." The latter includes the great majority of the world's Anglican laity and has reached out to the remaining beleaguered Christians in North America, Canada and Britain, considered "dissidents" by the western Church's leadership.

Bishop Anis said the issues dividing the Anglican Communion are those that make up the "foundation of our faith" and are remaining unaddressed at Lambeth.

"We are not divided by mere trivialities, or issues on the periphery of faith. We are finding it very hard to come together in the essentials."

Bishop Anis said that the delegates from the Global South are blamed by North American delegates for trying to bring homosexual issues to the Conference, "but in fact they are the ones who are bringing these issues in".

He said that at the Conference there are, "many advertisements for events organised by gay and lesbian activists which are sponsored by the North American Church."

"If you visit the marketplace at the conference, you will notice that almost half the events promoted on the noticeboard promote homosexuality and are sponsored by the North Americans".

"And in the end, we, the people who remain loyal to the original teaching of the Anglican Communion, which we received from the Apostles, are blamed."

 Back to Top

---

MORE NEWS: LifeSiteNews.com Home Page  Last 10 Days   Archives   Special Reports

Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.